A new leadership team is taking over in arcimotoa startup company based in Eugene, Oregon that makes electric tricycles.
On Thursday, the company said board member chris dawson will assume the role of CEO, replacing interim CEO Jesse Fittipaldi. Arcimoto added that Fittipaldi will stay on as chairman and report to Dawson in the future.
Two executives also recently left the company: former CFO Doug Campoli and former chief experience officer Lynn Yeager. In addition, Arcimoto’s product manager, Dwayne Lum, is now the company’s chief operating officer.
An Arcimoto staff member since 2015, Fittipaldi took up the interim position at Augustweeks after police reportedly slapped Arcimoto founder and former CEO Mark Frohnmayer with a DUI citation, according to Oregon news outlet The record guard. Around this time, Dawson United the startup board.
Who is Chris Dawson?
Arcimoto said in a statement that his incoming chief executive “recently served as chief executive officer of Nikola Tesla Co.” Crucially, “Nikola Tesla Co.” is not associated with Nikola Corporation or Tesla Inc.
To complicate matters (at least for this reporter), Arcimoto said Dawson also spent five years at Tesla (Musk’s) working on “battery production, the Model S/X line, and general assembly of the Model 3.”
In a call with TechCrunch, Dawson said he “was a huge Nikola Tesla fan” growing up. When I explained that he was puzzled by the name’s similarity to the aforementioned EV companies, Dawson said, “You’re right that it’s confusing.”
He added: “Every other day, I have to correct someone about my level of commitment to Tesla, because what also makes it confusing is that I spent a long period of time with Tesla.” I’ve contacted Tesla Inc. for more information, but I doubt they’ll get back to me, given the dissolution from your media team.
Arcimoto press release described Nikola Tesla Co. as an “engineering services company with projects including electrification, hybridization, electric vehicle charging, hydrogen powertrain development, hydrogen-powered VTOL, hydrogen power systems, fuel cells, and electrolyzer development of hydrogen”.
Dawson said the Texas-based corporation does consulting work, but added that “we’re really more of a hands-on type of organization.” According to Dawson, Nikola Tesla Co.’s customers included a drone company called Tesla aerial robotics and the Department of Defense.
When asked for more details about his connection to the Department of Defense, Dawson said: “I can’t go into a lot of detail, but overall, it’s the electrification, the hybridization of today’s tactical gear that’s on the battlefield, as what these different Department of Defense organizations try. to make the transition to green solutions that are more sustainable, but also better”. TechCrunch has reached out to the Defense Department for confirmation and will update this story when we have a response.
What’s next for Arcimoto?
Arcimoto ended 2022 with less than half a million dollars in cash on hand, warning investors in his annual report that he had “substantial doubts about [its] ability to continue” operating. However, earlier this year, the company secured $18 million in additional funding through two separate raises, and said it would start shipping new electric vehicles in March.
According to Dawson, Arcimoto now produces new vehicles every week. He said the company cut costs in recent months by laying off or terminating about 200 people. The company currently has about 110 people on its staff, Dawson added.
The incoming CEO told TechCrunch: “We believe that by the end of the year, we will be able to be, at the product level, profitable. And those pieces are really the bones that we need to move this forward.”
When asked about future products, Dawson said that Arcimoto is focused on its current vehicleswhich include its consumer-focused Fun Utility Vehicle and a delivery-focused version called Deliverator.