With the long-awaited Model 3 finally rolling out of a bustling factory and Tesla poised to take its place among mainstream automakers, perhaps the time has come for Elon Musk to step aside from the day-today of building cars. He could focus on some of his other grand ideas for changing the transportation world: his rockets, tunnels, and hyperloops. Simply put, he possesses far too much talent and ambition to run an automaker.

If Musk sincerely wants Tesla to usher in a new era of transportation, one in which everyone whisks about in electric vehicles powered by the sun, he might do better to find someone suited to the mundanity of the task. Musk is a rare talent, a brilliant visionary unafraid to pursue big, crazy dreams. He is exactly the type of person you need running a company elbowing its way into the auto industry, which he has done.

But Musk is ill-suited to Tesla’s next phase, one in which it must master all the boring stuff old automakers have spent a century perfecting: nailing efficiencies, meeting deadlines, solidifying supply chains, wrestling with labor, and squeezing profits out of remarkably narrow margins.

That’s not to say Musk should drive his shiny new Model 3 into the sunset. Tesla aspires to be an energy company, one that sells solar panels and enormous batteries to complement its sexy electric vehicles. That is precisely why Musk should relinquish his role as CEO, stop wasting his time hanging out on the assembly line, and devote his talents to mapping out that new world—while also figuring out how to colonize Mars, prevent the AI apocalypse, and drill under LA.

“Elon Musk would probably do well to elevate himself to the role of supreme leader, visionary, and soul of the company, and hire one or two really solid auto professionals who know how to run the business,” says Bob Lutz, an auto industry veteran who most recently served as GM’s product chief.

Musk wouldn’t be the first. Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Google, Bill Gates at Microsoft, and Howard Schultz at Starbucks all stepped back from quotidian operations to focus on bigger things. Musk must do the same, for his sake and Tesla’s.

The Car Business

Friday’s Model 3 launch marked Tesla’s transition from startup to established automaker with Muskian ambitions. The South African-born CEO wants to build 5,000 Model 3 sedans each week by the end of the year, and double that in 2018. As Tesla continues cranking out Model S sedans and Model X SUVs, Musk aims to sell half a million cars next year, a sixfold increase from last year. It could be the fastest ramp-up in automotive history. Or a colossal failure.

“If they don’t have somebody inside the company that is a master at building vehicles and establishing supply lines and lean manufacturing and dealing with the labor component, they’re going to struggle,” says Jeff Owens, the former CTO of Delphi, a major industry supplier.

Tesla has little room for error. The average car features roughly 3,000 parts, each of which must fit together perfectly. They come from hundreds of suppliers, and if any one of them fails to arrive in the right form, the right number, or at the right time, production can break down. Get it all right, and Tesla can expect to see a profit margin of no more than 6 percent. Get it wrong and, well, the company might as well burn the money. At least it would save on heating bills.