Tesla’s head of the Cybertruck program, Siddhant Awasthi, announced that he is leaving after more than 8 years at the company.
Awasthi is a good example of Tesla’s transition into fostering inside leadership rather than outside hiring.
For better or worse, over the last 5 years, Tesla has virtually had no significant outside hires into high-level leadership roles. It almost exclusively promotes from within.
Awasthi worked on a hyperloop school program, interned at Tesla, and joined the company straight out of school in 2018. Within 2 years, he became an engineering manager. Within 3 years, he was a senior technical program manager in charge of the Cybertruck’s 48-volt architecture.
To say that this is unusual at a major company would be an understatement.
By late 2022, ahead of Tesla’s planned start of Cybertruck production, he was made head of the electric truck program.
He was in charge of the production ramp and future improvements to the electric pickup truck, which has since become a commercial flop. Tesla is having trouble selling 25,000 Cybertrucks per year, despite planning for an annual production capacity of 250,000 trucks.
Today, the young engineer announced on X:
I recently made one of the hardest decisions of my life to leave Tesla after an incredible run.
He tried to “sum up” his career at Tesla in a paragraph:
It’s tough to sum up eight years in just a few lines, but what a thrilling journey it’s been: ramping up Model 3, working on Giga Shanghai, developing new electronics and wireless architectures, and delivering the once-in-a-lifetime Cybertruck—all before hitting 30. The icing on the cake was getting to dive back into Model 3 work toward the end.
In addition to his duties as Cybertruck program manager, Awasthi was also made in charge of the Model 3 program last summer.
Tesla has recently completely revamped its vehicle program organization following a wave of layoffs last year and many subsequent departures amid a talent exodus at the company.
Electrek’s Take
Top comment by Aigars Mahinovs
Top people in an important development program NOT having the life experience and also NOT having the work experience of at least participating in projects of similar scale, scope and topic (never mind leading them) is a very good predictor of project failure. The kid is not fully to blame for the failure, those who put him into this impossible position, knowing his lack of experience are actually to blame for the overall project failure. And that is what is coming from the very top.
While I’m using Awasthi as an example of Tesla prioritizing internal promotions rather than attracting outside talent, I’m not blaming the failures of the Cybertruck program on him. The blame should always be placed at the very top.
The program failed because someone at Tesla —likely Elon —was way too optimistic about what it could accomplish, and ultimately, what Tesla unveiled in 2019 had very little to do with what it brought to production in 2023.
It had less range, fewer cool features, and all for a way higher price.
But it’s also far from an endorsement of Tesla’s organizational approach, far from it.
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