California’s Tesla Motors has announced that it has hired Mike Donoughe, a former Chrysler employee, to head the company’s manufacturing, supply chain and operations. Donoughe was a 26-year veteran of Chrysler and also worked for Mercedes-Benz.
Donoughe’s name might look familiar as the 49-year old recently resigned from leading Chrysler’s Project D, a program that is working to develop Chrysler’s next mid-size sedan.
The hiring of Donoughe shows that Tesla is really moving forward with its passenger car plans as Donoughe is well versed in manufacturing small cars in large volumes. Tesla currently produced the all-electric Roadster, but also plans to launch a hybrid sedan by 2010. A new all-electric model – with a sub-$30,000 price tag – is said to be in the works for 2012, according to Automotive News.



07/09, 1:33 PM
posted by:
RaineMan
So Tesla is really going to make an all-electric Magnum just like that picture the other day showed. That wasn’t a mule… it was the prototype. It makes so much sense now!
07/09, 1:34 PM
posted by:
hateful83
“Donoughe’s name might look familiar as the 49-year old recently resigned from leading Chrysler’s Project D” ,,, that’s the kinda guy I want on my team. “Hey, lets get that guy that jumped ship on Chrysler.”
07/09, 1:41 PM
posted by:
xyunya
I hope it works for Tesla. In reality, there is not a single money manager who will tell you price of the stock on a given date. It either price or date is very estimated and subject to change. To claim that all electric sedan will be available in 2012 for 30K is somewhat like GM practice: bull**** without substance. But it works for GM, who am I to judge?
07/09, 1:50 PM
posted by:
golf4me
Chrysler had manufacturing “experts”…hmm kind of an oxymoron isn’t it? Have you seen the panel gaps on the Avenger & Sebring? wow.
07/09, 2:51 PM
posted by:
xyunya
Caliber screwed pretty good. At least the ones I saw. RAM is in good shape. Avenger and Sebring were errors of M-B alliance.
07/09, 3:30 PM
posted by:
johnnycanuck
Ditto on the Caravans too, xyunya. My company ride is a very nice driver.
One thing for sure, after 26 years with Chrysler this guy has probably seen it all. If nothing else he should be able to tell Tesla exactly what not to do.
07/09, 8:54 PM
posted by:
Catiadesigner
Donoughe’s an idiot, I worked for him at Chrysler. He talks lots but couldn’t engineer his way out of a paper bag. To call him an expert is an insult to every expert out there. Just another example of how those who get to the top will always stay there no matter how badly they do. xyunya you know not of what you speak, the Sebring and the Avenger were nothing to do with Daimler, they were Chrysler management all the way hence the crappy quality.
Daimler got out because they knew there was no way they were gonna change attitudes at Chrysler, both of management and worker, and its those attitudes that are the reason Chrylser is in the crap today.
In reply to johnnycanuck, the best thing for Tesla to do is the exact opposite of what Donoughe says and they should be fine.
All this just smacks of getting an industry “name” on board to give idiot investors a warm glow.
07/09, 9:25 PM
posted by:
johnnycanuck
Catiadesigner: love insider stuff, thanks for the post. I gather since you’re saying they’re better off without this guy, there might be cause for a little optimism in the Chrysler camp? Or is it a case of tossing one bad apple and ignoring the fact that the whole orchard’s still rotten?
07/10, 11:10 AM
posted by:
Catiadesigner
Very well put, Chrysler is still full of ineptitude.
I remember a town hall where an exec spent nearly an hour trying to convince everyone that he was the right man for the job and how he was going to help the company engineer their way out of trouble, trouble was everyone knew he only got the job because he was another exec’s wife’s brother in law.
As I have said in another thread, Chrysler have nothing in the pipeline, no new models that matter, all I know of is the redesign of the D segment cars, Avenger and Sebring (Which Donoughe was in charge of, until he jumped) and the Grand Cherokee, which is in a mess as the engineers were ordered to add something like 20″ to the length of the vehicle so that it will replace the Commander as well.
Expect the Chrysler brands to be on the market imminently. Oddly enough I believe this is why GM are offloading the Hummer brand now, before Cerberus offload Jeep…
07/10, 12:02 PM
posted by:
subarutecnica
Oh god!
Tesla is going to go down just like Chrysler is. Mannnnn people just dont learn.
Next were going to see instead of the SRT 8 SCT 8 for Short Circuit Technology or something or other.
retarded. Bad move on tesla’s part.
07/10, 12:14 PM
posted by:
johnnycanuck
Catiadesigner: fascinating insight on Hummer and Jeep. Giving GM credit for that much foresight is the only flaw, albeit minor, I can see in your deduction.
07/10, 2:18 PM
posted by:
The Stig
Everyone knows Chrysler cannot build a decent vehicle.
07/11, 9:54 PM
posted by:
Get Real
Hire a failure from a failing company.
Only a Harvard MBA could make a decision like this.
The same MBA’s that have us in the mortgage meltdown.