Like most movers and shakers in history, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is a complicated figure. There’s been no shortage of “What’s it like to work with Elon?” articles. Many of them have a predetermined premise: fans find him to be a wise and inspiring leader, an out-of-the-box thinker; the anti-EV crowd is eager to paint a picture of an impulsive, hot-tempered prima donna.
To create breakthrough products, Steve Jobs created his own reality distortion field which helped Apple reach unattainable goals. Likewise, Elon Musk has an unorthodox method for setting Tesla’s goals. Yes, there’s a lot of bellyaching in the media over Musk’s missed deadlines. But according to former Apple analyst Gene Munster (via Loup Ventures), “There’s a method to Musk’s goal-setting madness.”
Tesla has been expanding at an insane pace in a push to create new vehicle delivery routes to new countries at the same time as it continues adding production capacity for the upcoming Tesla Model Y. Construction at Gigafactory 3 in China is wrapping up on phase 1 and Tesla is getting close to making a decision on the location of Gigafactory 4 in Europe.
2018 was both an excruciating and rewarding year for Elon Musk and Tesla employees — painful because Elon Musk kept getting himself entangled in needless controversies, Twitter fights, and a lot more; and rewarding because Tesla not only doubled its production in 2018, but also managed to find new demand to match its rising production.
A former Tesla employee gave up living in a brick and mortar house to live in something that’s far more and far less elegant at the same time — a Tesla Model X. While working at Tesla’s Fremont factory, Nico was frustrated by expensive real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area, which made the option of what has become known as “Van Life” — or living out of a modified van — an attractive alternative.
As part of a company-wide annual review, Tesla has fired around 400 employees — including supervisors, team leaders, and common associates — according to a former employee who spoke with Reuters in an interview.
Obviously, with plans to significantly ramp up production of its Model X and Model S this year, and then go into hyperspeed while ramping production of the Model 3, Tesla Motors needs to hire a lot more people. Based in California and Nevada, that means a lot of American jobs. Tesla held … [continued]
