From Snapchat Parent to Tesla: Automaker Gains New VP of Engineering

As Tesla’s upper ranks shed members like a bad tennis club, a new executive is poised to tackle the automaker’s engineering portfolio.

Stuart Bowers, formerly the vice president of monetization engineering for social media platform Snapchat’s parent company, Snap, will soon don the title of VP of engineering at Tesla. That’s good news for Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who recently lost — perhaps temporarily — his senior VP of engineering.

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Former Product Chief Nair to Head Ford North America; Armstrong Moves Up

After Monday’s corporate shakeup at Ford Motor Company, which saw former CEO Mark Fields replaced with Jim Hackett and the elevation of Joe Hinrichs and Jim Farley up company ranks, the automaker has announced more appointments.

To fill the job left by Hindrichs, who moved from president of Ford North America to head of global operations, Ford has named its product development boss and chief technical officer as a successor. Raj Nair, 52, will officially take on the role June 1st, reporting to Farley, Ford’s new head of global markets.

Below Nair, a slew of changes are afoot.

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Nissan Wants to Take Control of Mitsubishi Motors: Report

Nissan Motor Company wants to buy a controlling stake in Mitsubishi Motors, according to a report by the Japanese broadcaster NHK.

The deal would see Nissan invest 200 billion yen ($1.84 billion) into the scandal-plagued automaker, giving Nissan control, Bloomberg reports.

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TrueCar Employees Hit With Layoffs Amid Revamp

When TrueCar president and CEO Chip Perry announced a revamp of the car-shopping site, he failed to mention one big change: layoffs.

According to a source and confirmed by TrueCar, an undisclosed number of the company’s employees — mostly located at its headquarters in Santa Monica — received layoff notices yesterday.

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  • Probert They already have hybrids, but these won't ever be them as they are built on the modular E-GMP skateboard.
  • Justin You guys still looking for that sportbak? I just saw one on the Facebook marketplace in Arizona
  • 28-Cars-Later I cannot remember what happens now, but there are whiteblocks in this period which develop a "tick" like sound which indicates they are toast (maybe head gasket?). Ten or so years ago I looked at an '03 or '04 S60 (I forget why) and I brought my Volvo indy along to tell me if it was worth my time - it ticked and that's when I learned this. This XC90 is probably worth about $300 as it sits, not kidding, and it will cost you conservatively $2500 for an engine swap (all the ones I see on car-part.com have north of 130K miles starting at $1,100 and that's not including freight to a shop, shop labor, other internals to do such as timing belt while engine out etc).
  • 28-Cars-Later Ford reported it lost $132,000 for each of its 10,000 electric vehicles sold in the first quarter of 2024, according to CNN. The sales were down 20 percent from the first quarter of 2023 and would “drag down earnings for the company overall.”The losses include “hundreds of millions being spent on research and development of the next generation of EVs for Ford. Those investments are years away from paying off.” [if they ever are recouped] Ford is the only major carmaker breaking out EV numbers by themselves. But other marques likely suffer similar losses. https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fords-120000-loss-vehicle-shows-california-ev-goals-are-impossible Given these facts, how did Tesla ever produce anything in volume let alone profit?
  • AZFelix Let's forego all of this dilly-dallying with autonomous cars and cut right to the chase and the only real solution.