Tesla Reportedly Loses a Sales Bigwig

The drumbeat of dour Tesla stories continues: Sources tell the Wall Street Journal the electric car maker has lost its top North American sales executive, who has been with the company for 15 years. Troy Jones—VP of sales, service, and delivery for the region—has reportedly exited. Electrek reports that for the past five years, Jones was viewed "as the leader of Tesla's retail effort in the US." The Journal paints his departure as the latest in what is shaping up to be a string of big-name employees peeling off.

Omead Afshar—a key lieutenant to CEO Elon Musk who recently ran sales and manufacturing for North America and Europe—left in June (Electrek reports he was said to have been fired amid the company's sales decline), as did HR chief Jenna Ferrua. One of Tesla's AI and robotics leads, Milan Kovac, moved on earlier this year. Kovac had a hand in developing Optimus, the humanoid robot core to Musk's ambition to turn Tesla into more than just a carmaker. Reuters adds chief battery engineer Drew Baglino and global public policy head Rohan Patel to the list of other notable recent departures.