Green Daily

With financial forecasts in the gutter for at least the next few quarters, it would seem almost absurd for the CEO of any company to not initiate stage 5 freak-out mode, and it appears that Tesla Motors is no exception. After a couple weeks of financial bad news raining down on them, Tesla is making a few changes in its corporate lineup, laying off an undisclosed number of workers, and pushing back the release date of its Model S sedan. Ouch.

In a posting on the electric automaker's blog yesterday, Tesla's Elon Musk outlined a few of the changes that Tesla's going through. For one, the company has installed chairman Musk as the new CEO to guide the fledgling automaker through the tough times ahead, keeping the former chief Ze'ev Drori on the board as vice chairman. As far as the much anticipated Model S, Musk says that the crisis will set it back 6 months, but it should still launch in 2011. Phew.

Musk says the company's in a position to be cash flow positive in 6-9 months, and they also have a number of other things going for them -- like a low interest loan from the DOE in early 2009.

[via AutoBlogGreen]