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Eberhard has been the public face of Tesla for many years now. (http://www.mercurynews.com/drive/ci_6607742)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Martin_Eberhard_-_Tesla_CEO_-_used_to_be.jpgMatt Nauman - Mercury News - Aug. 12, 2007

Martin Eberhard with the head-turning, all-electric Tesla Roadster. Although AER (all-electric range) has been shortened from original estimates, production schedules and deliveries appear to be on track. So what happened?

Tesla Motors, the Silicon Valley electric-car startup, has replaced Martin Eberhard, its chief executive officer, with Michael Marks. Marks, the former CEO of Flextronics, was an early investor in Tesla.

The San Carlos company will deliver its first car, a two-seat, zero-emissions roadster, later this year. It has taken more than 500 deposits for the $98,000 car and says it will produce a larger, cheaper electric car later in the decade.

Tesla will post the news, as a message from its chairman, Elon Musk, on its Web site Monday morning.
Eberhard is a co-founder of Tesla, and has been its CEO since 2003. He’ll continue as the company’s president of technology “and focus on the success of the Roadster program as well as the advancement of our core technologies,” Musk’s message says … http://www.mercurynews.com/drive/ci_6607742

Maybe he wasn't drinking the koolaid the board wanted him to.

Burnout from dealing with investor's egos? Bringing in a CEO to focus differently on market development? Did Marks just drop wad of cash on the business?

It sounds like they are keeping Eberhard around as a leader for engineering aspects and the existing product.

Or they are keeping him around because if they got rid of him a lot of investors might decide to go elsewhere. Basically by keeping him around as a token in the "technology" role, it tells investors that the guy with the ideas isn't being put out to pasture. In reality I think that is the case. I think Tesla motors made a mistake.

Keeping him around keeps investors already invested from questioning too much and bailing out, but the change will slow new investors.

There are lots of reasons to do this, one of the key being that a majority shareholders decided they wanted to play leader, or Eberhard being a great PR person and engineer, but not a great in depth CEO when it comes to corporate affairs. There's far too many reasons that could be why the change occured to even postulate a guess that wasn't a shot in the dark.

I think we'll know a lot more in the next few months based on what happens next.

but not a great in depth CEO when it comes to corporate affairs.

It's not uncommon for the person that creates/designs the product to not be the best at runing the company, it's a different mindset.

He is all the way out now. It's a shame, I guess. I wonder where he'll land.

http://blogs.business2.com/greenwombat/2007/12/tesla-motors-fo.html

Sounds like what Apple once did with Steve Jobs. Didn't help them much (this is all before the iPod the iMac and so on).

Though I think they showed Jobs the door.


--des

Hi Rich:

___Follow the first link in the OP as well!

A Honda Civic for the age of global warming (http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/in-the-news/t-a-honda-civic-for-the-age-of-global-warming-7683.html)

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Sounds like what Apple once did with Steve Jobs. It sure does.