On appointment he was granted the secondary title of “Master of Coin”, a reference to the TV series Game of Thrones. Mr Musk labelled himself “Technoking of Tesla” at the same time.

Tech analyst Dan Ives said Mr Kirkhorn was “a key part of this historic Tesla turnaround the last five years”.

Mr Musk has admitted that his company came close to bankruptcy at points between 2017 and 2019, when Mr Kirkhorn took on the role of finance chief.

However, Tesla’s business has performed spectacularly since then thanks to the easing of production problems and a global shift toward electric vehicles.

The company’s share price has risen 1,480pc over the last four years and Tesla’s market value briefly topped $1tn in 2021.

Mr Ives said Mr Kirkhorn’s departure was “a blow in the near term” for Tesla, which is worth $779bn today.

Tesla’s chief accounting officer Vaibhav Taneja has been named the new chief finance officer. Mr Taneja is a former vice president of Elon Musk’s solar panel business SolarCity, which was acquired by Tesla for $2.6bn in 2016.

Mr Taneja is Tesla’s fifth finance chief in the last 10 years.