Tesla’s Cybertruck Head Exits. What It Means for the Stock.

Coming into Monday trading, Tesla stock was up about 6% year to date and up about 34% over the past 12 months. (AFP via Getty Images)

Key Points

• Tesla stock rose1.3% in early trading after two days of declines, despite news of the Cybertruck program head’s departure.
• Siddhant Awasthi, Tesla’s head of the Cybertruck program, announced his departure after eight years with the company.
• Cybertruck sales in the third quarter were 5,385 units in the U.S., a 63% year-over-year decrease, with year-to-date sales down 38%.

Tesla stock closed higher on Monday as the Elon Musk-led company arrested two days of steep declines.

Some Cybertruck news doesn’t appear to be affecting early trading.

Tesla stock rose 3.7%, closing at $445.23, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.5% and 0.8%, respectively.

The move came after Siddhant Awasthi, Tesla’s head of the Cybertruck program, announced on LinkedIn that he was leaving the company after eight years.

“When I started as an intern, I never dreamed I’d one day have the opportunity to lead the Cybertruck program and bring it to reality,” wrote Awasthi. “It’s been an absolute privilege filled with mostly high-intensity days—working alongside talented, driven, and truly rockstar colleagues across Tesla. I want to extend a huge thanks to Elon, all Tesla leaders (past and present), mentors, and our amazing customers (huge shoutout!) who’ve fueled my drive and kept me pushing forward through it all.”

Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment about the departure.

The Cybertruck has been a disappointment for the company. Tesla unveiled the oddly shaped pickup in 2019 but didn’t ship it until 2023.

Tesla amassed hundreds of thousands of preorders for the vehicle, and Musk hoped to ship 200,000 a year, but volumes like that just haven’t arrived. In the third quarter, Tesla sold 5,385 Cybertrucks in the U.S., down 63% year over year, according to Cox Automotive. Those quarterly results brought year-to-date sales to about 16,000 vehicles, down 38% year over year.

Management turnover below the C-suite doesn’t always move stocks. Changes at Tesla, however, tend to attract attention because it is one of the most valuable companies in the world, with a volatile stock, led by the world’s richest person.

Musk is worth almost $500 billion and has the potential to get a lot wealthier in the coming years. Tesla shareholders recently voted to award the CEO some 425 million incentive-laden stock options worth about $1 trillion if all performance incentives are hit over the next decade.

It is an unprecedented pay package, highlighting how important shareholders consider him to be for the success of the company.

Truist analyst William Stein offered some “fun facts” about the pay in a Monday report: “A trillion dollars is larger than the annual economic output of all but the 15 largest GDP countries on earth, is worth more than the annual earnings of the entire workforce of New York state, is equivalent [to] the annual compensation of 66 million minimum wage US workers, [and] when stacked in $100 bills, stretches 631 million miles high.” He rates Tesla shares Hold and has a $406 price target for the stock.

Coming into Monday trading, Tesla stock was down for two consecutive days, falling more than 3% both times. Declines still left shares up more than 30% over the past three months, up 6% year to date, and up about 34% over the past 12 months.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com