Elon Musk finds his Tesla 'scapegoat' after cratering EV sales

Elon Musk has fired one of his top lieutenants at Tesla after the billionaire's White House antics cratered the EV firm's profits and stock price. 

The Tesla chief sacked the company's head of operations in North America and Europe, Omead Afshar, as profits in the two continents struggled. 

It follows a dismal few months that saw Tesla's electric vehicle sales drop for a fifth consecutive month in Europe. 

Worldwide, analysts say that they expect Tesla's EV deliveries to have dropped at least 10 percent in the second quarter. So far this year, Tesla stock is down almost 14 percent. 

Much of that fall may be attributed to the Chinese market, the largest for the electric car company, which saw a 15 percent drop in May alone. 

But Musk is also widely regarded as doing horrendous damage to his car firm by acting as Donald Trump's efficiency chief for the first few months of his presidency.

Musk's businesses faced nationwide boycotts as he took an axe to the federal government's programs through his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

His antics saw the type of liberal, environmentally-conscious driver who'd previously flocked to Tesla shun the brand for electric rivals.

Elon Musk has fired one of his top lieutenants at Tesla after the automaker's sales cratered earlier this year

Tesla's decline comes as Elon Musk faced severe backlash earlier this year due to his affiliation with the Trump White House, which led to boycotts of his companies and firebombings at several Tesla dealerships 

President Trump staged a bizarre White House lawn 'infomercial' to try and drum up interest in the cars and even bought one himself. 

But that further annoyed woke Tesla drivers and likely did little to win around conservative drivers, who tend to favor traditional gas engines. 

Trump announced he's selling his own Tesla Model S after the pair fell out, with the vehicles and their dealerships vandalized and firebombed across the world.  

Musk's decision to sack Afshar ended his 14-year career at Tesla, after he began as an engineer before rising to one of Musk's top lieutenants. 

He was promoted to vice president last October and was tasked with overseeing Europe and North America, but this year's struggles have now seen him axed. 

Last year, a Wall Street Journal profile described him as 'Musk's fixer' and as 'one of the most powerful executives at the electric-car maker.'  

Although Tesla has suffered a poor start to the year, Musk received good news this week as he rolled out a new self-driving 'robotaxi' product, which will soon ferry passengers around the streets of Austin in Texas.  

The debut of the modified Tesla Model Y cars helped increase the share price by nine percent. 

Musk's personal net worth rose $15 billion on Monday as markets reacted to the futuristic product, and he extended his lead as the world's richest man by a staggering $170 billion over Oracle founder Larry Ellison. 

Elon Musk's Tesla rolled out its Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas in a small portion of the city. The rollout saw Tesla's stock price surge nine percent on Monday 

Musk, pictured with his Robotaxi team, celebrated the launch as a 'successful' test despite a number of driving errors being recorded by passengers

Days before he faced the axe, Afshar praised the robotaxi rollout, saying on X on Monday: 'Absolutely historic day for Tesla. This has been *years* of hard work and focus by so many people within the company. 

'Thank you, Elon, for pushing us all!' 

Although some investors said the prototype exceeded expectations, it was not without fault, as some riders said the self-driving Model Y SUVs were turning down the wrong side of the road and stopped to let passengers out on busy intersections. 

The successful rollout of the robotaxi was welcome news for Musk as his other recent vehicle, the Cybertruck, missed its sales goals by a staggering 84 percent this year. 

Sales fell over 50 percent from Q4 in 2024 at 12,900 units to just 6,406 in Q1 of 2025. 

Across the board, estimates of Tesla EV deliveries dropped significantly this quarter, down to 392,800 units compared to 443,956 at the same time last year.