Right off the heels of filing for a $100 million IPO, electric car company Tesla Motors this morning announced that it has hired former Toyota production engineering GM Gilbert Passin to lead the company’s vehicle manufacturing operations as Vice President of Manufacturing.
Passin has 23 years of international automotive experience under his belt, most recently serving as general manager of production engineering for Toyota in North America.
Previously, Passin was vice president of manufacturing at Toyota’s plant in Cambridge, Ontario, which produces over 200,000 automobiles per year.
Passin regards his jump as a ‘once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’.
In a statement, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Passin’s recruitment fits in the company’s plans to significantly ramp up its production capacity (at present, it has produced some 1,000 cars), particularly with respect to the planned Model S sedan. Musk added that his new VP will also help recruit new employees for Tesla’s California manufacturing team.
(Via press release)
Tesla Motors, founded by Elon Musk, Marc Tarpenning and Martin Eberhard, is a company that produces a high-performance electric sports car, and is backed by a number of high-profile investors. Introduced in June 2006 to the public complete with a test drive by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Tesla Roadster is able to go from 0 to 60 in less than 4 seconds (competitive with Porsche and Lamborghini models), while also delivering 100 miles per gallon (double the...
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