Written by Cláudio Afonso | [email protected] | LinkedIn | X
Tom Zhu, Tesla’s Senior Vice President of Automotive, is set to return to China as Vice President for the market, as reported by several automotive bloggers on local social media platform Weibo on Monday.
Zhu had left this position in August last year to move to Texas as Senior Vice President of Automotive, overseeing global manufacturing, sales, delivery, and service operations.
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Tom Zhu joined Tesla in April 2014 as Program Manager for the SuperCharging Team in China, and served in various operational roles before being appointed as Vice President, Greater China in 2019.
In that role, Tom Zhu he led the construction and operations of Gigafactory Shanghai being promoted to Senior Vice President Automotive four years later, in April 2023. Over the last years, Zhu has been seen as a key figure in the global management, working closely with CEO Elon Musk.
The return to China may aim to advance Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) software into the market as the company has recently secured automotive data security clearance and partnered with Baidu for advanced mapping system.
Under Zhu’s leadership, Tesla GigaShanghai factory has become the company’s best performing plant producing for the China market but also for several other markets globally.
In the first quarter of the year, Tesla produced globally 433,371 vehicles of which 220,876 rolled off the line at Giga Shanghai representing 51 percent of the global result.
Last week, chief executive Elon Musk emailed Executives warning that the company needs “need to be absolutely hard core about headcount and cost reduction” as layoff continues.
“Starting at 10 AM EST Tuesday, I will ask for the resignation of any executive who retains more than three people who don’t obviously pass the excellent, necessary, and trustworthy test,” Musk wrote according to The Information.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | [email protected] | LinkedIn | X
