Another Tesla Exec Departs As Musk Downsizes: Cybertruck Manufacturing Head Marks End Of 'Adventure With This Great Company'

Tesla Inc‘s TSLA head of Cybertruck manufacturing Renjie Zhu has resigned from the company, joining the long list of senior executives to leave as company CEO Elon Musk seeks to downsize the company’s workforce.

What Happened:  Zhu took to LinkedIn to announce his departure from the electric vehicle giant. 

“After triumphing the epic launch of [the] Cybertruck program and ramping the volume production line to the steady 1K/W throughput orbit for the past 16 months in GFTX, also 7 weeks after the 5th Tesla-versary, my adventure with this great company has come to an end,” Zhu wrote. Zhu joined Tesla in 2019 and launched the Cybertruck program at Giga Texas in January 2023, as per his LinkedIn profile.

Tesla started delivering the Cybertruck in late November. During Tesla’s first-quarter earnings call in April, a company executive confirmed that it made 1000 vehicle units in a week. The company intends to scale production to 250,000 units annually starting in 2025.

Zhu's departure adds him to a growing list of senior executives who have left Tesla in recent weeks, including Senior Director of Charging Infrastructure Rebecca Tinucci, Director of New Product Introduction Daniel Ho, Senior Vice President of Powertrain and Energy Engineering Drew Baglino, and Vice President of Public Policy and Business Development Rohan Patel.

“Now it's time to start a new journey, like a Falcon 9 back to the base, to refuel and prepare for next launch,” Zhu wrote in his post, referring to the reusable Falcon 9 rocket made by Tesla CEO Elon Musk‘s private company SpaceX. It is unclear if Zhu was laid off or resigned out of personal choice.

Why It Matters: Last month, Tesla announced plans to cut costs through a 10% workforce reduction, impacting an estimated 14,000 employees. These layoffs reflect broader challenges facing the company, including declining sales and pricing pressures.

For the first quarter, Tesla reported revenue of $21.3 billion, down from the $23.33 billion reported a year earlier. This is the first time the company's quarterly revenue has fallen since the pandemic in 2020. Tesla's net profit stood at $1.13 billion, falling 55% from $2.51 billion a year earlier.

Price Action: Tesla stock closed 2% higher on Monday at $171.89 and gained 0.5% after hours. The stock is down 30.8% year-to-date, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

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