Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/SHANGAI: Tesla Inc has promoted its China chief Tom Zhu and given him charge of the electric carmaker’s US assembly plants and sales operations in North America and Europe.
According to an internal memo of Tesla, Zhu’s title of vice president for the Greater China had remained the same and he has also retained his role as Tesla’s most senior executive for sales in the rest of Asia.
The latest move makes Zhu the highest-profile executive at Tesla after electric carmaker company’s owner Elon Musk. Zhu will oversee Tesla’s deliveries in all major markets and its production outside the still-ramping Tesla plant in Germany.
Tesla’s internal communique
According to Reuters, Zhu and his team were brought in by Tesla last year to fix production issues in the US, ahead of his being groomed for a major role.
Zhu’s appointment to the global role comes at a time when Elon Musk had been distracted by his purchase of Twitter and analysts and investors have said that that would deepen the senior executive bench and allow Musk to focus on Tesla.
Tesla said on Monday that the company delivered 405,278 electric vehicles in the fourth quarter as compared to 308,600 vehicles it delivered in the same period last year.
The Tesla managers who report Zhu included Director of manufacturing at the Gigafactory in Texas Jason Shawhan, senior director of manufacturing at Tesla’s Fremont factory Hrushikesh Sagar; vice president in charge of Europe, the Middle East and Africa Joe Ward and vice president of North America sales and service Troy Jones.
Tesla’s country managers in China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand also report to Zhu.
Zhu, born in China but now holds a New Zealand passport, joined electric carmaker Tesla in 2014. Before that,Zhu was a project manager at a company established by his MBA classmates at the Duke University, advising Chinese contractors working on infrastructure projects mainly in Africa.
