Tesla just lost a top manufacturing executive at the company's Fremont, California, factory as the company works to ramp up production, industry publication Electrek reported Wednesday, citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter.
The departure of Vice President of Production Peter Hochholdinger comes at a critical time as Tesla works to ramp up production and deliveries. In a companywide memo sent Tuesday, CEO Elon Musk tried to rally employees to hit the company's aggressive vehicle production and delivery goals for the second quarter.
Hochholdinger, who was previously a production executive at Audi, joined Tesla in 2016 and oversaw the electric-car maker's "car plant and seat factory in Fremont, CA, the castings site in Lathrop, CA and the Tilburg factory in The Netherlands," according to his LinkedIn page. At Audi, Hochholdinger oversaw production of Audi's best-selling A4 sedan.
"The departure of Peter is not ideal at this juncture and adds to the executive departures in Fremont which have concerned investors over the past 6 months," Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities, said in an interview.
The company's stock has fallen 34% this year. The company is expected to release its production and delivery results for the second quarter next week. Its current production record is 90,700 cars in a quarter, which it delivered in the fourth quarter.
Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.
Correction: Tesla delivered a record 90,700 vehicles during the fourth quarter.