Aside from being the world’s first successful mass production EV-maker, Tesla is now also the first car manufacturer to completely dissolve its PR department.
A high level source within the company told Electrek: “We no longer have a PR team” – which explains why Tesla hasn’t been replying to press inquiries for several months now. However, while the core global team working in the U.S. has been dissolved, the company still has a few PR managers in Europe and Asia.
Is this a good thing though? One could argue that getting your questions answered from time to time by Elon Musk directly on Twitter isn’t the most productive strategy Tesla could employ, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be an issue.
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The last person to be in charge of Tesla’s PR department was Keely Sulprizio, who left the U.S. carmaker last year in December. After her departure, pretty much every other member of Tesla’s PR team in the U.S. either left or took on a different role.
For example, Alan Cooper, the most senior member of Tesla’s communications team, became ‘Director of Demand Generation’, although he has since left the company altogether. Meanwhile, Gina Antonini, a senior communications manager, became Director of External Relations and Employee Experience in February of this year.
Also in February, Tesla communication exec Alexander Ingram became Content Lead at the Design Studio, while April saw Danielle Meister (senior global communications manager) leave for WhatsApp.
In the end, this is a curious decision, but it’s unlikely Tesla would agree to give up on its PR department if the numbers wouldn’t back up such a move. Besides, while this is a first for the car industry, it’s certainly nothing new as far as tech giants are concerned (Apple uses a similar strategy), which Tesla pretty much is first and foremost.
