As CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk has been in office longer than any other head of a major automaker, but he’s indicated several times recently that he’d actually prefer to work in a purely technical position. A member of his board recently even revealed that Musk has been finding a suitable successor to the post in recent months. A Chinese publication has now reported that it is Tom Zhu, the longtime head of Tesla’s Asia Pacific business. At least it looks like he’s got a new job.
Report on Tesla’s new boss put into perspective
The report from China is plausible against the background of current developments, but it should be taken with a grain of salt: it comes from the PingWest publication, which only recently made the headlines in relation to Tesla itself. In late 2020, she reported quality problems and poor working conditions at the Gigafactory in China and was sued by Tesla. Last week, a court ruled that the subsidy should be withdrawn and that PingWest must pay around €14,000 in compensation.
The publication was obviously not deterred by this defeat in court and published on Wednesday another report on Tesla, which he described as exclusive: Tesla has chosen Tom Zhu Xiaotong, current president of China (see photo), as the company’s new global CEO, he says, citing insiders.
If the report were true, it would indeed be exclusive – and a sensation, because Musk’s departure as CEO of Tesla was not expected in the short term, despite his recognizable office fatigue. However, PingWest already qualified its report on Wednesday with an update: Zhu’s new position will focus on cars and won’t include the robot business and vehicle automation, it now says.
The Chinese boss is said to be in Austin
If Tesla doesn’t split into several sub-companies and make him head of auto, Zhu shouldn’t get the title of global CEO. Musk would probably remain boss after all. But the news agency Bloomberg reported on Fridaythat the top Chinese executive has indeed been tapped for at least one new role — he’s already in Austin this week and has brought part of his engineering team with him to take care of ramping up Model Y and then Cybertruck production at the Gigafactory there to take care of.
It’s unclear how long Zhu will stay in Texas and whether he will retain his role as head of the Asia-Pacific business, Bloomberg said, citing its own sources. Otherwise, similar to PingWest, the agency describes the Chinese manager’s background and his successes for Tesla in China, which may have qualified him for a global position.
