Tesla boss in China to become Musk’s crown prince

DAccording to documents, the previous China boss of the US electric car manufacturer Tesla will in future be number two behind company boss Elon Musk. According to an organizational chart available to Reuters, Tom Zhu is, in addition to his previous role, the top manager of the Tesla plants in the USA and sales in North America and Europe. According to the new division, which was also confirmed by two insiders, under Musk he controls the operational business of the rapidly growing electric car manufacturer worldwide. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

The publicly acclaimed company has been under pressure since Musk took over the short message service Twitter and personally threw himself into its restructuring. Tesla investors have expressed concerns that Musk could neglect the automaker’s leadership – at a time when the US electric car pioneer is also feeling the waning desire to buy as a result of the global economic downturn. Tesla board member James Murdoch said in November that the company had recently identified Musk’s potential successor, without naming him.

Sales weaker than expected

Zhu recently visited Tesla’s two factories in California and Texas, leading to speculation among colleagues in Shanghai that Zhu may be eligible for a higher-level and wider role at Tesla. Under Zhu, assembly in Shanghai had recovered from the corona lockdowns and the target of increasing production by 50 percent in 2022 was almost reached.

He was among the first to stay overnight at the factory to keep production running, just like Musk did when there were production problems. The native Chinese with a New Zealand passport has worked at Tesla since 2014. He now reports to the heads of the Gigafactory in Texas, Jason Shawhan, and the main plant in Fremont, Hrushikesh Sagar. Reporting to him on the sales side are North America Manager Troy Jones and Joe Ward, Europe/Middle East/Africa Region Head. This emerges from internal company information that was available to Reuters. The German Tesla factory in Grünheide near Berlin is not listed, but according to an insider it has so far been located at Europe boss Ward.

Tesla on Monday announced record fourth-quarter electric vehicle production and deliveries, but missed Wall Street estimates due to logistics problems, slowing demand, rising interest rates and recession fears. In the final quarter, the US group delivered a good 405,000 new cars, around 30 percent more than in the same quarter last year. Analysts had expected an even higher quarterly sales record of 431,000. At just under 440,000 vehicles, Tesla produced more cars than it sold in the fourth quarter, which is unusual for the manufacturer.

For the full year 2022, Tesla will increase sales to around 1.3 million vehicles from 936,000 in the previous year and thus missed the original growth target of 50 percent. Investors shouldn’t like the missed high sales expectations, said Daniel Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities. Premarket shares on Wall Street fell 2.6 percent. Tesla shares fell 65 percent in 2022, its worst year since its 2010 IPO.