Tesla board is reportedly floating replacing Elon Musk as CEO
According to a new report from The Wall Street Journal, Tesla’s board has taken steps toward potentially seeking a new CEO to replace Elon Musk.
To say the least, Tesla’s board of directors has been extremely favorable to Elon Musk, Tesla’s largest single shareholder and long-time CEO.
They have backed his every move, granted him a $55 billion CEO compensation package, and remained silent when he threatened Tesla shareholders that he would not develop AI products at Tesla unless given a larger, more controlling share of the company, or decided to fire Tesla’s entire charging team to make an example out of the head of the team.
Tesla’s then-third-largest individual shareholder, after Musk, Leo KoGuan, told Electrek last year that he couldn’t get his concerns about Musk heard by the board.
Most recently, they have not addressed the protests at Tesla stores and product boycotts, which are attributed to Musk’s involvement in politics, angering a significant portion of the population and Tesla’s consumer base.
Many people, including myself, deduced from the board’s silence that it did not plan to take action against Musk’s negative impact on the brand.
Now, a new report from The Wall Street Journal suggests that the board started to move against Musk for the first time last month.
The report brings several new information to light. Here are the main points with quotes from WSJ:
- According to unnamed sources, Tesla’s board reached out to executive search firms to look for a new CEO:
- “Board members reached out to several executive search firms to work on a formal process for finding Tesla’s next chief executive, according to people familiar with the discussions.”
- The board reportedly met with Musk and asked him to spend more time on Tesla:
- “Around that time, Tesla’s board met with Musk for an update. Board members told him he needed to spend more time on Tesla, according to people familiar with the meeting. And he needed to say so publicly.”
- After Musk committed to spending more time at Tesla, it’s not clear what is the current status of the search for a potential new CEO:
- “The board narrowed its focus to a major search firm, according to the people familiar with the discussions. The current status of the succession planning couldn’t be determined. It is also unclear if Musk, himself a Tesla board member, was aware of the effort, or if his pledge to spend more time at Tesla has affected succession planning. Musk didn’t respond to requests for comment.”
- Additionally, Tesla’s board has been looking at adding a director, and JB Straubel, whose role on the board has mostly gone under the radar, has reportedly been meeting with investors:
- “The eight-person Tesla board has been looking to add an independent director, according to people familiar with the process. Some directors, including Tesla co-founder JB Straubel, have been meeting with major investors to reassure them the company is in good hands.”
- WSJ has reportedly seen text messages that Musk sent to someone telling them that he doesn’t wish to be CEO at Tesla anymore:
- “Last spring, he told that person that he no longer wanted to be CEO of Tesla, but that he was worried that no one could replace him atop the company and sell the vision that Tesla isn’t just an automaker, but the future of robotics and automation as well.”
- The report mentioned a Tesla manager who shared frustration about Musk’s negative impact on the business who has reportedly been let go since his comments were reported in the media:
- “Eliah Gilfenbaum, a Tesla executive in California, told his team that it was getting more challenging to hire and retain talent, according to one person who was present. He told them Tesla would be better off if Musk resigned. That was unlikely to happen, he told them, and employees needed to reconcile the boss’s politics with the company’s mission. He advised them to try to compartmentalize and just keep going.”
- The board reportedly told investors that Musk wasn’t as well aware of what’s happening with Tesla as he used to:
- “In recent meetings with investors, board members told them that despite Musk’s government work, he was involved in Tesla meetings remotely. One board member told people that sometimes Musk wasn’t as well prepared and that he needed to be briefed more about what is happening with Tesla. The board members continued to say they believed Musk’s proximity to Trump and the White House would benefit the company over the long term.”
The report provides some insight into how the board is addressing the current situation with its controversial CEO.
During Tesla’s earnings call last week, Musk said that he would scale back his time at DOGE to spend more time at Tesla.
It encouraged some investors, but the CEO still claimed that he would “spend a day or two per week on government matters”:
“I think starting probably next month, May, my time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly. I’ll have to continue doing it for, I think, probably the remainder of the President’s term, just to make sure that the waste and fraud that we stop does not come roaring back, which will do if it has the chance. So, I think I’ll continue to spend a day or two per week on government matters for as long as the President would like me to do so and as long as it is useful. But starting next month, I’ll be allocating probably more of my time to Tesla and now that the major work of establishing the Department of Government Efficiency is done.”
In addition to these duties, Musk serves as CEO of SpaceX and the de facto leader of X/xAI, as well as being involved in Neuralink and The Boring Company.
Musk didn’t respond to WSJ’s request for comments, and as of the time of writing this article, he didn’t seem to have directly addressed the new report on X, but he did share a couple of memes about him “wearing many hats”:
He appeared at Trump’s cabinet meeting today wearing two hats simultaneously.
Electrek’s Take
I’d take the report with a grain of salt. A lot of it makes sense, but there are unnamed sources, and this could be as simple as the board floating the idea of replacing Musk.
Also, I want this to happen, so I’m certainly biased in the sense that I want to believe it’s true.
I think the board and shareholders would have a tough time removing Musk. Shareholders are not sufficiently incentivized by the current stock price, which is resisting Tesla’s declining growth and struggling fundamentals.
And they still believe Elon’s lies about self-driving and humanoid robots soon bringing Tesla back to rapid earnings growth.
I think we might need a few more people to get the “Elon realization moment” before there’s enough motivation from shareholders to push him out.
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DJI may be best known for drones, but the company just launched a ground-based product that has the power to keep all your tech airborne – and then some. The new DJI Power 2000 is a 2,048 Wh portable power station with a 3,000 W output that quietly muscles its way into the heavy-hitter end of the mobile power world. I’ve been testing it for the past week in a wide range of scenarios – from charging up my electric tractor in the field to power my family’s chest freezer. And of course smaller jobs like charging up my phone and drone are easy jobs too. From my experience so far, I can tell you that this thing delivers.
But before I get into all the praise, let me get my one gripe out of the way early: You can’t use the DJI Power 2000 until you pair it with the DJI Home app.
That step alone doesn’t take long, but I’m not a fan of products that require a phone connection to get started.
When I take a power station out of the box, I want to push a button and see juice, not start pairing like I’m connecting Bluetooth earbuds.
With that said, once it’s set up, the Power 2000 makes a compelling case as the go-to portable power station for everything from remote camping to emergency home use.
It’s quiet. It’s fast. It’s powerful. And it might be one of the most rugged unit I’ve tested – which is a LOT of power stations by this point.
You can definitely tell that it’s built solidly, and I really like the 1/4-20 threaded inserts on the sides for mounting accessories – either those from DJI or others that I could possibly dream up.
Big power, fast charging
Let’s start with the headline numbers: 2,048 watt-hours of capacity and a continuous 3,000W output. That’s enough to run nearly any household appliance, including a microwave, power tools, or even charging up my electric UTV.
When I plugged in my Kandi UTV, the DJI Power 2000 didn’t even flinch. This would be a great way to recharge in the field if you ever accidentally ran low on power in the field. To put it in slightly outdated terms, it’s the equivalent of a little red gasoline can, but in the electric era.
As another “charging out in the field” test, I tried it out with my NESHER L880 electric loader. You shouldn’t ever run out of charge in an electric tractor as long as you’re watching your battery meter – but if you ever did, this would be a convenient way to get some charge back into it to drive home.
And as an added bonus, the NESHER L880’s loader bucket makes a great way to carry the fairly heavy power station around in the pasture.
For ports, the unit features four AC outlets, four USB-A ports, and four USB-C ports (two at 140W and two at 65W), plus dedicated SDC drone ports and a DC car outlet. I also used it to power my chest freezer for a test – it ran smoothly for hours, simulating a blackout scenario where this could genuinely save hundreds of dollars in spoiled food.
Charging the Power 2000 itself is no slouch, either. DJI claims it can go from 0 to 100% in 90 minutes from a standard wall outlet, and my tests confirmed it. I clocked just under an hour to nearly 80%, which is pretty impressive for a battery this size. It also supports car charging and solar input – dual 1.8 kW fast charging if you have the right panels and setup.
Quiet, durable, and smart
What impressed me most beyond the specs was how thoughtfully rugged the Power 2000 is. It uses LFP battery cells (my favorite for safety and longevity), is built with flame-retardant materials, and can allegedly support up to one ton of static weight. While I didn’t park a car on it, I did load it into the back of my electric UTV and bounce it down a dirt trail and across many acres of pasture land. It kept powering devices without interruption, despite getting a decent workout and tossed around quite a bit.
DJI claims that the unit includes 26 built-in temperature sensors that provide constant real-time monitoring, along with 21 fuses to handle any operation abnormality. Those seem like weirdly high numbers, but sure, why not?
DJI also offers a Zignes 100W solar panel and a solar panel adapter, which I tested out for a solar charging setup. It’s not enough to fully recharge the unit quickly on its own, but it’s a nice bonus for trickle charging during daylight hours or topping off mid-campout. And of course you can bundle more solar panels to double or triple the charging power via DJI’s adapter, which can also mount to the side of the unit with the built-in threaded inserts in the side of the power station.
Drone-friendly by design
As expected from DJI, there’s native support for their drone ecosystem. It’s a nice touch that makes this more than just a generic battery box – it’s clearly built for creators and drone operators in mind.
The system works to rapid charge DJI drones including the Air 3, Mavic 3, Inspire 3, and Matrice series. Of course I’ve got the one that doesn’t work: the Mini series. But that’s ok, since I was still able to charge it and the controller directly from the USB-C ports on the power station.
Final Thoughts
At $1,299, the DJI Power 2000 isn’t the cheapest battery in town, but for the performance, safety, and sheer ruggedness it delivers, the price seems quite fair compared to other units in the market that don’t feel as well put together. This isn’t just a big battery in a plastic shell. It’s an industrial-grade power station built to handle your wildest overlanding trips, blackouts, and gear-charging needs with ease.
Would I recommend it? Absolutely. But I’d recommend DJI also rethink requiring an app just to get started. The Power 2000 deserves to shine on its own, right out of the box.
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Mercedes-Benz continues to demonstrate the capabilities of its future lineup of all-electric vans and multi-purpose vehicles (MPVs), all atop its new 800V Van Architecture. Most recently, Mercedes drove two test versions of its VLE MPVs nearly 1,100 kilometers, from Germany to Rome, Italy.
While Mercedes-Benz remains a leading provider of vans, that is one of the few vehicle segments it has truly electrified. At least, not yet. Beginning in 2026, Mercedes intends to begin launching a new series of all-electric, ultra-efficient vans and multi-purpose vehicles on its new Van Electric Architecture (VAN.EA).
VAN.EA was unveiled in 2023 as a new 800-volt purpose-built EV architecture that will support both mid and large vans. These new models will feature 4MATIC AWD, significantly expanding driving range and ensuring the BEVs “meet the highest standards regardless of weather conditions.”
In the fall of 2024, we first looked at early camouflaged prototypes testing on public roads. One model, originally codenamed the VAN.EA-P has completed winter testing in Sweden and has since been renamed the VLE by Mercedes.
The VLE and a second all-electric model called the VLS will be the first two Mercedes vehicles to hit the market atop the new Van Electric Architecture. Still, before then, the German automaker took two test models of the former through the Alps to Rome, only stopping to charge twice along the way.
Mercedes’ VLE demonstrates efficiency through EU
According to Mercedes-Benz, two VLE electric van test models recently completed a real-world trip from Stuttgart to Rome, covering 1,090 kilometers (677 miles) and traversing steep, winding mountain passes in the Alps.
The trip lasted approximately 13 hours and faced steady traffic. It began at Mercedes HQ in Stuttgart, Germany, where temperatures were 52°F, and ended in Rome, where temperatures were significantly higher at 91°F. Despite the long route and weather changes, Mercedes said the cabin temperature of each VLE remained comfortable at 72°F.
During the nearly 1,110-kilometer journey, Mercedes says the VLE vans only stopped to charge twice, completing sessions around 15 minutes each time. By completing the journey, Mercedes-Benz says it has confirmed the VLE is ready for real-world use and will bring space and efficiency to families and adventure seekers alike. Per Dr. Andreas Zygan, Head of Development Mercedes-Benz Vans, Mercedes-Benz AG:
Our future MPVs have once again impressively demonstrated their suitability for everyday use on the long-distance route. With just two short charging stops from Stuttgart to the Alps to Rome – the Mercedes-Benz VLE demonstrates impressive efficiency of the new Van Electric Architecture.
Mercedes said it will continue to test the VLE and its Van Electric Architecture in Stuttgart and in real-world environments en route to product launches in 2026 as promised. As mentioned before, two of those initial models have now been confirmed with the names “Mercedes-Benz VLE” and the “Mercedes-Benz VLS.”
The VLE can accommodate up to 8 seats and serves a multitude of purposes, from family-friendly transport to exclusive VIP shuttles. Like the VLE, Mercedes is hailing the VLS as a “Grand Limousine” that will “define a unique segment of its own that bestows true greatness to automotive luxury.”
Better yet, Mercedes says it will offer these all-electric MPVs or Grand Limousines for the first time in the US, Canada, and China. As we move closer to 2026, we expect to see more of the VLE and VLS inside and out, and learn more about the performance specifications and pricing Mercedes intends to deliver. Stay tuned.
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As it struggles to sell EVs in the US, Toyota is resorting to bigger, gas-powered SUVs. That new Toyota electric SUV we are still waiting on? It’s delayed again, but there’s more to it.
Toyota pushes to sell gas SUVs as EV sales slump
Toyota sold 1,223 models of the bZ4X, its sole electric SUV in the US, last month. That’s less than the nearly 1,400 it sold in June 2024 despite upgrading it for the 2025 model year.
Through the first half of 2025, Toyota has sold 9,249 bZ4X models in the US, down from the nearly 9,500 sold in the same period last year.
Its luxury Lexus brand is also struggling to sell its electric SUV, the RZ. Last month, Lexus RZ sales fell 30% to just 763 units. Through the first half of 2025, RZ sales are down by a third (-33%), with just 3,779 units sold.
As the struggles continue, Toyota is now delaying more EV models as it shifts its focus back to gas-powered SUVs.
Toyota plans to begin producing a new electric SUV at its Kentucky plant in 2028, a year later than initially expected. The new EV was scheduled to be built at the automaker’s Princeton, Indiana, facility, following an additional $1.4 billion investment made last April.
According to AutoNews, the sudden shift is to free up capacity for its massive gas-powered Grand Highlander SUV.
Toyota is consolidating EV production and will build the new EV in Kentucky alongside a separate three-row electric SUV. The larger electric SUV is set for production in late 2026, rather than earlier in the year as initially planned.
“As previously announced, Toyota plans to produce two all-new, three-row battery electric SUVs in the US. Toyota will now assemble both vehicles at Toyota Kentucky,” Toyota said in a statement.
Toyota will ramp up production of the Grand Highlander in Indiana with a new dedicated assembly line. Through the first half of 2025, Toyota Grand Highlander sales are 20% with over 65,000 units sold.
Despite the delay, Toyota is still planning to launch seven new EVs in the US by mid-2027, including under the Lexus brand.
Later this year, Toyota will introduce the new bZ electric SUV (an upgraded bZ4X) with more driving range and an added NACS port to charge at Tesla Superchargers.
The smaller Toyota C-HR and rugged bZ Woodland electric SUVs are expected to arrive sometime next year.
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