Volkswagen Poaches a Senior Tesla Engineer for Its Electrification Division. This Strengthens the Future of EV's By Showing Increased Dedication by a Major Car Company to Several EV Programs

Tesla loses Model S and Model X program manager to VW in order to 'strengthen their EV position'

Tesla has lost a few executives and senior engineers over the last few months and now another is added to the list. Volkswagen poached a senior Tesla engineer in charge of the Model S and Model X programs. The German automaker announced that Tesla's Matthew Renna is joining the company as 'Vice President of Volkswagen North American Region (NAR)-G4'.

From article, (Volkswagen poached a senior Tesla engineer in charge of the Model S and Model X programs.

[Matthew Renna] will be starting later this month and take over the responsibilities of “managing the NAR-G4 team, steering objectives for the Modular Electrification Toolkit (MEB) line, Volkswagen’s modular system for manufacturing electric vehicles.”

The MEB platform is supporting the series of all-electric vehicles currently known as the I.D. electric vehicles that VW is planning to bring to market starting in 2020.

Hinrich J. Woebcken, CEO of the VW North American Region, commented on hiring Renna:

“Matt brings an outstanding combination of financial acumen, engineering depth and product program management– all within the electric vehicle space. His experience and leadership will be a tremendous asset as we strengthen our electric vehicle position in North America and we are excited to welcome him to Volkswagen.”

Renna commented on his move on LinkedIn:

“I am honored to join the Volkswagen family. Electrification is a mission close to my heart, and I am excited for this new adventure with VW!”

Before joining VW, Renna had been working at Tesla since 2013.

He first started as an electrical engineer and quickly move through the ranks – becoming ‘Model 3 Project Manager’ in 2015 and since 2016, he has been the Model S and Model X program manager, according to his LinkedIn account.

The engineer described the position:

“Managed Model S and X platforms delivering record sales and profitability. Responsibilities spanned from new product ideation through design, supply, manufacturing, finance, and sales. Launched longest range EV (100D), fastest production vehicle (P100D), and highest featured autopilot system to date.”

It’s certainly a loss for Tesla, but it might be a good thing for overall EV development since the MEB platform is expected to enable several high volume all-electric vehicle programs, which are currently rare outside of Tesla.

Now VW gets an engineer with experience in managing two successful electric vehicle programs to bring the new platform to market.)

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Critics: "Launch Every Two Weeks? No Way." SpaceX: "No Problem."

SpaceX reaches the promised land of launching every two weeks

SpaceX has long talked a good game about increasing its launch cadence, but the company now appears to be delivering in a big way. After two launches in four days, the California-based company has now flown seven rockets in 2018-six Falcon 9 missions and one Falcon Heavy.

From article, (SpaceX has long talked a good game about increasing its launch cadence, but the company now appears to be delivering in a big way. After two launches in four days, the California-based company has now flown seven rockets in 2018—six Falcon 9 missions and one Falcon Heavy. That breaks down to one launch every 13 days this year.

This is a significant number because it brings the company within its longstanding goal of launching a rocket every two weeks. Indeed, at this pace, SpaceX will launch a total of 27 rockets in 2018, which is consistent with expectations set by the company's president and chief operating officer, Gwynne Shotwell.

 At the end of 2017, when the company was in the midst of shattering all of its previous launch records by flying 18 missions, Shotwell said SpaceX would aim for more in the coming year. “We will increase our cadence next year about 50 percent,” Shotwell told Space News. “We’ll fly more next year than this year, knock on wood, and I think we will probably level out at about that rate, 30 to 40 per year.”

About a decade ago, when SpaceX began publishing its launch prices online, it heavily undercut its rivals in the commercial launch market. With the low price of about $60 million per launch, SpaceX built up a lengthy manifest of customers—creating a backlog of nearly 100 missions by some accounts. In response to the upstart, competitors of SpaceX criticized the company for failing to deliver on ambitious promises of dozens of launches per year. Why buy from SpaceX, they said, if a satellite must wait years to get into space?


And for a time, this was true. From 2012 through 2016, SpaceX averaged fewer than five successful launches of its Falcon 9 rocket per year. (Catastrophic failures in 2015 shortly after launch and on the launch pad in 2016 did not help). But last year, with no failures, SpaceX finally began to master the art of supply lines, in-house production, engine-testing workflow, and more to reach 18 launches.

This increase does not appear to have been a fluke. With its early run of success this year, and now three launch pads at its disposal in Florida and California, the company is showing that it can make another sizable leap in cadence, laying to rest the doubts of rivals who said SpaceX could never fly out its manifest.

"SpaceX is proving what commercial space advocates have always believed, that more affordable, reliable, and plentiful access to space will change the level and nature of demand for space transportation," said James Muncy, founder and president of PoliSpace, an independent space policy consultancy. "It’s not just that SpaceX can launch 30 or more times a year—and they will keep increasing their flight rate in 2019—it’s that demand is increasing, too. That’s great news for all emerging launch providers and for the government if they’re allowed to buy intelligently.")

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