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Elon Musk has elevated Omead Afshar, who worked in his office in what many saw as a “chief of staff” position, to a top executive role at Tesla after the young engineer was reportedly in hot water at the automaker.

This appears to be part of a broader leadership shake-up at Tesla.

Afshar has 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 7-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.

For example, Musk credited Afshar for leading the construction of Gigafactory Texas.

In 2022, Afshar reportedly got in hot water at Tesla.

A report claimed that Afshar was about to be fired from Tesla 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 wasn’t related to Tesla.

According to the report, Tesla had already fired employees related to the investigation, and Afshar was going to be next.

The project has been linked to the story that Musk was planning to build himself a glass house near Austin, which was confirmed in his biography by Walter Isaacson, but the project never came to be.

Tesla never disclosed what happened with its internal investigation, but it was later reported that Musk moved Afshar to SpaceX for a while.

Now, he is back at Tesla.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Musk has made Afshar Vice President of operations in North America and Europe, where he will be in charge of sales and manufacturing.

This would make him one of the top execs at Tesla. Tom Zhu, Tesla’s longtime head of operations in China, was given those responsibilities since last year, and had unofficially become Musk’s “number 2” at Tesla, but we reported earlier this year, that Zhu went back to lead operations in China.

Zhu is still one of only three executives listed by Tesla as the top leaders on its website, alongside Musk and CFO Vaibhav Taneja. We wouldn’t be surprised to see Afshar show up there soon.

Afshar’s direct reports reportedly include Troy Jones, a 14-year veteran at Tesla and longtime leader of the North American sales and service operations, and Jason Shawhan, the director of manufacturing for Tesla at Giga Texas. 

Larger Leadership shake-up at Tesla

Tesla has lost a lot of top leadership over the last year. Many were part of a large wave of layoffs earlier this year and others left on their own since.

Electrek tracks hires and departures closely at Tesla, and we haven’t seen a lot of the formers at top levels lately, but that’s not entirely unusual, as Tesla likes to promote within.

Musk does like loyalty, and we now learn that he has promoted some of his top lieutenants at Tesla beyond Afshar.

Ashok Elluswamy, the longtime head of software for Tesla Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) programs, has been promoted to vice president of Autopilot and AI software. Elluswamy has been at Tesla for a decade and he has been one of the top figures in Tesla’s ADAS programs for the past 5 years.

Milan Kovac, who has also held top roles in Tesla’s autonomous driving programs, has been promoted to Vice President of Optimus, a program that he has been leading for the past two years.

Electrek’s Take

For better or worse, Elon has made clear that self-driving and humanoid robots are the top priorities at Tesla now. Therefore, it makes sense that some of the people leading those programs are now becoming the top executives at the company.

As for Afshar, that’s quite a rise. His new role definitely makes him one of the top execs at Tesla, which is interesting considering he was reportedly in hot water at Tesla just 2 years ago. One might even be forgiven for thinking that Musk could be grooming him to eventually replace him as CEO of Tesla, a role that he previously he didn’t want to hold forever.

Honestly, my main concern with Tesla’s leadership is similar to my concern with Tesla’s board; they are either too close to Elon or too caught up in his cult of personality.

But now that people like Ashok are taking on bigger leadership roles at Tesla, it would be interesting to see if they get a bigger public voice. I’d like to see Ashok, who is working on FSD every day, give us timelines and data on what is happening instead of Elon.

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Trump family gets 75% of crypto coin revenue, has no liability, new document reveals

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Trump family gets 75% of crypto coin revenue, has no liability, new document reveals

Donald Trump’s crypto project, World Liberty Financial, published a 13-page document on Thursday, describing its mission, how tokens can be allocated, and indicating that the Republican presidential nominee and his family could take home 75% of net revenue.

In what it calls the “World Liberty Gold Paper,” WLF said the Trump family will receive 22.5 billion “$WLFI” tokens, currently valued at $337.5 million, based on the price of 1.5 cents per token at launch this week.

Trump, who’s in a virtual dead heat with Vice President Kamala Harris as the election reaches its closing stages, has spent months pumping his crypto project, previously branding it as “The DeFiant Ones,” a play on DeFi, short for decentralized finance.

On Tuesday, the project launched the WLFI token and said in a roadmap that it was looking to raise $300 million at a $1.5 billion valuation in its initial sale. As of Thursday, only $12.9 million worth of the token have been sold, according to its website.

The paper released on Thursday shows that Trump and his family assume no liability. It indicates that none of them are directors, employees, managers or operators of WLF or its affiliates, and said the project and the tokens “are not political and have no affiliation with any political campaign.”

Neither WLF nor the Trump campaign immediately responded to a request for comment.

Crypto projects typically release white papers before they launch their coins, offering a guide so that investors can learn more about the mission, goals and how future tokens get allocated. WLF’s paper says that a Delaware-based company named DT Marks DEFI LLC, which is connected to the former president, is set to receive three-quarters of the net protocol revenues.

WLF bills itself as a crypto bank where customers will be encouraged to borrow, lend and invest in digital coins. The document released Thursday defines net protocol revenue as income to WLF from “any source, including without limitation platform use fees, token sale proceeds, advertising or other sources of revenue, after deduction of agreed expenses and reserves for WLF’s continued operations.”

Some $30 million of the the initial revenue is earmarked to be held in a reserve intended to cover operating expenses and other financial obligations.

The remaining 25% of net protocol revenue is set to go to Axiom Management Group, or AMG, a Puerto Rico LLC wholly owned by Chase Herro and Zachary Folkman, two of the co-founders.

Folkman previously had a company called Date Hotter Girls and reportedly helped develop crypto project Dough Finance. Herro worked on Dough and launched another crypto trading business a decade ago called Pacer Capital, which appears to now be defunct.

AMG has agreed to allocate half of its rights to net protocol revenues to a third LLC called WC Digital Fi, which is an affiliate of Trump’s close friend and political donor, Steve Witkoff, as well as to “certain of his family members.” Witkoff’s son, Zachary, is also listed as one of the co-founders of the project.

Folkman previously said just 20% of WLF’s tokens would be allotted to the founding team, which includes the Trump family. The paper spells out the breakdown of anticipated coin allocation, with 35% of total supply allocated to the token sale, 32.5% to community growth and incentives, 30% to initial support allocation, and 2.5% to team and advisors.

The document specifies in the fine print that these “anticipated token distribution amounts are subject to change.” It’s unclear which categories include Trump and his family.

The paper calls Trump the “chief crypto advocate.” His three sons are all “Web3 ambassadors.”

WATCH: Crypto warms up to Kamala Harris

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Lucid chief says despite slower-than-expected EV market, it’s still outpacing luxury rivals

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Lucid chief says despite slower-than-expected EV market, it's still outpacing luxury rivals

Despite admitting “the market is tough,” Lucid Motor’s (LCID) CEO Peter Rawlinson said the luxury EV maker is outpacing its rivals.

With nearly 2,800 vehicles delivered in Q3, Lucid broke its quarterly record for the third consecutive time this year.

Although deliveries are picking up, production at its Casa Grande, Arizona plant is slipping. Lucid built 1,805 EVs over the last three months, down from 2,110 in Q2.

Two years ago, Lucid expected to build 90,000 vehicles in 2024. Now, its production target is 9,000 for the year, meaning Lucid will need to make another 3,359 vehicles in the fourth quarter to hit its goal.

“The market is tough,” Rawlinson told Semafor’s Liz Hoffman. However, he added, “the actual sales numbers of EVs are increasing.”

Rawlinson explained, “It’s just that the rate of increase was not what we anticipated. It’s like saying there’s inflation, but the rate of inflation is less.”

Lucid-stock-offering
Lucid Air (left) and Gravity SUV (right) models (Source: Lucid)

Lucid is still outpacing many luxury rivals

Despite the lower outlook, Lucid is still outpacing many of its luxury rivals. Rawlinson said buyers have been “ill-served by underwhelming offerings from traditional automakers that haven’t gone all-in on electric.”

Lucid’s CEO says those companies have “not been able to because they’ve not got the technology, and they’ve not got the long-term commitment.”

Lucid-tech-advantage
(Source: Lucid Motors)

Rawlinson boasted, “We’re outselling the Mercedes EQS. We’re outselling the Porsche Taycan. We’re outselling the [Audi] eTron. We’re out selling BMW Ice.” In some markets, Lucid’s Air is even outselling the Tesla Model S.

According to Cox Automotive, Lucid sold 5,766 Air models in the US through September, up 35% from last year. That’s more than the Audi e-tron (2,066) and Porsche Taycan (4,072).

Lucid-Gravity-SUV
Lucid Gravity SUV (Source: Lucid)

Lucid plans to begin building its first electric SUV, the Gravity, later this year that’s expected to greatly expand its market. According to Lucid, the Gravity will start at under $80,000 with over 440 miles range.

Ahead of its debut, Lucid announced plans to sell 262.4 million shares of common stock through a new public offering.

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Lucid midsize electric SUV teaser image (Source: Lucid)

Last month, Lucid teased its new midsize electric SUV. It will be the first of Lucid’s lower-priced midsize models, starting at under $50,000.

Electrek’s Take

Despite some media headlines claiming “electric vehicle sales are stumbling,” many companies just set new sales records in the third quarter.

In the US, a record 346,309 EVs were sold in the third quarter, up 11% from Q3 2023. Electric vehicle share of total sales reached its highest level at 8.9%, up from 7.8% in Q3 2023.

Perhaps Lucid’s CEO has a point. People have been “ill-served” by automakers that have failed to keep up with the shift to a digital, electric era. Buyers want the newest, most advanced tech, features, and connectivity. And electric vehicles offer that.

In Rawlinson’s words, “If you like driving fast cars, it’s a must. If you like lots of legroom and comfort, it’s a must. If you like a nice, quiet and comfortable ride, it’s a must. And if you want to save the planet, it’s a must.”

According to Rawlinson, manufacturing is not the problem. “Our problem is market demand, and that is very much a function of brand awareness.”

The company’s leader said those not interested in cars “won’t bother to find out that Lucid exists.” Instead, they’ll “just go to your Mercedes dealer every three years because you can’t beat the three-pointed star as a brand.” That’s where Lucid looks to make the difference as it enters its next growth stage.

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Hyundai launches new Casper Electric Premium starting at $20K, under $8K with subsidies

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Hyundai launches new Casper Electric Premium starting at K, under K with subsidies

Hyundai’s cheapest EV is now even more affordable in Korea. The Casper Electric gained a new Premium trim starting at $20,000 (27.4 million won). With subsidies, Hyundai expects the new model will be available for as little as $7,300 (10 million won).

After opening pre-orders for the new compact electric SUV in July, starting at just $23,000 (31.5 million won), Hyundai’s Casper Electric is already a hit in its home market.

According to Yonhap News, the Casper Electric secured 8,000 orders in its first two weeks. In its first full sales month, the mini electric SUV was Hyundai’s top-selling EV in Korea.

The Casper Electric accounted for 1,439 of Hyundai’s total 3,676 EVs sold in August. The IONIQ 5 (1,222), IONIQ 6 (405), and Kona Electric trailed behind for the company’s best EV sales month so far in 2024.

In September, the Casper Electric became the best-selling EV in Korea, with 2,075 models sold. Hyundai said the electric SUV is attracting buyers thanks to its “ample driving range” and low price.

Hyundai's-Casper-Electric-trim
Hyundai Casper Electric (Source: Hyundai)

Hyundai’s all-electric Casper is bigger than the gas-powered model and is cheaper to drive with government incentives.

Although previously, it could be purchased for as little as $14,500 (20 million won) with government subsidies, Hyundai’s Casper electric is now even more affordable with a new Premium trim.

Hyundai's-Casper-Electric-trim
Hyundai Casper Electric (Source: Hyundai)

Hyundai’s Casper Electric gains new lower-priced trim

After releasing the new gas-powered Casper in Korea on Thursday, Hyundai introduced a new Premium trim for the electric model.

The Casper Electric Premium is Hyundai’s new base model, starting at just $20,000 (27.4 million won) after tax benefits. With government and local subsidies, Hyundai expects the new model will be available for as little as $7,300 (10 million won).

Hyundai's-Casper-Electric-trim
Hyundai Casper Electric Premium trim (Source: Hyundai)

Powered by a 42 kWh NCM battery from its joint venture with LG Energy Solution, the new base model is rated with up to 173 miles (278 km) driving range in Korea.

A Hyundai Motor official said the new Casper Electric will be the “optimal choice” for buyers. With other trims, the electric SUV is rated with up to 196 miles (315 km) driving range.

Hyundai's-Casper-Electric-trim
Hyundai Casper EV interior (Source: Hyundai)

In Europe, the Casper Electric is known as Inster EV. It’s rated with up to 221 miles (355 km) WLTP driving range and starts at under $27,000 (25,000 euros).

Earlier this week, Hyundai launched the new Inster EV Cross, a rugged twist on the electric city car. Hyundai said the bold new model is built for all your “mini-adventures” and has up to 223 miles (360 km) of driving range.

Hyundai's-Inster-EV-Cross
Hyundai Inster EV Cross (Source: Hyundai)

Is it coming to the US?

Although the Casper Electric (Inster) is not expected to arrive in the US, Hyundai’s massive new Metaplant America in Georgia is now up and running. The first vehicle to roll off the assembly line was the updated 2025 IONIQ 5, featuring more range and an NACS charging port to unlock Tesla’s Supercharger network.

Hyundai-2025-IONIQ-5
2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 charging at a Tesla Supercharger (Source: Hyundai)

Later this year, Hyundai will introduce its first electric three-row SUV, the IONIQ 9, which will be built alongside the new IONIQ 5 in GA.

Although EVs built at the facility will initially qualify for a partial $3,750 tax credit, Hyundai expects once the battery portion opens, it will unlock the full $7,500 credit for buyers.

Hyundai-three-row-electric-SUV
Hyundai’s three-row IONIQ 9 (SEVEN Concept) electric SUV (Source: Hyundai)

Until then, Hyundai is still passing the $7,500 on through leasing. It also offers 0% APR on the 2024 IONIQ 5 for up to 60 months as it preps for the new updated model.

Starting at $41,800, the 2024 IONIQ 5 is still one of the best EV deals in the US. For $45,850, the SE RWD model offers over 300 miles range. (See IONIQ 5 offers in your area).

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