Elon Musk has officially postponed his India trip, stating that he was forced to do so due to “very heavy Tesla obligations.” After firing 15,000 Tesla employees & multiple executives left, Msuk has overtaken most of the duties of the departing managers.
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Last week, Musk announced that he would be traveling to India and meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit. Musk’s India trip was scheduled to start on April 21 and last 48 hours.
There was a lot of excitement about Musk’s upcoming India trip, with rumors abuzz that Elon would announce a brand new Tesla Gigafactory during his visit.
However, recently departed Tesla’s head of Public Policy and Business Development, Rohan Patel, shot down those rumors, stating that many of his colleagues at Tesla approached him, surprised to learn the EV maker has made a big decision regarding India and that he responds to his colleagues by stating that the media completely made up those reports.
As a result, Musk’s visit was expected to coincide with the launch of SpaceX Starlink satellite internet service in India, with additional possible discussions about Tesla’s future in the country.
Whatever the agenda might have been, a few hours ago, Musk announced that he had canceled his upcoming India trip.
During this announcement, Musk said that the India visit had been postponed; however, the Tesla CEO did not provide any concrete timeline for when he will visit the country, only stating that he would visit India “later this year.”
Musk explained why he canceled the India trip, stating, "Unfortunately, very heavy Tesla obligations require that the visit to India be delayed, but I do very much look forward to visiting later this year.”
Tesla is scheduled to hold the company’s Q1 2024 earnings call on April 23, a day after Elon Musk would have returned from his two-day India trip.
However, Musk appears to have decided that the optics of such a visit will not be good just ahead of what is expected to be Tesla's toughest earnings report in several years.
Although Tesla has yet to post financial results for the first quarter of the year, the company has already revealed that vehicle deliveries have dropped by a whopping 20% compared to Q4 2023.
Tesla delivered 386,810 vehicles in the year's first quarter, with Model 3 and Model Y deliveries clocking in at 369,783 and Model S, Model X, and Cybertruck deliveries making up the remaining 17,027 units.
For the first quarter of the year, Tesla did not break out Cybertruck deliveries; rather, the company chose to lamp Cybertruck deliveries together with Model S & Model X.
Tesla’s performance in the first quarter of the year would have been amazing compared to a few years ago. However, as already mentioned, Tesla’s Q1 2024 deliveries represent a 20% fall quarter over quarter.
A 20% decrease in performance is horrible for any company; however, it’s particularly damning for Tesla since most of the company’s over $500 billion market cap is predicated on sustained strong growth for years to come.
Following the abysmal delivery numbers, Elon Musk has made major shakeups throughout all parts of the EV maker.
Tesla fired more than 10% of its workforce. On April 15, around 15,000 Tesla employees lost their jobs in a single day.
As if all this wasn’t enough, Drew Baglino, Senior Vice President of Powertrain and Energy Engineering, and Rohan Patel, Head of Public Policy and Business Development, announced they were leaving the company simultaneously.
In addition to the 15,000 fired Tesla employees and the two executives who left the company on April 15, there are reports that Elon Musk has also fired the entire executive team in charge of the company’s next-generation 4680 battery.
Since then, some Tesla managers who worked directly with Elon Musk have been airing their dirty laundry in public. One executive speaking about Musk called the Tesla founder a “pigeon CEO,” the Tesla manager added, “Musk comes in, criticizes us, and goes.”
Publications that have examined Tesla’s new internal organizational charts report that Musk has personally overtaken most of the duties of the departing executives, with 35 managers now personally reporting to Elon Musk.
And it appears that this recent upheaval at Tesla, coupled with the abysmal delivery numbers and upcoming challenging earnings call, are the reason why Elon Musk has decided to cancel his India trip.
All the shakeups taking place at Tesla alone would be enough to force anyone to alter his/her schedule; however, Musk is also battling another major Tesla shareholder vote.
A few weeks ago, a Delaware judge upended Musk’s 2018 CEO compensation package, which granted Musk $56 billion in Tesla options.
In her ruling, the judge stated that Tesla’s board of directors, which negotiated this compensation package on behalf of Tesla investors, was highly influenced by Musk and that it is in shareholders' best interest to nullify the entire compensation package.
This ruling means that Elon Musk has worked at Tesla for the past five years without compensation. The Delaware court ruling makes Musk the lowest-paid executive in the country.
Tesla has appealed this ruling and vowed to keep fighting in the appeals courts; however, in the meantime, Tesla’s board of directors (BoD) has decided to move Tesla’s incorporation state from Delaware to Texas and ask shareholders to reinstate Musk’s 2018 compensation package through a shareholders’ vote.
When Musk’s compensation package was put to shareholder vote back in 2018, it passed with an overwhelming majority; however, now that Musk has emerged as a highly political figure and the once ambitious goals have already been met, the Tesla CEO's compensation package is facing an uphill battle.
In addition to Musk’s increasingly political nature, some of the reservations by Tesla shareholders to award Musk his compensation package stem from the fact that since 2018, Musk has acquired or created two more companies in which he is directly involved.
This has led to questions about whether Musk needs to pay more attention to his Tesla duties and focus less on his other companies.
All these factors appear to have pushed Musk to postpone his India trip and proclaim online that he has “very heavy Tesla duties.”
In the coming weeks, Tesla will undergo significant structuring, shareholders will vote on whether to reinstate Elon Musk’s 2018 compensation package, and the company will post financial results and conduct an earnings call for the first quarter of the year.
Every one of the activities mentioned above has a chance to affect Tesla’s stock price significantly in the short term, and we will be sure to keep you posted as we learn more about Tesla’s activities.
Until then, visit our site, torquenews.com/Tesla, regularly for the latest updates.
So, what do you think? Are you surprised to learn Elon Musk has decided to postpone his India visit? Also, what do you make of all the big changes and major decisions that have taken place or will take place in the coming weeks at Tesla? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. What's your opinion about Elon canceling his India trip? Please click the Add New Comment red link below to add your comment.
Image: screenshot from Elon Musk’s TED interview
For more information, check out: Recently Let Go Tesla Executives Are Airing Their Dirty Laundry in Public, Call Elon Musk a “Pigeon CEO”
Tinsae Aregay has been following Tesla and The evolution of the EV space on a daily basis for several years. He covers everything about Tesla, from the cars to Elon Musk, the energy business, and autonomy. Follow Tinsae on Twitter at @TinsaeAregay for daily Tesla news.
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It is unjust that a judge…
It is unjust that a judge should over rule the choice of shareholders and deny Elon Musk the reward for his genius and dedication.
Why should it be an uphill struggle to be paid as agreed ? I fail to understand!