AutoblogGreen

Hmm, this seems just a little bit strange. What has he been up to since 1999?

Reply

My initial reaction is, disappointing choice.

I'm not sure what he has been up to since '99. Seems to have dropped off the radar. There is an Inc. Magazine article from '88 that talks about him purchasing Clifford. In the article it mentions that he is in his late 40's at the time,and that "No CEO should be in his position for more than 7 years." I guess things didn't quit go as planned from '88-'99 either. This seems like a cheap pick up.

Reply

From my own web searching, it seems that since 1999 he's been spending time auto racing.

I'm an electronics engineer, and I remember his company, Monolithic Memories well. They were cutting edge stuff in their day.

It will be interesting to see what direction the company goes from here. I'm pretty sure in the short term they will continue to focus on getting the Roadster out the door, and we won't hear much about Whitestar until after that happens.

Reply

Yippee!!! Tesla has taken a step forwards toward White Star :)

It's funny though, the guy's name, Ze'ev, is kind of similar to ZEV, which mean zero emmisions vehicle. That term was applied to the famous ZEV mandate in California, in which automakers made electric cars. Oh, the irony! lol

Reply

I have been a huge fan and advocate for Tesla, but have to confess that this game of "CEO musical chairs" unsettles me. Truth be told, I never understood why Musk asked Eberhard to "step down" from the CEO position to that VP of Technology in the first place. It seemed to me that he had done an incredible job of taking a mere idea all the way to Validation Prototypes in record time, especially given the cutting-edge technology involved. More importantly, Martin was always open with the public, clarifying when projections were only projections, and even correcting numbers when it appeared they might be exaggerated. Would that more CEOs could be so forthright! But something seems fishy at this point. For example, what in the world happened to VP Gretchen Joyce? Not a word anywhere about her disappearance from the Tesla team! Hmmm. I dunno. The situation reminds me of what happened at Apple, when Sculley ended up ousting Steve Jobs --and we all know what a fiasco that was! Thank goodness Jobs agreed to return and turn the company completely around again. I just hope that Tesla is not making the same mistake, i.e., supplanting true visionaries with --ugh!-- corporate managers. I sure would like to be a fly-on-the-wall at Tesla at this point!

Reply

I hope it is just that they see how big this is going to be, and Martin wants to stay focused on the tech side.

Reply

Is there anyone at the company that has any automotive experience, in sales, service or advertising? If they are serious about launching a "car" company as opposed to an internet start-up, they may want to get someone with after sales service experience. It's not in the buying where you lose buyers, it is on the service end. Especially if they plan to expand their product offerings.

Reply

Yanquetino. . . Despite my huge admiration for Martin Eberhard, I think it's probably for the best that he stepped down from the CEO slot.

He sometimes tended to cut corners. For examples. . . I gather that he wanted to use off-the-shelf headlights in the Roadster, he was against lowering the door sill (relative to the Elise), and he wanted to use a single-speed transmission. All of these choices would have made the Roadster quicker and cheaper to get into production -- but would have compromised its design. Musk prevailed on him to spend the extra time and money to do it right.

Sometimes Eberhard is slow to "face reality" and recognize the seriousness of a developing problem. He himself admitted this happened with the transmission, and they could have sorted things out a lot faster if he'd only made the decision to dump Xtrac and source another transmission about three months earlier than he did.

In a similar vein, by the time Eberhard resigned as CEO, the Roadster's production schedule had become unhinged. They had maybe one working example of the new transmission, and they were still planning to start building cars in a couple of months. They were planning to continue durability testing while cars were being assembled. That is no way to build cars!

So yeah. . . Emotionally I hated to see Eberhard demoted, because you know he was the founder and he'd really become the public face of Tesla Motors to a large extent. However, I could also see where his leadership style was causing some difficulties.

Reply

Uh... does anyone see the trend??? CEO of Monolith from 81-87, then sells the company to AMD. Comes in as CEO of Clifford Security and sells it to Allstate Insurance.

I can just see the headlines in three years, "Ze'ev Drori sells entire Tesla Motors Corp. to General Motors"... or "Drori sells controlling stake of Tesla Motors to Saudi prince - Roadster now to come with 6.2L V-8 gas burner."

What are they... retarded?

Reply

Tony: I hope your assessment of the situation is the correct one. We all want to see Tesla succeed, especially Martin, so let's hope that the personnel issues are now a thing of the past.

Funny thing is... I would have been perfectly happy with off-the-shelf headlights and higher door sills, and would have preferred a single-speed transmission! Of course, I might be the sole voice in the wilderness, but I wonder if others feel the same way...? And the real irony is that all those changes put more and more delays into the process --yet Martin ends up spanked for being "slow to face reality"!

Also, I still want to know what happened to Gretchen Joyce. She was someone who, given her previous positions, indeed had "automotive experience, in sales, service or advertising." Why did she suddenly just "disappear"? And without a word?

Reply

The headlights and door sills are something that can be argued different ways. I've climbed into and out of an Elise before, it was mighty awkward. Since changing that required redesigning the whole chassis, they ended up making other improvements while they were at it.

AS for the transmission. . . It has certainly turned into a bigger problem than anybody would have expected. If they knew at the beginning what they know now, they might have gone with a single speed. However, there's no question about which I prefer. The two-speed transmission, once they get it working properly, will be definitely superior. It will accelerate harder, it will allow a higher top speed, and it will give you easy access to two different regen profiles. And anyhow, a sports car without a shifter just wouldn't be right.

Reply

I'm pretty sure Ze'ev Drori is an israeli name.

Reply

Tony: "a sports car without a shifter just wouldn't be right"...? Ouch. My BMW Z3 has an automatic. It also has a manual mode, but --funny thing-- I never use it anymore. I've learned to love not having to shift! And, believe me, it really hauls. Ah, well... I guess I really am a sole voice in the wilderness!

Reply