Tesla Motors Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk is prepared to fire overseas executives, people with knowledge of the matter said, after weak Chinese sales of the company’s luxury electric cars cast doubt on his ambitious global expansion plans. Tesla sold about 120 cars in China last month, one of the sources told Reuters, well below the company’s aggressive targets. Musk has previously said he expected China sales could rival those in the United States as early as 2015.
I’ve been told that the email in question is old and being inaccurately reported though the sentiment is correct (albeit late and already reported). Tesla’s China Head Veronia Wu was excused in December as were other members of the group. Old news.
As for the 120 Tesla Model S sales in all of January, I’ve been told that Tesla has had a 120 car/WEEK run rate at the beginning of the year which is traditionally slow until the Chinese New Year. That would put the January total closer to 500 units. That’s still not up to Tesla’s expectations. CEO Elon Musk said China could be Tesla’s biggest market by the end of the year.
Clearly Tesla isn’t there yet but statements last month by Musk seemed to indicate that Tesla knew what it had to do to improve the situation.
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