Why are Tesla employees leaving?
 

Anyone have the scoop on Faraday Future ?

http://wot.motortrend.com/1507_new_california_based_electric_car_company_eme rges_faraday_future.html

Where does it say that the Tesla employees are leaving?

One is a post IPO large company. The other is a startup. I know where I would want to work ...

G

Here

what better way to build fast expertise than to hire away the competition with more money?

Tesla employees leaving?? Looks like one out of six that their bragging about is from Tesla.

"Their bullpen. Check it out:

Nick Sampson -- Product Architect, former Vehicle and Chassis Engineering for Tesla Model S
Richard Kim -- Head Design, former BMW i8 Concept, BMW i3 Concept
Silva Hiti -- Sr. Dir. of Powertrain, former lead powertrain at Chevy Volt
Pontus Fontaeus -- Interior Design, former Lamborghini, Ferrari, Land Rover
Page Beermann -- Exterior Design Chief, former Creative Director at BMW
Porter Harris -- Batteries, former SpaceX"

LA might be a better place to design a system like this being more affordable for the general staff of engineers etc.

A cohort that went to work for Tesla said there was no housing within a 30 mile radius less than 1 million.

Total BS. 30 miles puts you into the east bay valleys with plenty decent housing under 1 mil. Of course, if you are talking 5bd 4 bath 5k sq-ft ....

Tesla has different campuses . Maybe these guys need to be on the peninsula. The old NUMI plant they are in, is in Fremont. It has a ton of good homes under 1 mil, especially if you add a 45 min commute.

It will be interesting to see if this company goes anywhere. Often these are "me too" projects, trying to pull off another IPO or a buyout. It makes sense to go after something that already worked once. The capital likes this too.

G

My guess is that you get your cred by working at Tesla, then you go and are one of the earliest employees in a new company with tons of experience and expertise. You get in early and have a huge stake in the company when/if it takes off, instant multi-millionaires...

My guess is that's why they are leaving. Good job at good company making good money, or a chance to make HUGE money at a startup.

He probably means headquarters which are in Palo Alto. It's hard to find "affordable" housing nearby.

I'm more interested in what this new company is going to offer. Seems they've recruited some talented people but the irony is Elon Musk comments about losers going to Google or something of that nature.

Is this FF company have something going on that's going to blow away Tesla? The way I see it, Tesla is a viable product and could be considered a breakthrough company..... (trying to avoid the topic of politics here, thank you).

The thing is, Tesla now has infrastructure, apparently rapid planning to market product. But that tooling, R&D now has to pay. Perhaps the fresh slate FF company has something fresh and hot.

I had a friend who worked at SPACEX. She said the pay was lousy. Left for a contract position at Houston NASA. Now she works in DC.

Tesla is 10 miles up the road from us, and we are hiring in the auto industry. I've seen a lot of candidates come through that did a stint at Tesla. There are a lot of ex employees.

Because they already know what Bob Lutz is talking about in his article in the new R&T?

I found some highlights on a Tesla forum:
_________________
Tesla's showing all thee signs of a company in trouble, bleeding cash, securitized assets, and mounting inventory. It's the trifecta of doom for any automaker, and anyone paying attention probably saw this coming a mile away.

Low gas prices are not helping sales.

There's never been any secret to the company's battery tech. Other automakers bought into Tesla's tech early did so to avoid having to pony up development dollars on first-generation battery packs of their own. Now that Audi has announced it's getting into the EV game, Tesla should be even more concerned. If you're a luxury buyer, which car would you rather have?

Distribution problem. Nobody's ever been successful with company stores. BMW tried it in the 70s, didn't work.

Musk figured that if factory stores work for Apple, they'll l work for Tesla. But the fixed costs for an Apple store are next to nothing compared with a car dealership's. Smartphones and laptops don't need anything beyond a small storefront and a staff of kids. A car dealership sits on multiple acres, you need service bays, chargers, trained sales force, plus all finance and accounting people. It ties up a staggering amount of capital, especially when you factor in the inventory. Under a traditional franchise, the factory never has to carry that burden. Right now, Tesla does.

Stockholders may be clinging to the hope that the company's upcoming SUV will help put Tesla on track, but there's little evidence to bolster that optimism. A big, expensive vehicle with a compromised structure to accommodate gullwing doors can hardly be sales knockout.

If I were in Musk's seat, I would look at cutting cost. Not just taking cost out of the car, but reducing expense in general. When they have a situation where, on an operating basis, they're losing $4000 per car, they're in trouble.

I would seriously consider an entry level model with a range extending hybrid driveline. Something that has a smaller battery that also looks great and drives great, something that's electric most of the time, say 50-60 miles. Would an ICE dilute the Tesla brand? Maybe, but everyone said Porsche could never build a front-engine car, and look how that turned out.

I like Elon personally, and I think the Model S is a fabulous car, but history's filled with defunct companies with great products run by brilliant people. Unless Tesla rights its organization and products in a hurry, it'll join those ranks.

Bob Lutz in Road & Track.

Will be watching FF closely. Last FB-post on Aug 11.
I think it will disappear soon again.

I wouldn't place any bets on Faraday future simply because they don't have enough creativity to not name their company after a dead electromagnetism guru


Maybe the CEO also enjoys getting big Mics from Mcdowels

Maybe their conscience got to them.

Tesla is NOT a viable company and does NOT have a viable product, if you take away the roughly $35,000 the gubmint pays them for every car.

The company I work for is forced to pay nearly $100 mil PER YEAR to buy BS fake carbon credits.

Tesla is GIVEN $68 million worth of fake BS scam carbon credits per year but they are also exempted from needing them because the gubmint is picking favorites.

So Tesla sells those $68 million worth of carbon credits and pockets the $$$.

And that figure increases every year.

Add to that the $7000 tax subsidy for electric vehicles. and a total LOOSER company suddenly becomes viable.

With the taxpayer's help of course.

Note that I did NOT factor in the additional tax subsidy of not having to pay state, local and federal excise taxes on gasoline.
That would add another $4000 over the average life of the car.

Sammy, I hear you and no argument. But they do have products and consumers. That's all.

I'm interested to see how this plays out.

I think he's been reading PPOT over the years ;-)

"Tesla is NOT a viable company and does NOT have a viable product, if you take away the roughly $35,000 the gubmint pays them for every car.

The company I work for is forced to pay nearly $100 mil PER YEAR to buy BS fake carbon credits.

Tesla is GIVEN $68 million worth of fake BS scam carbon credits per year but they are also exempted from needing them because the gubmint is picking favorites.

So Tesla sells those $68 million worth of carbon credits and pockets the $$$.

And that figure increases every year.

Add to that the $7000 tax subsidy for electric vehicles. and a total LOOSER company suddenly becomes viable.

With the taxpayer's help of course.

Note that I did NOT factor in the additional tax subsidy of not having to pay state, local and federal excise taxes on gasoline.
That would add another $4000 over the average life of the car."


The gubmint is not supporting Tesla enough. $68 M is a drop in the bucket for support of new technology. In comparison, How much does the US spend everyday on gasoline?

The BS carbon credits your company has to buy is based on the tons on pollution that goes into the environment. Some (all do) call it a carbon credit but it actually is a fine for polluting.

What if the gubmint earmarked these 'carbon credits' and used the monies for developing and supporting new energy technology?

Maybe, electric autos isn't the future but how much longer can we keep depending on oil?

I guess the answer is....... FOREVER



PS- What is a viable company? You don't pay US taxes?