Tesla CEO Elon Musk is a tad unhappier than his public appearances would have us believe, particularly in relation to lackluster sales in China.
And according to Yahoo!, the CEO has recently threatened the responsible parties with dismissal or demotion.
The article, originally appearing on Reuters, detailed that Tesla Motors had only sold about 120 Model S sedans in China last month. This stands in stark contrast to CEO Elon Musk’s prior suggestion that Chinese sales of the automaker’s sole offering could rival those in the US by sometime in 2015.
Since then, Mr. Musk has admitted publicly that China’s numbers failed to meet expectations, while claiming that the electric carmaker ought to have things sorted in the Asian market by mid-2015. However, as two internal sources told Reuters, Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent an email toward the end of January which threatened demotions, or even firings, toward those country managers who weren’t “on a clear path to positive long-term cash flow.”
China is a major planned venue for the electric automaker’s planned growth strategy, but the departures of Tesla China President Veronica Wu and General Manager Kingston Chan have contributed to sales slumps which may prompt CEO Elon Musk to make good on his threats.
He said in one passage of the internal email that underperforming executives “will be asked to leave or assume a more junior role. This has already happened in China and will likely happen in some other countries, too.”
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