Tesla Motors Founder Martin Eberhard Out As CEO, Electric Roadster Possibly Delayed?

Tesla Motors founder Martin Eberhard's just been "sacked." Well, sorta anyway — in as much as it's possible to "sack" the founder and CEO of your company. Also in as much as it's possible to do it in a way that has your CEO actively trying to not be in the position anymore. In a move that feels very Bill Ford-ian, the guy who provided the founding ideas for the company that's built the 'lectric Lotus has made a switch in positions from the Chief Executive Officer to Chief Technology Officer and replaced himself with an interim boss — the current CEO of manufacturer outsourcer, Flextronics — Michael Marks. Our thought is that as long as we're able to get ourselves some electric plug-in roadsters, we could care less what folks titles are. The problem is there may be some issues with that, because although as of this morning the Eberhard news isn't so much that anymore — you make have read it somewhere else — what is news is what we've found in an exclusive copy of the e-mail the man who used to be in charge of Tesla sent out to his would-be buyers. That e-mail, below the jump, reveals manufacturing of the hot 'lectric sled beginning next month and distribution by this fall, "is not yet fully within [Tesla's] grasp." More »