In a surprising market movement, shares of Tesla Inc. witnessed a significant jump of 3.6% this Monday. This uptick occurred on the very day it was revealed that Siddhant Awasthi, the high-profile executive steering the company's ambitious Cybertruck programme, would be leaving the electric vehicle giant.
A Leader's Departure
Siddhant Awasthi, the Programme Manager for both the Cybertruck and the mass-market Model 3, confirmed his decision to move on via a post on the professional networking site LinkedIn. He described the choice as a difficult one, marking the end of an eight-year journey with Tesla.
Who is Siddhant Awasthi? His career at Tesla is a classic story of rapid ascent. According to his LinkedIn profile, he joined the company as an intern and climbed the ranks to eventually oversee the entire Cybertruck project. His responsibilities spanned from the initial engineering phases all the way to managing the complexities of large-scale production.
Reflecting on his tenure, Awasthi highlighted his involvement in several critical projects for Tesla. These included the challenging ramp-up of Model 3 production, significant work at the Giga Shanghai factory, the development of new electronics architectures, and the final delivery of the Cybertruck. Remarkably, he achieved all these milestones before turning 30. He had also taken on the leadership of the Model 3 programme as recently as July this year. Awasthi has not yet disclosed his immediate future career plans.
Challenges for the Cybertruck
Awasthi's exit coincides with a period of continued scrutiny for the Cybertruck in the US market, where the vehicle has been grappling with multiple safety-related concerns.
Just last month, Tesla was forced to announce a recall of over 63,000 Cybertrucks in the United States. The reason cited was excessively bright front headlamps. Regulatory bodies determined that the intense glare could distract other drivers on the road, thereby increasing the risk of accidents and collisions.
This was not an isolated incident. Earlier in March, US safety regulators, specifically the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), issued another recall. This action affected virtually every Cybertruck on the road at that time, impacting more than 46,000 vehicles. The warning focused on a faulty exterior panel running along the windscreen that had a risk of becoming loose and detaching while the vehicle was in motion, creating a significant hazard for other road users.
Broader Financial Context
The positive stock movement on Monday is particularly notable as it comes against a backdrop of financial challenges for the automaker. In October, Tesla reported its fourth consecutive quarterly decline in profit, even though its overall revenues saw an increase.
The company's third-quarter earnings saw a sharp year-on-year plunge of 37%, falling to $1.4 billion, or 39 cents per share. This was a significant drop from the $2.2 billion, or 62 cents per share, reported in the same period the previous year.
Analysts suggest the revenue increase was largely driven by customers in the US rushing to purchase vehicles before a federal electric vehicle (EV) tax credit of $7,500 expired on 1 October. This indicates that sales from the subsequent quarter may have been artificially pulled forward, potentially affecting future results.
In other company news, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk recently secured a landslide victory in a shareholder vote. The vote approved a massive compensation package that could see Musk receive stock worth up to $1 trillion if he achieves specific performance targets over the next decade. More than 75% of voters backed the plan at the annual general meeting held in Austin, Texas.
