Tesla and tech mogul CEO Elon Musk have ousted one of his top assistants, Omead Afshar, part of a spreading tide of high-level departures at the electric vehicle manufacturer. Afshar, President of Manufacturing and Operations, was dismissed just a few months after his promotion, reflecting Tesla’s continuing internal reorganization and increasing business strains.
Who Is Omead Afshar?
Afshar is an Iranian American who graduated in 2009 from the University of California, Irvine, with a degree in Biomedical Engineering with a concentration in Mechanical Engineering. He started working as a ski instructor for Mammoth Mountain before joining the tech and engineering industry.
He came to Tesla in 2017 as a project manager in the CEO’s office. Afshar, who has been praised for his close alignment with Musk’s vision, rapidly climbed the corporate ladder. He was instrumental in getting the Gigafactory in Texas up and running, a 10-million-square-foot factory that became a bedrock of Tesla’s manufacturing capacity. Afshar led in 2022 as well at SpaceX, and helped facilitate Musk’s acquisition and reorganization of Twitter, later known as X.
Afshar was cherished in-house for his hard work. In one of his posts, he remembered “living in the factory at this time, really 24/7” with the 2018 Model 3 production surge. Just days before his firing, he tweeted on X, calling Tesla’s robotaxi launch in Austin an “absolutely historic day for Tesla” and directly thanked Musk.
Why Was He Fired?
Afshar’s dismissal occurs as sales are falling, investors are worried, and competition is heightened. Tesla car deliveries fell 13% worldwide in Q1, and profits fell 71%. In May alone, sales in the EU dropped 40%, as consumers migrated towards cheaper or newer electric cars, including Chinese models.
Insiders informed Reuters that Afshar had assumed more responsibilities earlier this year, as Musk concentrated on more political interests in Washington. Significantly, some analysts believe Musk’s alignment with Donald Trump’s cost-reduction campaign diverted his attention away from Tesla’s core automotive business.
As Tesla attempts to shift its focus to AI, autonomous vehicles, and robotics, investors are skeptical. Tesla stock has fallen 19% in 2025, lagging behind the Nasdaq and other large tech stocks. Tesla’s rollout of its autonomous taxi in Austin on Sunday drew both enthusiasm and skepticism over the safety and readiness of the technology.
Continuing Executive Exodus
Afshar is only the most recent of a succession of top-flight resignations. Over the past 14 months, Tesla has lost senior leaders in robotics, battery technology, and public policy. Among them are Milan Kovac, who was in charge of the Optimus robot program, and Vineet Mehta, Tesla’s head of batteries, who stepped down in May.
As Tesla moves through its most volatile moment in years, the resignation of one of Elon Musk’s most trusted lieutenants is a key turning point in the company’s new leadership and direction.