Tom Zhu to take over as CEO for Tesla
Tom Zhu appears set to become Tesla’s most influential manager after CEO Elon Musk. In addition to his role as China boss and highest-ranking manager for Tesla’s sales in the rest of Asia, Zhu will be given additional responsibilities in North America and Europe.
As stated in a Reuters article, Zhu will now also take over the supervision of the electric car manufacturer’s US assembly plants as well as sales activities in North America and Europe. The news agency refers to an organisational chart published internally by Tesla.
Zhu joined Tesla in 2014. He is from China but holds a New Zealand passport. In late 2022, he and some members of his team were already called in to fix production problems in the United States. Zhu reports to the Tesla country managers in China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand – and this will apparently remain the case.
According to Reuters, however, a number of top managers from the US and Europe will also report to Zhu in future. Specifically, Jason Shawhan, head of manufacturing at the Gigafactory in Texas, Hrushikesh Sagar, senior director of manufacturing in Fremont, Joe Ward, vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Troy Jones, vice president of North America sales and service.
