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Tesla has removed its head of operations for North America and Europe as the company deals with falling sales across both markets, according to reports.
Elon Musk fired Omead Afshar, amid declining sales in both regions and the electric vehicle brand’s falling popularity, according to sources.
The automaker blamed its poor performance in Q1 on the Model Y changeover, but it doesn’t have that excuse this quarter, and sales are expected to be down about 90,000 units compared to last year. Elon Musk's close connection with the Trump administration, heading up the DOGE department responsible for so many job cuts in the Federal government also saw people turning their back on the car brand.
Tesla’s deliveries are now expected to decline quarter-over-quarter in both Europe and China, compared to an already challenging first quarter.
The departure comes as it faces significant demand issues, especially in Europe, where sales are in free fall despite record incentives and soaring EV sales.
Controversial exec's rise and fall
Afshar had an interesting career trajectory. According to his LinkedIn profile, he studied biomedical engineering at UC Irvine and found himself working at medical equipment manufacturer St. Jude Medical from 2011 to 2017.
Then, he did a short seven-month stint as “Manager, High Voltage Operations and Operations Business Systems” at healthcare giant Abbott in Los Angeles before finding himself working in the “office of the CEO” under Elon Musk.
After Musk’s longtime chief of staff (officially the director of the office of the CEO), Sam Teller, left in 2019, Afshar was seen as taking over that role by many people working under Musk at his many companies, but especially Tesla, where Afshar started to lead some projects.
Musk credited Afshar for leading the construction of the firm's Gigafactory in Texas.
"Special glass" controversy
In 2022, Afshar reportedly got in hot water at Tesla.
A report claimed that he was about to be fired over a curious controversy where he allegedly placed an order for a “special glass” for a “secret project,” which the automaker’s finance department flagged as suspicious, triggering an internal investigation.
The basis of the investigation was that an employee was using company resources to secure materials for a project that potentially had no relation to Tesla.
According to the report, Tesla had already fired employees related to the investigation, and Afshar was next in line.
The project has been linked to the story that Musk was planning to build a glass house near Austin, which was confirmed in his biography by Walter Isaacson; however, the project never came to fruition.
Tesla never disclosed the outcome of its internal investigation, but it was later reported that Musk temporarily reassigned Afshar to SpaceX. Many interpreted the situation as Afshar taking the blame for Musk since the project aimed to benefit him personally.
Two years later, it was reported that Ashar was back at Tesla and elevated to the role of Vice President of operations in North America and Europe, where he will be in charge of sales and manufacturing.
The role effectively made him one of the top executives at Tesla.
