Tom Zhu, the head of Tesla Inc. in China, has been promoted to direct supervision of the electric car maker’s US assembly plants, as well as sales operations in North America and Europe, according to an internal publication for the lines. hierarchical reviewed by Reuters.
Tesla’s 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 as of Tuesday.
This move makes Zhu Tesla’s highest-profile executive after CEO Elon Musk, with direct oversight of deliveries in all of its major markets and operations of its key production hubs.
Zhu’s reporting structure would keep Tesla’s vehicle design and development—areas in which Musk has been heavily involved—separate, while creating an apparent adjunct to Musk on the shorter-term challenges of managing the companies. world sales and production.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Reuters reviewed the organizational chart that had been posted 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.
Late last year, Tesla hired Zhu and a team of his subordinates to troubleshoot production problems in the United States, leading his colleagues to think he was being groomed for a bigger role.
Zhu’s appointment to a global role comes at a time when Musk has been distracted by the Twitter acquisition and Tesla analysts and investors have urged steps to bolster top executives and allow him to focus on Tesla. .
Under Zhu, Tesla’s Shanghai plant rebounded strongly from the COVID lockdowns in China.
Tesla said Monday it had 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 in the same period of the previous year.