Tesla’s Director Of Battery Engineering Departs
The director of battery engineering at Tesla, Jon Wagner, has apparently stopped working for the electric vehicle pioneer, going on the information found on his LinkedIn profile and also on various recent reports.
While it’s not completely clear when his departure from Tesla occurred (or is occurring), Wagner’s LinkedIn page does make it clear that he is now planning to launch his own electric vehicle (EV) battery and powertrain startup in the Golden State.
To better explain why this matters, it should be stated here that while Wagner didn’t begin working at Tesla until January 2013, he was intimately involved in the development of technology that has been used in all of Tesla’s offerings — including the Tesla Powerwall.
Which makes you wonder why he would want to leave the company? And, perhaps even more importantly, why Tesla wouldn’t do enough to keep him onboard? Compensation? Managerial problems? Work productivity problems? The get-rich-quick culture of the tech industry?
Reuters provides some context here that may be relevant: “Last week, Tesla pushed back its target for volume production on its new Model 3 sedan by about three months, saying it was difficult to predict how long it would take to fix production bottlenecks.
“Tesla had also said that the main constraint was its battery module assembly line at its Nevada Gigafactory, where the company had to redesign part of the production process.”
Unsurprisingly, neither Tesla nor Wagner immediately responded to requests for comments from Reuters.
Whatever the reasons for the departure, it does seem fairly likely that they are connected to the ongoing Tesla Model 3 mass production delays.
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