Blog Two Senior Manufacturing Engineers Have Left Tesla

Two of Tesla’s senior manufacturing engineers have left the company.

Jason Mendez, senior director for manufacturing engineering, and Will McColl, senior manager for equipment engineering, both left the company in recent weeks. The moves were first reported by Jalopnik.

Mendez and McColl were reportedly closely involved with manufacturing the Model 3, which has suffered frustrating delays for Tesla and its customers.

Mendez is a 12-year veteran of the company, while McColl was at Tesla for more than three years.

In a post on LinkedIn, McColl said:

It was an action-packed 7 years of automation equipment design and I will truly miss the team. I will treasure our countless moments of laughter as we fearlessly dismantled the edifice of “impossible!”. I’m continually inspired by my colleagues’ resolve, and I wish them strength as they ramp and refine Model 3. It’s an amazing car!

As for me, I’m preparing for the next venture and challenge. I’ve got many complexities to unravel in the move back from Germany, but I’m very excited to return to the US in the coming months. Stay tuned!

Given Telsa’s focus on scaling manufacturing of the Model 3, it’s curious to see two senior members of the team exit at such an important time. It’s not immediately clear what led to the departures.

 

 

[Ed Hart]

This is probably not an important story....other than to confirm that Tesla has attracted some very great people who have developed very valuable skills....making them very valuable in the open market when incumbent auto makers are looking for new, critical electric vehicle talent.

 

[BaieFine]

"Given Telsa’s focus on scaling manufacturing of the Model 3, it’s curious to see two senior members of the team exit at such an important time. It’s not immediately clear what led to the departures."

Really? The launch has been a very public failure......

 

[jeffro01]

The launch has been a very public failure......

That not only is a stretch of a statement to make, it's borderline untruthful...

Jeff

 

[SO16]

"Given Telsa’s focus on scaling manufacturing of the Model 3, it’s curious to see two senior members of the team exit at such an important time. It’s not immediately clear what led to the departures."

Really? The launch has been a very public failure......

For some reason the press and many haters are interpreting it as a failure. If one objectively looks at the time from concept to production, it’s within industry averages. And of course a company with a century of infrastructure is going to build something quicker than a company barely a decade old. People who are dissing on this really either have no clue what it takes to build an auto company (especially with new supply chains and new massive amounts of new components like batteries), has an agenda or just plain want attention.

The only issue is Tesla self inflicting these deadlines. They often understate the time needed. That’s their only major issue. The rest is just noise.

In a year, none of this production nonsense will even be an issue. You don’t hear of MX or MS production issues anymore. In the end, none of it truly mattered. People still love their Teslas. (Me included.)

 

[Electroman]

Really? The launch has been a very public failure......

Thats a ridiculous, incorrect, insensitive and flippant statement. Musk's aggressive targets and timelines aside, the concept to production has been incredibly quick.

And have you guys also noticed that given that there around maybe 4000 M3s out there, we haven't heard of any major issues, or even anything significant worth noticing. That in itself is a great achievement.

 

[bro1999]

That not only is a stretch of a statement to make, it's borderline untruthful...

Jeff

When the CEO states production of 200k is the goal, and the company ends up not even attaining 2% of that goal, I would consider that a failure.

 

[Electroman]

How is it a failure if they are 3 or 6 months behind their stated aggressive time targets?

Their goal is to make an affordable car with long range that is world class. They have achieved it by all accounts and reviews. They are behind on the volume production timelines. Not that they will never achieve those volumes, just that they are delayed in the ramp-up.

Big deal.

You know what is a big failure? Ford and Toyota and Honda and other German giants twiddling their thumbs and doing glorious press releases on future EV models - now that is frigging failure they all should be ashamed of

 

[jeffro01]

When the CEO states production of 200k is the goal, and the company ends up not even attaining 2% of that goal, I would consider that a failure.

Why am I not surprised you'd have this kind of a reply?...

Jeff

 

[SO16]

When the CEO states production of 200k is the goal, and the company ends up not even attaining 2% of that goal, I would consider that a failure.

I guess if that’s your main metric of success, then ok, they failed. The metrics I care more about are having a good product. And so far I’d say it’s a glowing success. I can wait an extra year for something that is good. A timeline is just an estimate. Again, in a year when this is ironed out, few people are going to care about these delays right now. But if the car was bad out the gate, that would be remembered.

The long term goal and a good product is what matters. Not being late by a handful of months.