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Elon Musk is reportedly taking over responsibilities for Tesla’s sales in North America and Europe amid a leadership transition.

The CEO is going from “sleeping on Tesla’s factory floor” to now sleeping in the sales offices.

For years, Tesla was production-constrained and struggled to ramp up manufacturing to meet demand.

Around this time, CEO Elon Musk claimed he was “sleeping on the factory floor” to help with the production effort.

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Tesla’s days of being production-constrained are now far behind the automaker, which currently operates its factories at about 50% capacity due to demand problems.

The company’s sales have been declining, partly due to Musk alienating Tesla’s customer base through his involvement in politics and controversial statements on social media.

Tesla blamed its poor performance in the first quarter on the Model Y changeover limiting production, but the company is about to release its second quarter delivery results, which are expected be just as bad as Q1 and Tesla can’t use the production changeover as an excuse.

We recently learned that Musk fired Omead Afshar, his former chief of staff, who had been responsible for overseeing Tesla’s operations in North America and Europe.

It appears that Musk is placing the blame for Tesla’s poor sales performance on Afshar.

According to a new report from Bloomberg, Musk will now personally oversee North American and European sales at Tesla following Afshar’s departure from the company.

The move will add responsibilities to the CEO, who is also CEO of SpaceX, the defacto leader at X, xAI, and also leading efforts at The Boring Company and Neuralink, while also claiming to be launching a new political party in the US.

However, he is reportedly not taking all of Afshar’s responsibilities as the manufacturing in those regions will fall again on Tom Zhu.

Zhu has long been the leader of Tesla’s operations in China and led the very successful Gigafactory Shanghai effort.

Gigafactory Shanghai quickly became Tesla’s best-performing manufacturing facility and to replicate the success in Texas, Musk made Zhu in charge of all Gigafactories back in late 2022.

However, we reported that Zhu was taking an even bigger role at Tesla as Musk was busy running several other companies and spending especially more time at his newly acquired Twitter.

We exclusively reported that Zhu was even made in charge of North American sales and became the de facto head of Tesla’s automotive business – second in command to Musk at Tesla.

However, he took a step back from global responsibilities in 2024 and returned to China.

Now, it sounds like Musk was again be relying on him for global manufacturing, but Zhu has also been having issues with sales in China.

Tesla’s current sales in the world’s largest EV market are down 22,000 units year-to-date compared to last year despite the new Model Y and record discounts.

Electrek’s Take

It looks like Elon is trying to put the blame on Afshar for Tesla’s demand problem even though he is clearly the main reason for them.

He is widely unpopular and it is affecting Tesla since he has made sure to be the face of the company for the last decade.

I don’t think him being in charge of sales is going to help much. Tesla is offering record incentives and its sales are dropping despite global EV sales booming. I wouldn’t surprised if Musk’s approach is to set unrealistic goals for the sales staff and then apply a ton of pressure with threats of more layoffs.

That’s what Tesla did in China in 2023-2024 and it led to a lot of problems, high turnover, and staffs reportedly falsying data to comply with the unrealistic goals.

If Tesla wants to get past its demand problems, I already have the solutions in my Secret Tesla Master Plan.

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Vertical Aerospace completes first ever public airport-to-airport eVTOL flight

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Vertical Aerospace completes first ever public airport-to-airport eVTOL flight

Air taxi startup Vertical Aerospace achieved a world’s first this week, completing the first flight between two airports through public airspace for an eVTOL at the Royal International Air Tattoo in Gloucestershire, England.

The Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) is the world’s largest military airshow, held every July and serving as a public showcase for the latest advancements in aviation technology. It’s fitting, then, that RIAT served as setting for the Vertical VX4 prototype’s first piloted public flight.

The eVTOL aircraft flew 17 miles from the company’s Flight Test Centre at Cotswold Airport to RAF Fairford, a Royal Air Force station used by the US Air Force. The Vertical VX4 reached speeds of 115 mph, and an altitude of 1800 ft, and also marked the first landing at a public location for an aircraft of this type.

The Vertical Aerospace entry was the only battery-electric aircraft present at RIAT 2025, and the flight served as a demonstration of the company’s broader strategy to unlock new hybrid-electric applications for defense, logistics, and special/close support missions where the eVTOL’s (relatively) quiet operations could give it a tactical advantage.

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“RIAT is a global stage for the most advanced, mission-ready aerospace technology, and we’re proud to showcase how electric aviation will support the future of defense,” says Stuart Simpson, CEO of Vertical Aerospace. “Our hybrid-electric roadmap unlocks new capabilities for military operations, and Vertical’s RIAT presence reinforces our commitment to playing a meaningful role in the future of military and special mission aviation.”

Vertical’s VX4 debuted last year, with a 20% increase in the power-to-weight ratio that enables a top cruising speed of 150 mph and transports four passengers plus a pilot up to 100 miles on a single charge.

The inaugural VX4 flight was witnessed by several thousand UK aircraft enthusiasts, and showed how an eVTOL aircraft could integrate with real-world airport operations, building momentum toward more regular, certified deployment.

Electrek’s Take


Archer, BETA, EHang, Joby, XPeng – the list of eVTOL manufacturers seems to be as long as the list of new electric car brands that didn’t exist back when I first started working with EVs back in ::gulp:: the 1990s. The future of regional point-to-point air travel certainly seems to be vertical, and electric.

SOURCE | IMAGES: Vertical Aerospace.


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Honda takes a page from Tesla playbook, launches new insurance business

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Honda takes a page from Tesla playbook, launches new insurance business

Say what you will about Elon Musk, but Tesla has changed the way that millions of people buy cars and, by extension, car insurance. Now, Honda is taking a page from Tesla’s successful playbook and launching its own in-house insurance business. Enter: Honda Insurance Solutions.

Honda Insurance Solutions is being launched as a fully licensed insurance agency serving the insurance needs of Acura and Honda customers, but it’s not stopping at competitive pricing and coverage options for Honda cars and motorcycles. Honda Insurance Solutions promises to go several steps beyond Tesla’s offering with coverage for trailers, RVs, homes, and even pets.

“Honda Insurance Solutions offers customers access to coverage through a brand they know and trust,” says Petar Vucurevic, President, American Honda Insurance Solutions, LLC and Senior Vice President, American Honda Finance Corporation. “Insurance is a key touchpoint in the vehicle ownership journey, and we aim to deliver a superior experience tailored to the unique needs of each customer, while promoting safer driving and increased peace of mind on the road.”

The company says the launch of its new insurance business is just part of Honda’s broader digital vehicle sales platform strategy, with future plans to integrate insurance offerings into new products.

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Electrek’s Take


Electric CUVE scooter; via Honda.

It’s important to note some of the key differences between Honda’s insurance offering and Tesla’s. Honda isn’t offering discounts, they’re not bundling insurance premiums into the vehicle financing, and they’re not building their insurance offerings into their dealerships’ checkout/F&I offices. Not yet, anyway.

What Honda is doing right now is deepening relationships with its existing customers and finding ways to make money on products it hasn’t sold them – whether that’s the Harley parked in the garage next to their Prologue or the garage itself.

It’s a smart play. And, once Honda figures out a way to cut franchise dealers out entirely and go to a direct sales model, it’ll look even smarter.

SOURCE | IMAGES: Honda.


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Lion Electric school bus warranties voided, leaving districts stuck

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Lion Electric school bus warranties voided, leaving districts stuck

Nobody ever says “this is business” before doing something nice, and the recently reborn Lion Electric company is keeping that streak alive by doing the unthinkable to cut costs: they’re going to void the warranties on hundreds of electric school buses.

In a letter issued to exiting Lion Electric customers last week, Deloitte Restructuring announced that the warranties on all Lion vehicles purchased outside of the company’s home Province of Quebec are null and void – leaving dozens of school districts in the lurch with stranded assets that won’t get fixed, and can’t be sold to generate funds for replacements.

“We are working with alternate vendors at the expense of the school district to help keep our electric buses functional and on the road,” explains Dr. Richard Decman, Superintendent of Herscher CUSD No. 2 district in Herscher, Illinois. “Currently, six of our 25 (Lion) electric buses need some type of repair.”

Student Transportation News reports that Lion buses represent fully half of Herscher’s overall fleet of 50 buses, and that the district has received nearly $10 million for the purchase of 25 electric buses and the related charging stations from various state and utility incentive programs.

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Herscher isn’t the only district having problems with Lion buses. “All four Lion buses that we own are currently parked and not being used,” Coleen Souza, interim transportation director of Winthrop Public Schools, told Clean Trucking. “Two of them are in need of repairs which would cost us money which we are not willing to invest in because the buses do not run for more than a month before needing more repairs.”

More of the same in Maine, where Yarmouth School Department bought two Lion Electric buses in 2023 with the state covering the costs. According to Superintendent Andrew Dolloff, the buses almost never worked. “We’ve had some sporadic service over the past two years, but as soon as the tech leaves, the buses produce error codes again,” explained Dolloff. ” and “Then the technician quits or is released, and we wait a few months for the next response.”

Dolloff added that Yarmouth’s electric buses did not operate during the 2024-25 school year.

Lion’s new owners are seemingly uninterested in their customers’ plight – which might be easily dismissed if those new owners, Groupe MACH, weren’t also the old owners of Lion Electric.

That’s right, kids. Quebec-based real estate company Groupe MACH, which stepped in to “save” Lion Electric earlier this summer, along with Ontario-based Mirella & Lino Saputo Foundation, bought $90 million of equity in Lion Electric back in 2023. And, while the MACH people may not have been the ones who ultimately made the call about voiding the warranties (that decision was made by the Deloitte bankruptcy team), it is absolutely Group MACH who have, to date, not announced plans to continue to honor those warranties, either.

Make of that what you will.

Deloitte Lion letter


SOURCES: School Transportation News, Clean Trucking, Deloitte.


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Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.

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