One of the most important executives within the Silicon Valley pure electric car business, Tesla

According to foreign media, one of the most important executives in the Silicon Valley pure electric vehicle business, George Blankenship Georgeblankenship, sales vice president, has mysteriously left the company.

The departure sparked speculation as Tesla was investigated by the U.S. government for a fire accident.

Leaving at a sensitive moment

Tesla's vice president for sales and owner experience, George Blankenship, has resigned, according to BI, a technology website. "From now on, I will be working for the Blankenship family and leaving Tesla completely," he said, announcing the news on his personal LinkedIn homepage on the Blankenship Day. ”

Tesla has not yet released the news, but a former vice president told the US tech blog Siliconbeat that Blankenship would retire and would spend a lot of time with his family.

In 2012, Blankenship, including options awards, amounted to $1.2 million trillion, and he also held 14,300 Tesla, a corresponding market capitalisation of $1.74 million, according to Bloomberg data.

It is understood that Blankenship's career is full of drama, after Apple followed jobs for 6 years, was dug in March 2009 by Microsoft to help it complete the management and strategy of retail stores, but after Microsoft's work for less than 18 months, Blankenship was dug away by Tesla, responsible for the development of retail strategy and build a retail network.

But why in less than 3 years, Blankenship quietly away? This is not reminiscent of Tesla's recent series of storms. First, in October this year, a models in the United States and Mexico collided with an object on the road that caused the battery to fire, and models in the United States 1 months later.

In Tuesday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced a preliminary investigation into more than 10,000 models.

At such a sensitive juncture, Blankenship's sudden departure can be problematic, especially when he joined Tesla 3 years ago, when he said he would work with the smartest people on Earth to make the world a better place.

European channel expansion tested

For Tesla, the most notable loss is undoubtedly the loss of Blankenship's rich experience in sales and channel building, especially as the automaker expands its European and Chinese channels.

Tesla disclosed that, thanks to the start of sales in Europe models, in the third quarter ended September, the European business income reached 146 million U.S. dollars, the year-on-year growth of 18 times times, the proportion of total revenue 34%, second only to the North American region of 66%. Tesla said it would expand sales networks, service centers and supercharger charging stations in North America and Europe.

Tesla hopes to build more local outlets to make Europe a growth point for North America. Tesla is also ready to force in China, after foreign media said the company plans to start supply in China in the first quarter of next year.

Tesla has fallen 37% per cent since September 30, hitting a record high of $194.5 trillion, and the market has evaporated by nearly 9 billion dollars. By the end of Friday, Tesla's market capitalisation was $14.9 billion trillion, ranking 11th in the world's largest 15 auto companies, trailing South Korea's 10th-place car (23.5 billion dollars).