Tesla snaps up Toyota Production Engineer

Tesla Hires Toyota Manufacturing Expert | Business Wire

Tesla Hires Toyota Manufacturing Expert

Gilbert Passin Will Serve as Vice President of Manufacturing for Leading Electric Vehicle Maker


SAN CARLOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tesla Motors announced today that former Toyota production engineering general manager Gilbert Passin will lead Tesla's vehicle manufacturing operations.

“He will also help us recruit the best and the brightest employees for our California manufacturing team.”

Passin brings 23 years of international automotive experience to Tesla. He has led some of the most high-profile divisions at Toyota, Volvo, Mack and projects at Renault across North America and Europe. Most recently, Passin served as general manager of production engineering for Toyota in North America. In spite of the recent recall, Toyota’s manufacturing production process continues to be regarded as one of the most efficient in automotive assembly.

Previously, Passin was vice president of manufacturing at Toyota's plant in Cambridge, Ontario. The award-winning plant produces over 200,000 automobiles per year and is the only Toyota site to produce a Lexus vehicle outside of Japan. It has won accolades from JD Power and is considered one of "Canada's Top 100 Employers." Passin was instrumental in the manufacturing planning and launch of the best-selling Lexus RX luxury SUV. He also launched manufacturing of the award-winning tenth generation Corolla, one of the most popular automotive models worldwide.

“Gilbert’s proven ability to successfully develop and produce quality vehicles at the world's top automakers makes him a critical addition to Tesla as we build our production capacity, particularly with respect to manufacturing the planned Model S sedan," said Tesla CEO Elon Musk. "He will also help us recruit the best and the brightest employees for our California manufacturing team."

 

What patent, exactly, do you think is being infringed? He's a production engineer by training. He has expertise in the field, yes, much learned during his time w/Toyota, but if Toyota's no longer willing to pay him what the market will bear he can certainly take his expertise elsewhere. Unless he employs Toyota proprietary technology at Tesla there's no conflict or patent infringement.

If a baseball player spends 10 years with the Yankees and becomes a better player then goes to the Cardinals is that a Patent infringement? I'm an ER doctor, if I go to another hospital for better pay is that? This is just normal business.