Big names are leaving Tesla. An analyst says Elon Musk has to quickly lay out what the layoffs mean.

• Elon Musk has been urged to lay out a vision for Tesla as senior staff leave amid layoffs.
• An analyst called the departure of one executive a "gut punch" to investor confidence.

Elon Musk must set out a vision for Tesla after investors were spooked by high-profile departures amid layoffs, an analyst says.

Tesla stock fell 5.6% on Monday after Elon Musk announced over the weekend that more than 10% of its workforce would be laid off.

The Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said Wall Street needed to know the "rationale for the cost-cutting, the strategy going forward, product roadmap, and an overall vision from Musk" next week on Tesla's investor conference call.

Ives singled out the "gut punch" loss of Drew Baglino, Tesla's head of powertrain and electrical engineering, who said in an X post on Monday that he'd made the "difficult decision" to leave the company after 18 years.

"He was instrumental in the Powertrain and Energy initiatives at Tesla and was viewed by many as key to the Model 2 initiative over the next few years. The pressure on the stock today is being exacerbated by the Baglino news which was very unexpected," Ives said in a note to investors on Monday.

Rohan Patel, the vice president of public policy and business development, also announced his departure on Monday. He wrote a lengthy X post about his departure and thanked Musk and his former colleagues: "The past 8 years at Tesla have been filled with every emotion — but the feeling I have today is utmost gratitude."

Anthony Thurston, a senior manager of cathode materials and manufacturing at Tesla, was laid off, Electrek first reported.

Thurston, who ran a 341-person team, wrote in a LinkedIn post: "Today marks the end of an incredible journey at Tesla. I'm grateful for all the opportunities and experiences that came my way during my time there."

Those departing Tesla worked on critical projects

Both Baglino and Thurston worked on critical projects at Tesla's Texas factory. Electrek reported that Musk wasn't happy with the progress at the facility, which supplies a material named cathode used in battery cells.

Fred Lambert, the editor in chief of Electrek, said on X that he understood Amir Mirshahi, Tesla's director of infrastructure, had also been let go.

Tesla didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

The company's stock has declined by 35% so far this year, and the slide was exacerbated after the company reported a 20% slump in first-quarter sales earlier this month compared with the last three months of 2023. The drop in sales came despite significant price cuts in recent months that have eroded profits.

In the staff memo announcing layoffs, Musk said the job cuts were to help the company become "lean, innovative, and hungry for the next growth phase."

He also said that as Tesla had grown rapidly, there had been some "duplication" of roles. Tesla more than doubled its head count in recent years, with 71,000 employees in 2020 and 140,000 at the end of 2023, regulatory filings show.

The recent exits have come after the company's chief financial officer Zachary Kirkhorn left last August after 13 years.

Tesla has also suffered other recent departures because of the artificial-intelligence talent war. Ethan Knight, a machine-learning scientist who worked on Autopilot, left to join Musk's xAI.

In an X post earlier this month, Musk said Knight was "going to join OpenAI, so it was either xAI or them."