Elon Musk liked a post on X that wrapped up a difficult day for Tesla. The post read: Elon re-enters wartime CEO mode. Musk also changed his X profile picture back to the Devil’s Champion costume he wore in 2022 for Halloween. The wartime post by Tesla insider @ChrisZheng001 comes after the company announced a major reduction to its global workforce by over 10%. This decision affects roughly 14,000 employees across various levels and departments. Musk also said goodbye to several long-term, key executives.
Musk’s Wartime Shift: A Strategic Necessity
The concept of a "wartime CEO" versus a "peacetime CEO" originates from Ben Horowitz, a renowned venture capitalist and co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz. In his book, "The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers," Horowitz describes a wartime CEO as a leader who operates under conditions of extreme stress and competition, making tough, fast decisions necessary for survival. This contrasts with a peacetime CEO focusing on expansion, culture, and development during more stable periods.
About every 5 years, we need to reorganize and streamline the company for the next phase of growth
Musk's recent re-adoption of the wartime CEO posture is a strategic maneuver as Tesla faces significant internal and external challenges. With the electric vehicle market becoming increasingly competitive and Tesla initiating major projects like the Robotaxi, Musk’s leadership style has aligned with these high-stakes circumstances.
Executive Departures, Overhauling Workforce
The company plans to overhaul its workforce, reducing its size by over 10 percent to eliminate redundancy and enhance productivity. Simultaneously, Tesla is pushing forward with significant technological innovations that promise to redefine its future. Such intense transformation and challenge periods necessitate a wartime approach, where decisiveness and direct action are paramount.
The layoffs coincide with the departure of several high-profile executives, including Drew Baglino, Senior Vice President of Powertrain and Energy, who had been with Tesla for 18 years, and Rohan Patel, Vice President of Public Policy and Business Development and an eight-year veteran of Tesla. Both executives have decided to leave the company to focus on personal priorities and have no immediate plans for future engagements.
The Role of a Wartime CEO at Tesla
Musk focuses sharply on navigating Tesla through these turbulent times as a wartime CEO. This includes making hard decisions on layoffs, streamlining operations, and prioritizing critical projects over others. Musk noted in his layoff announcement to staff via email.
There is nothing I hate more, but it must be done. This will enable us to be lean, innovative, and hungry for the next growth phase cycle.
However, adopting a wartime mentality may impact Tesla's corporate culture, potentially leading to a more hierarchical and less collaborative environment in the short term. Musk is also aware of that and addressed it in the same email, stating: For those remaining, I would like to thank you in advance for the difficult job that remains ahead. We are developing some of the most revolutionary technologies in auto, energy, and artificial intelligence. As we prepare the company for the next growth phase, your resolve will make a huge difference in getting us there.
Conclusion: Preparing for Tesla’s Next Big Leap
As Tesla continues under Musk’s wartime leadership, the emphasis is on rapid adaptation and the successful rollout of new technologies. The company's ability to manage these changes effectively and maintain its competitive edge in the electric vehicle market will be crucial. The ultimate goal of this wartime approach is to ensure that Tesla not only survives the current challenges but emerges stronger and more innovative, ready to lead the next phase of growth in the automotive and energy sectors.
This shift back to wartime CEO mode is a critical strategy for Musk and Tesla. It signals a period of intense focus and strategic recalibration aimed at securing Tesla’s position as a leader in the global push for sustainable transport and energy solutions.
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on the latest Tesla news, upcoming features and software updates.
It was a rainy April 1st when a news-searching author went on a delve into the depths of April Fools to find fact from falsehood. And while we found a lot of fantastic jokes, we also found some good ideas.
So, with a shoutout to MarcoRP on X, whose April Fool’s Joke gave us a good run for our money for a couple of minutes, we thought to ourselves - what would a Cybercab Charging Station / Cleaning Hub really look like?
Cybercab Wireless Charging Sites
Now, before continuing, we’d like to point out that the image up top is a joke from Marco - it isn’t an accurate or real site map submission from Tesla. However, it gave us the impetus to think critically about what is required for a Robotaxi fleet, based primarily on the Cybercab, to be able to service a city.
Requirements
Tesla will likely need to charge a small fleet of Cybercabs at a single time and in a single place. That means that the site needs to be large enough to cover a major metro area while also still being compact enough to not cost too much money to build out.
In addition, we need to factor in charge times. The Cybercab is likely to launch with a battery around 50 kWh, which will result in a range of approximately 300 miles. With that much range, the average Cybercab may not need to charge more than once or at all during daytime shifts, so instead, most of the vehicles will charge overnight.
MarcoRP
Math and Charge Times
The overnight charging means that most of these vehicles could be charged slowly. When we did some back-of-the-napkin math last year, we determined that Tesla’s wireless charger will likely peak around 17 kW (for comparison, Tesla’s Wall Connector at 32 amps charges at about 7 kW). If we scale Tesla’s wireless charger down slightly to 10 kW, accounting for some energy loss and the potential size of the site, that means a Cybercab will be able to charge in about 5 hours.
Tesla’s upcoming V4 Supercharger unit can currently handle 1.5MW per cabinet, but this slower-speed charging is A/C, not DC, which means there is a step-down loss of about 3-5%. Let’s make that a comfortable 10% for any other overages, but we can estimate around 1.35MW of power. That 1.3MW will easily handle charging up to 100 Cybercabs at once - all wirelessly, using Tesla’s unique beam-forming and beam-steering technology to keep efficiency high at every single stall.
Within about 5 hours, a whole fleet of 100 Cybercabs could be charged overnight when electricity rates are cheaper and still be out in time for the morning commute.
While this is all just hypothetical, it really does make sense that Tesla will be establishing these sites that won’t require much space or a ton of energy.
Tesla recently curtained off a large section of the parking garage at Giga Texas, as well as some of their chargers on the eastern end of the facility, leading us to believe they may just be testing this at scale internally.
There’s a lot to look forward to with Tesla’s V4 Supercharger deployment coming this year and with Robotaxi launching in just a couple of months.
Tesla released its Q1 2025 delivery and production numbers this morning, reporting 336,681 vehicles delivered and 362,615 produced—marking the company’s weakest quarter since 2022. Deliveries declined 13% year-over-year and fell well short of Wall Street estimates, which ranged from 360,000 to 370,000. Some analysts had forecast as many as 407,000 units.
Despite the shortfall, Tesla stock is actually up about 4% this morning, not only suggesting the market had already priced in weaker performance, but that this may be seen as the low point for the company. Tesla began delivering its refreshed Model Y in March, and production across all four Gigafactories was impacted by several weeks of downtime as Tesla retooled lines to accommodate the newer model. However, there’s no doubt that there is some brand impact from Elon Musk.
Comparing Numbers
Most of the deliveries—323,800 units—came from the Model 3 and Model Y lineup, while the “Other Models” category (including the Cybertruck, Model S, and Model X) accounted for 12,881 deliveries. That’s a 31% drop for Model 3/Y and a sharper 45% drop for the Other Models category compared to the previous quarter. However, comparing it to a more applicable Q1 2024, these numbers are only down about 13% for the Model 3/Y and down about 24% for the Model S/X and Cybertruck.
In terms of production, Tesla built 345,454 Model 3/Y vehicles and 17,161 from its “Other Models” line. The company attributed the production drop to the Model Y changeover but said the ramp is “going well.” This still leaves a large gap between production and delivery numbers, although they may not be as large as many had feared.
Q1 2025
Q1 2024
Q4 2024
Model 3/Y Deliveries
323,800
369,783
471,930
Model 3/Y Production
345,454
412,376
436,718
Other Models Deliveries
12,881
17,027
23,640
Other Models Production
17,161
20,995
22,727
Total Deliveries
336,681
386,810
495,570
Total Production
362,615
433,371
459,445
Cybertruck
One major weak point in Tesla’s numbers seems to be Cybertruck deliveries. While Tesla previously expected the Cybertruck to sell more than 250k units per year, we’re already seeing a decline in numbers. This is likely due to several factors, including the higher-than-expected price point of the truck, the unavailability of the RWD model, and the Cybertruck’s polarizing design, which may attract unwanted attention right now.
While the Cybertruck was ramping up production in 2024, making the lower numbers reasonable, the deliveries for Q1 2025 dropped drastically compared to the previous quarter. Cybertruck deliveries are estimated to be in the 5- 6k unit range for the quarter.
The good news to take away here is that the Single Motor variant of the Cybertruck appears to be nearing release. The price of the RWD version is expected to be about $60k USD before any incentives.
Q1 Earnings Call
Tesla announced their quarterly numbers this morning and posted on social media that they’ll live stream their Earnings Call on April 22nd.
This post was later edited to change “Q1 Earnings Call” to “Q1 Company Update.” It’s not clear whether there’s any significance in this change, but it could mean that Tesla has more to announce during the call.
The Company Update will occur on April 22nd at 2:30 PM PT / 5:30 PM ET. The standard Q&A session with executives and Musk is expected to follow the release of additional financial results for the quarter.
Tesla is set to launch its long-awaited Robotaxi service in June, and a cheaper, mass-market model is also planned for this year. With delivery numbers coming in soft and the refreshed Model Y just hitting the road, all eyes will be on forward-looking commentary during the update.
