Deepak Ahuja's departure overshadowed Tesla's Q4 results, with one analyst calling it a “significant loss of institutional knowledge.”
CEO Elon Musk says costs must be cut because "our products are still too expensive for most people.”
Dave Morton's resignation "comes at a particularly precarious financial time" for the automaker.
The automaker predicts it can produce 7,000 vehicles per week, which would enable it "to become sustainably profitable for the first time in our history."
Will Elon Musk succeed with his strategy of wooing investors with promises for the future and one shiny new object after another?
"It is clear that Tesla is under tremendous pressure to finally turn a profit and is attempting to address it by cutting overhead."
The downgrade to a B2 rating reflects "the significant shortfall in the production rate" of the Model 3 vehicle and liquidity pressures, Moody's says.
The company's first junk issue is a bet that "bond investors will be as hungry as stock investors to back" Tesla as it ramps up production of the Model 3.
