Tesla loses key engineers
Tesla Motors Inc.'s shares lost nearly a fifth of their value on Friday after the electric car maker said two key engineers had left the company.
The company said Peter Rawlinson, the Palo Alto company's (NASDAQ:TSLA) vice president and chief engineer, and Nick Sampson, who supervised vehicle and chassis engineering, had left this month.
Tesla said that Rawlinson had completed conceptual and design work on the upcoming Model S sedan and that Sampson had transitioned off the project by the time of his departure.
A Daimler AG veteran, Jerome Guillen, is taking over Rawlinson’s duties. A former Volkswagen AG executive, Eric Bach, has also joined the engineering team, reporting to Guillen.
Tesla stock dropped by 19.33 percent to $22.79 on Friday during regular market hours. It regained more than 7 percent of that in the first hour after closing.
The Model S is Tesla's second car, following the iconic Roadster which is going out of production because the Lotus factory that produced the bodies is being shut down.
The electric sedans, with a driving range of 300 miles, are expected to be delivered by mid-year and cost between $57,400 and $92,400, before a $7,500 tax credit.
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