Tesla’s senior energy engineer departs after 10 years, joins battery recycler

Tesla Inc. has lost another senior leader amid faltering sales and a wave of executive departures. Mark Westfall, a veteran engineer who helped build Tesla’s energy division, has left the company after 10 years.

Westfall led a team of 50 engineers working on Tesla’s key innovations, including the Supercharger network, Powerwall home battery, and the Megapack grid-scale storage. He announced his departure in a reflective LinkedIn post, calling his Tesla experience “transformational.”

“It’s hard to put into words what Tesla has meant to me,” he wrote. “The scope of impact we had was beyond anything I imagined.”

Westfall has joined Redwood Materials as Director of Engineering. The battery recycling startup, founded by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel, aims to close the EV battery loop by transforming scrap material into critical battery components. The company plays an increasingly vital role in the push for sustainable energy solutions.

His departure is the latest in a growing list of Tesla executive exits in 2025. The automaker has also lost its VP of Software Engineering, the head of its India operations, two senior designers, and the technical lead behind its Cortex AI supercomputer.

Tesla’s leadership shake-up comes during a period of financial strain. The company reported a 71% year-on-year drop in net income in Q1 2025. Global EV sales fell amid stiff competition from Chinese automakers and cooling demand in Europe.

Despite Tesla’s headwinds, the broader EV and clean energy markets remain resilient. Energy-conscious consumers continue turning to electric cars combined with solar panels to slash fuel and electricity bills. Industry analysts say the move to a circular battery economy, championed by firms like Redwood, could lower EV costs and ease resource pressure.

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