Photo: PCAuto
Tom Zhu is no longer Tesla's legal representative in China. The executive is now based in the US, where he oversees Giga Texas operations. According to rumors, he may replace Elon Musk as Tesla CEO and will be engaged in the automotive branch of the company.
Tesla's China operations have seen a change of legal representative, signaling a potential shift in the role of the company's CEO in China. Tom Zhu, Tesla Global Vice President and General Manager for the Greater China Region, is no longer the legal representative of Tesla Shanghai Co Ltd. The position is now held by Wang Hao, according to data provider Qichacha, via CnEVPost. The change went into effect on December 22. Zhu remains the company's chairman. Wang is the CEO of Tesla China.
The change was another sign of Zhu's departure from Tesla's operations in China. He made a huge contribution to the development of the company in China, and thanks to him, the production capacity of Giga Shanghai has increased so rapidly. On Dec. 8, Ping West, citing unnamed sources, reported that Tesla CEO Elon Musk had chosen Zhu as the candidate to replace him as the company's CEO. While CEO Zhu's role will be global, the responsibilities are likely to be limited to Tesla's automotive business and will not include autonomous driving and robotics programs, the report said, citing another source.
In addition, in early December, it became known that Musk appointed Zhu to run the new factory in Austin, Texas. He was even photographed in a group shot to celebrate the fact that the factory had reached a production capacity of 3,000 Model Ys per week.
It is reported that due to Zhu's busy schedule, he does not currently have time to continue to take care of Tesla's operations in China, so the task of developing business in China fell to Wang.
Wang joined Tesla in April 2014 as head of China's charging program. He became deputy general manager of Tesla China in January 2018 and started as general manager of Tesla China in August 2019.
© 2022, Eva Fox | Tesmanian. All rights reserved.
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About the Author
Eva Fox
Eva Fox joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover breaking news as an automotive journalist. The main topics that she covers are clean energy and electric vehicles. As a journalist, Eva is specialized in Tesla and topics related to the work and development of the company.
