Tesla executives quit as Elon Musk announces mass layoffs

One of Tesla’s top leaders resigned on Sunday as Elon Musk’s company began laying off “more than 10%” of its global workforce.

Andrew Baglino, Tesla’s senior vice president for energy engineering and powertrain, has been with the company since March 2006. He was one of the original electrical engineers working on the Roadster, Tesla’s first-ever electric vehicle, and has been a frequent face at investor events. Baglino is also one of Tesla’s four key leaders.

“I made the difficult decision to move on from Tesla after 18 years yesterday,” Baglino said in a statement Monday. “I am so thankful to have worked with and learned from the countless incredibly talented people at Tesla over the years.”

Rohan Patel, Tesla’s vice president of public policy and business development, has also left the company, according to a Monday post on social media. Patel has become a familiar face to Tesla’s ultra-online community, often engaging with investors and customers on Musk’s X as a one-man public relations department.

“The past 8 years at Tesla have been filled with every emotion—but the feeling I have today is utmost gratitude,” Patel wrote Monday, thanking Tesla’s customers, Musk, and his team. “To the broader Tesla team—the never-say-die attitude and scrappiness is what makes the place special,” he added.

The departures come as Tesla lays off at least 14,000 employees, according to a leaked memo to staff. The Austin, Texas-based automaker employs more than 140,000 people around the world, with factories in China and Germany as well as its U.S. locations.

In explaining the layoffs, Musk cited a “duplication of roles and job functions in certain areas” that sprung up as the company expanded. In February, Tesla began asking mangers to identify which jobs on their teams were essential.

“As part of this effort, we have done a thorough review of the organization and made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount by more than 10% globally,” Musk said in the memo. “There is nothing I hate more, but it must be done.”

Musk extended his gratitude to both executives on X. He later wrote that Tesla needs to “reorganize and streamline the company for the next phase of growth” every five years.

Baglino’s departure will likely raise eyebrows for investors concerned about a succession plan for Tesla, which Musk has helmed since 2008. Some investors have become increasingly concerned by Musk’s many distractions—he leads six other companies, including SpaceX and Neuralink, and is frequently posting on X—and demands for 25% voting control before growing Tesla’s robotics and artificial intelligence presence.

Zachary Kirkhorn, Tesla’s “master of coin” and chief financial officer, resigned from the company last August. He had been seen as a likely successor and, like Baglino, was a familiar face at investor events. He was replaced by Vaibhav Taneja, who is now Tesla’s chief accounting officer and CFO.

“No one should be surprised Drew and other execs are leaving as part of TSLA’s 10% layoff announcement,” Gary Black, a managing partner at the Future Fund and a Tesla investor, said Monday. “Someone has to take the fall for the sharp deceleration in [deliveries] growth, near record inventories, and declining margins and it wasn’t going to be Elon.”

Tesla stock sank more than 3% in Monday morning trading. Shares have fallen about 33% this year, making Tesla one of the worst performers in the S&P 500, only matched by Boeing.

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