Tesla boss Elon Musk lost his so-called “Master of Coin” as Zachary Kirkhorn stepped down as Chief Finance Officer after four years.
The electric-car maker on Monday said Chief Accounting Officer Vaibhav Taneja will take over as CFO after Kirkhorn’s departure was announced in an SEC filing by the company on Aug. 4.
It’s unclear what led to Kirkhorn’s surprise decision to exit Tesla ahead of its much-anticipated launch of the Cybertruck later this year
It also raises questions about succession planning for the 52-year-old Musk, who also runs SpaceX and the rebranded Twitter site X.
Board members had discussed Kirkhorn as a possible successor to Musk as CEO, The Wall Street Journal reported in May.
The Post has sought comment from Tesla.
Kirkhorn joined Tesla in 2013 and was CFO the past four years as he helped Musk implement his vision for transforming the car industry.
Zachary Kirkhorn stepped down as Tesla’s CFO, the company announced on Monday, after just four years in the role. It’s unclear why Kirkhorn is leaving the company.Tesla/YouTube
Prior to joining Tesla, he held several roles at SolarCity Corp., a US-based solar panel developer acquired by Tesla for $2.6 billion in 2016.
Kirkhorn will stay on through the end of 2023 to assist Taneja with the transition.
The Indian-born executive has worked for Tesla since February 2017, when he joined the company as an assistant corporate controller.
Tesla’s stock was down 3.15%, to $245.86, on Monday afternoon.
Year-to-date, Tesla shares have soared as demand has improved for the high-tech cars. Its share price has climbed nearly 130% since the beginning of this year.
Last month, Tesla reported better-than-expected Q2 numbers, citing price cuts that helped the company delivery 466,140 vehicles in the April to June period, up 10% from the preceding quarter and 83% higher from a year earlier.
The gap between how many cars Tesla produces and delivers also narrowed to 13,560 in the second quarter from 17,933 in the previous three months.
The world’s electric-vehicle leader is projected to deliver 1.8 million Teslas this year, topping its record 1.3 million in 2022.
After news of Kirkhorn’s departure broke, Tesla’s share price slid over 3%, to as low as $242.76.AFP via Getty Images
Tesla slashed prices worldwide by up to 20% in January, sparking a price war after the company’s failure to meet Wall Street’s delivery estimates for 2022.
The basic Model Y that used to sell for $65,990 now costs $54,990.
A recent survey from JD Power — the Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) Study, which is based on 10 factors, including customers’ approval of their vehicle’s built-in infotainment systems — suggest that Tesla’s advanced software could be the reason for poor figures last year.
The study showed that car owners are irked by simple controls like air conditioning and built-in audio getting buried beneath high-tech software that’s hard to use, including with Tesla’s information and entertainment hub, which it calls the Toybox.
Tesla recently reported better-than-expected figures for the second quarter of 2023 after slashing the price of its electric vehicles by up to 20% in January.AP
Toybox boasts features like a pedestrian warning system, a prank button that’ll make a fart noise when someone gets into their seat and a personal music studio called TRAX.
The features aren’t doing much for customer satisfaction, though, JD Power’s report showed. Out of 1,000 points, Tesla scored 878 — below Jaguar, Land Rover, and Porsche and tied with BMW.
The score is nine points lower than in 2022 when Tesla was first included in the APEAL Study.
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