Key Takeaways

  • Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja's total compensation for 2024 exceeded $139 million, with the majority consisting of equity incentives, including approximately $113 million in stock options and approximately $26 million in stock awards (for the full year).
  • The award was granted after the compensation committee of the Austin, Texas-based electric vehicle maker adjusted "base salaries and/or granted equity awards" to several executives in October 2024. According to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Taneja's compensation had remained unchanged since he became CFO in August 2023.
  • Tesla also raised the finance chief's annual base salary to $400,000. Tesla stated that approximately 80% of Taneja's equity award was granted in the form of stock options, with 20% in the form of restricted stock units.

Dive Insight

Although Taneja was the only named executive officer to receive an equity award in 2024, Tesla stated, "We generally grant one-time new-hire equity awards to employees, including executives, upon joining or being promoted to a new position. Additionally, as part of our ongoing executive compensation review and adjustment process, we also periodically grant additional equity awards to executives."

The company cited the case of its Senior Vice President for Asia-Pacific, Tom Zhu, whose equity award was granted 100% in the form of stock options when he assumed his current role in 2023.

The company stated, "Therefore, a significant portion of our named executive officers' total compensation is entirely dependent on long-term stock price performance and is at risk."

The 2024 annual report was filed as the electric vehicle maker continues to face economic headwinds in 2025. Additionally, several executives, including CFO Taneja, have sold millions of dollars' worth of stock over the past few months.

As previously reported by CFO Dive, in early April, before Tesla's first-quarter 2025 earnings release, Taneja sold shares with a total market value of $957,720, following sales of $1.7 million in March and shares worth $2.8 million in February. Other executives, including CEO Elon Musk's brother Kimbal Musk and board chair Robyn Denholm, have also sold company stock.

The stock sales come as Tesla's electric vehicle sales decline, and the company also grapples with tariffs and other macroeconomic changes, as well as consumer boycotts surrounding its CEO's political activities in the Trump administration. These headwinds have driven down the company's stock price, erasing most of the gains seen after Trump's election. According to CNN, the company's shares have fallen about 25% so far this year.

During Tesla's earnings call, Taneja highlighted the potential impact of the Trump administration's tariffs on the auto industry and auto parts, noting that these tariffs could affect the electric vehicle maker's profitability. In the quarter, Tesla's net profit fell to $409 million, down 71% year over year.

On the April 23 call, Musk sought to reassure Tesla investors, stating that he plans to reduce his time spent on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — an agency aimed at combating what Musk calls government "waste" and fraud — and claiming that the electric vehicle maker "is not in a death spiral, far from it."

Musk's DOGE work has sparked consumer boycotts of Tesla, including protests in Austin, where the company is headquartered, as well as multiple acts of vandalism and arson targeting Tesla showrooms, as CFO Dive previously reported.

That sentiment has likely also spooked investors: The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Tesla directors have approached several executive search firms to begin looking for a CEO successor to Musk, citing people familiar with the matter. The report said board members have told Musk he needs to devote more time to Tesla, noting that the board has narrowed its outreach to one "large search firm."

Tesla issued a statement on Thursday on Musk's social media platform X, signed by Denholm, calling the report "categorically false (and shared with the media prior to publication)." "Tesla's CEO is Elon Musk, and the board has full confidence in his ability to execute the exciting growth plans ahead."

The Wall Street Journal report stated that the company did not issue a statement before publication. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Musk's compensation as Tesla CEO for the full year 2024 was not filled in the annual report. According to Reuters, the CEO has been embroiled in a court battle over a compensation package potentially worth up to $56 billion and filed an appeal in a Delaware court in March.