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Elon Musk has reportedly fired Omead Afshar, Tesla’s head of manufacturing and operations in North America and Europe, according to Forbes<\/em><\/a>. Both CNBC<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>and Bloomberg<\/em><\/a> corroborated the report. Afshar’s exit follows Milan Kovac, the head of engineering on Tesla’s Optimus robot, who left the company in early June<\/a>.<\/p>\n Afshar was promoted to the role last year, Bloomberg <\/em>reports<\/a>, after working for multiple different Musk-owned companies since 2017. The timing of his exit isn’t particularly surprising given the trouble Tesla has faced selling cars. Sales in Europe have shrunk for a fifth consecutive month and the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association reports that registrations of new Teslas<\/a> dropped by nearly 41 percent in May. The company is also struggling in China, where sales fell 15 percent<\/a> in the same month.<\/p>\n While Musk appears to be holding Afshar responsible, the blame clearly lies at Musk’s feet. Helping to fund<\/a> President Donald Trump’s re-election in the US, running the destructive DOGE cost-cutting efforts<\/a> after his election and just generally maintaining a noxious public presence have permanently tainted Musk and his companies. While SpaceX still benefits from government contracts<\/a>, Tesla’s sales are vulnerable to public opinion, something the Tesla Takedown movement<\/a> has been leveraging to its advantage with protests outside of the company’s dealerships.<\/p>\n Firing Afshar, leaving his position<\/a> in the US government and launching Tesla’s robotaxi service<\/a> in Austin are all different attempts from Musk to change the narrative around Tesla. It’s not clear yet whether they’ll actually help.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n