http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/ Autoblog Comments for http://www.autoblog.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.autoblog.com en-us Copyright 2008 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/Dec 2nd 2007 9:10PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/Dec 2nd 2007 9:44PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/Dec 2nd 2007 9:53PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/
That you've got engineering working on the next project without having solved the first is unsurprising. It speaks of management by misdirection. Expect a name change or "mission statement" soon.

This is the start of the fallout: the dollars aren't there, and people who were expecting a payout are asking questions, and the people who should have known better are, without answers, looking for people to blame.]]>Dec 2nd 2007 10:12PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/
I think the internal rumblings about sourcing cheap(er) vendors (especially critical parts like batteries) from Asia also caused some internal dissention.

tc

Real people, real prices
http://www.pricehub.com]]>Dec 3rd 2007 4:48PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/
Greed and pride in action. ]]>Dec 2nd 2007 10:19PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/Why so many changes. Why in the hell would they get rid of the founder???]]>Dec 2nd 2007 10:21PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/Dec 2nd 2007 10:22PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/
This is more akin to Ford, who was forced out of his first company for building his pet projects. The board of that company actually tapped Henry Leland, who renamed the company to? Yep, Cadillac.]]>Dec 2nd 2007 10:37PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/Dec 2nd 2007 11:21PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/
I really can't buy these suggestions that "the money men" forced him out. Tesla is already owned by some of the biggest "money men" in the world. Elon Musk and Sergy Brin are worth billions and billions of dollars, both have been in from almost the start.

My guess is that Eberhard had become a problem. Maybe he was married to some unattainable goal and refused to listen to reason? Maybe he had a personal problem? Or maybe he had grown into a bad manager and angering valued employees?

We may never know the full truth, but I very much doubt that he was pushed out by the money men. I simply can't imagine Elon Musk and Sergy Brin pushing him out for money. There HAD to be somthing else, probably something directly related to Eberhard's performance.]]>Dec 2nd 2007 11:37PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/
I'm convinced that it was the money men who put him out. But I don't attach anything else to that. They did it, why is an open question.]]>Dec 3rd 2007 12:32AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/
By calling them "money men" and saying they "forced him out", you paint this in the most negative way possible. It brings to mind occasions when founders have been ousted merely to disenfranchise them of their ownership.

Maybe that did happen, but I doubt it. I don't think multi-billionaire majority shareholders fired Eberhard in order to steal ownership from him.

It's been obvious for some months that the majority shareholders of Tesla had lost confidence in Eberhard's management of the company. Things now seem to have reached a breaking point. Eberhard had been pushed aside some months ago, but only recently has the new CEO officially taken over.

CEO's are typically strong personalities. This is why a sacked CEO almost always leaves a company when a new CEO comes in. The last thing a new CEO needs is his predecessor questioning his every move or poisoning him within the workforce. I'm not saying Eberhard did any of this. But it shouldn't be surprising to anyone that a former CEO is pushed out when a new CEO his hired. It's usually good business.
]]>Dec 3rd 2007 1:27AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/Dec 3rd 2007 12:04AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/Dec 3rd 2007 12:10AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/]]>Dec 3rd 2007 12:36AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/Dec 3rd 2007 1:00AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/
The car industry is probably one of the most inaccessible industries in the US. And starting a manufacturer from scratch to build a series production car is a monumental undertaking for even a large company. All the engineering and expense required to meet regulations is tough enough never mind engineering a car that will work as advertised and preparing for possible future litigation for the guy that gets electrocuted trying to jump start their friends Kia with the 1.21 "jigawatts" of battery juice available in the Tesla.

It doesn't matter how deep the pockets are of the people funding the company, making a car company successful is the trick. And as we've seen from GM and Ford throwing massive amounts of money at "losing" cars, we know money does not = success.

The British seem to be far more successful than us at having a cottage car industry. Ever heard of the TVR, Noble, Morgan, Lotus, Ascari etc. I don't know what the reason is but I would imagine that they aren't buried in government regulation and/or they have car building in their dna. Whatever the reason, they sure seem to have more niche supercars.]]>Dec 3rd 2007 1:06AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/news.php%3fsid=166%26page=1).
Lotus is owned Proton, a company owned by the government of Malaysia.

The UK gives very favorable rules to their small car companies and they still have a lot of trouble.]]>Dec 3rd 2007 1:29AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/02/tesla-motors-founder-martin-eberhard-fired/
all these companies need to take a lesson from Harley Davidson, keep a long line for your exclusive high profit margin niche product and you might live to see the next decade.

lotus came back from the brink of extinction with new owners and had one successful product. the europa is a failure and the other two cars they are working one will also be failures. i expect lotus to be dead/under new ownership buy the end of '09

shoulda stuck with the elise/exige and just refined that car instead of trying to be a british porsche

tesla very well might have fallen into that trap before they even had their first successful product, the dot.com of car companies, lots of excitement and investment but no viable busness plan]]>Dec 3rd 2007 3:12AM