Upstart electric sports car maker Tesla Motors has hired another executive away from the Detroit 3, naming 15-year Ford veteran Deepak Ahuja as CFO.
Tesla also has named Mazda designer Franz von Holzhausen, 40, as its design director. The company expects to announce the hiring Wednesday, Aug. 6, Tesla Vice President Darryl Siry told Automotive News.
Ahuja, 45, led Ford’s small-car product development program, which brought fuel-efficient cars to the automaker’s lineup in the United States.
“Deepak’s experience as CFO of multibillion-dollar business units with global sourcing and manufacturing operations makes him the ideal person to lead our finance organization through the company’s next period of rapid growth,” Tesla CEO Ze’ev Drori said in a statement.
“The addition of another seasoned auto industry executive to the senior management team at Tesla demonstrates that Tesla is focused on combining the best of what Detroit and Silicon Valley has to offer in building the next great American automobile company.”
Previously, Ahuja was CFO of Ford of Southern Africa, where he oversaw the finance, legal and information technology functions. He also had been CFO of Auto Alliance International, a joint venture between Ford and Mazda.
Before joining Mazda in 2005, von Holzhausen held design manager positions at General Motors and Volkswagen. He will report to Tesla Chairman Elon Musk.
Last month, Tesla hired longtime Chrysler executive Mike Donoughe, 49, to head its manufacturing, supply chain and operations. The company said a reason for Donoughe’s hiring was his experience manufacturing small cars at high volumes.
Tesla, headquartered outside San Francisco in the Silicon Valley, is building an all-electric, high-end roadster that retails for $109,000. But the company has said it will sell a five-passenger sedan for less than $60,000 by 2010 and within four years will be able to deliver an all-electric car that will retail for less than $30,000.
