Tom Zhu Xiaotong, Tesla’s current head of China, speaks at the opening of a new Tesla Experience Store on August 28. 18, 2015 in Hangzhou, China.
Visual Group China | Getty Images
from Tesla Chinese chief Tom Zhu has been promoted to directly oversee the electric car maker’s U.S. assembly plants as well as sales operations in North America and Europe, according to an internal report lines review reviewed by Reuters.
The Tesla post showed that Zhu’s title of vice president for Greater China had not changed and that he also retained his responsibilities as Tesla’s top executive for sales in the rest of Asia at from Tuesday.
The move makes Zhu Tesla’s most prominent executive after chief executive Elon Musk, with direct oversight of deliveries to all of its major markets and operations of its major production centers.
Lines reporting to Zhu would keep Tesla’s vehicle design and development — two areas Musk has been heavily involved in — separate while creating an apparent deputy to Musk for the shorter-term challenges of managing sales and production. global production.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Reuters reviewed the organizational chart that had been published internally by Tesla and confirmed the change with two people who had seen it. They asked not to be named because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
Zhu and a team of his reports were brought by Tesla late last year to solve production problems In the United States, his colleagues then expected him to be groomed for a larger role.
Zhu’s appointment to a global role comes at a time when Musk has been distracted by his acquisition of Twitter and Tesla analysts and investors have called for action that would deepen the senior executive bench and allow him to focus on Tesla.
Under Zhu, Tesla’s Shanghai factory rebounded strongly from Covid lockdowns in China.
Tesla said Monday it delivered 405,278 vehicles in the fourth quarter, below Wall Street estimates, according to data compiled by Refinitiv.
The company had delivered 308,600 vehicles during the same period a year earlier.
Tesla officials reporting to Zhu include: Jason Shawhan, director of manufacturing at Gigafactory in Texas; Hrushikesh Sagar, senior manufacturing manager at Tesla’s Fremont factory; Joe Ward, vice president in charge of Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and Troy Jones, vice president of North American sales and service, according to Tesla’s opinion on the report lines reviewed by Reuters.
National Tesla officials in China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand continued to report to Zhu, according to the notice.
Zhu has no direct connection to Tesla’s still-thriving Berlin factory, but a person with knowledge of the matter said responsibility for the operation would rest with Amsterdam-based Ward’s line of command. Ward could not immediately be reached for comment.
Zhu, who was born in China but now holds a New Zealand passport, joined Tesla in 2014. Before that, he was a project manager at a company started by his fellow MBA students at Duke University, advising Chinese entrepreneurs working on infrastructure projects in Africa.
During Shanghai’s two-month Covid lockdown, Zhu was among the first batch of employees sleep at the factory As they sought to make it work, the people who worked with him said.
Zhu, an unfussy manager who sports a fashionable haircut, prefers Tesla-branded fleece jackets and has lived in a government-subsidized apartment that’s a 10-minute drive from Shanghai’s Gigafactory. It was not immediately clear if he would move on after his promotion.
It supports Tesla’s main production hubs as the company prepares to launch the Cybertruck and a Revamped version of his Model 3 sedan. Tesla also said it was developing a cheaper electric vehicle, but did not provide details on that plan.
When Tesla posted a photo on Twitter last month to celebrate that its Austin, Texas factory hit a milestone in the production of its Model Y, Zhu was among hundreds of smiling workers on the floor of the factory. plant.
Allan Wang, who was promoted to vice president in charge of China sales in July, was listed as the deal’s legal representative in registration documents filed with Chinese regulators during a company changeover last month. last.
Tesla board member James Murdoch said in November that the company had recently identified a potential successor to Musk without naming the person. Murdoch did not respond to a request for comment.
Electrek previously announced that Zhu would assume responsibility for US sales, delivery and service.
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