Elon Musk dispatches Tesla’s ‘fireman’ to China amid slowing sales
SINGAPORE–When Elon Musk made a surprise visit last month to Beijing, the Tesla chief executive brought along a trusted lieutenant: Tom Zhu, the company’s former China head who had skyrocketed through the ranks as a turnaround guru. Now, Zhu—one of just three senior executives including Musk currently named on Tesla’s website—is getting deployed from Tesla’s Texas headquarters back to China at a vulnerable time for the world’s most valuable automaker, according to a person familiar with the matter. Zhu, who was born in China and educated in the U.S.
and New Zealand, had last year been promoted to Tesla’s global leadership team in Austin, where he shouldered some CEO duties as Musk split his time elsewhere. Zhu is credited with turning Tesla’s Shanghai factory into one of the company’s standout performers. Some employees refer to Zhu internally as the “fireman" due to his ability to troubleshoot issues and hit high targets.
Zhu’s move comes as the carmaker is trying to fix its struggling business in the world’s biggest electric-vehicle market. China is expected to play an essential role as Musk seeks to reignite Tesla’s sagging growth globally. In China, where many carmakers including Tesla’s rival BYD are fighting fiercely for share in the highly competitive EV market, overall sales of electric cars grew 15% in the first quarter from a year ago.
Tesla’s sales slipped 4%. Tesla and Zhu didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment. EV industry news website Electrek previously reported Zhu’s new role.
Zhu joined Tesla in 2014 and nine months later started taking leadership roles for the company’s China operations. He threaded a needle with Chinese officials and helped Tesla quickly build up its Shanghai plant. Staff in
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