Continental Automotive, by Tesla China the president who oversaw the transformation of the Shanghai Gigafactory into the world’s largest EV factory, has been appointed to run the new factory Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, Bloomberg report earlier this week. That would make the China director, who joined Tesla China in April 2014, one of the EV giant’s top executives.
This decision comes as no surprise to industry insiders, as it was so quick Gigafactory Shanghai become a manufacturing center and export platform for Tesla.
It took the tree only one year — from December 2018 to December 2019 — to move from construction to production. In August, the Shanghai Gigafactory produced its millionth vehicle, representing a third of all Teslas produced up to that point. Elon Musk tweeted. This November was a record month for the facility with 100,291 vehicles delivered.
Such achievements certainly make Zhu a favorite assistant of Musk, who promote a “hardcore” work environment. While Zhu may have a secret recipe for building an efficient production team in no time, China’s unique conditions are not easily replicated in another country.
“Over the past three years, the Shanghai Gigafactory has outperformed its counterparts in Fremont, Texas and Berlin, despite [not all of the success] it’s either Tom or the Chinese team,” suggests Chris Zheng, founder of the Chinese automotive blog Channel-Q.
“The friendly regulatory environment, strong supply chain base, and efficient front-line execution team — these are three factors that are currently only available in China, so the key is not Shanghai or Texas. Look at BYD. Agree, Tom and his executive team are excellent, but that’s not all,” he added.
Chinese technology news site PingWest report Wednesday, Musk appointed Zhu as CEO of Tesla Global, a new executive role in charge of sales and Gigafactories, while Musk continues to lead “critical engineering work at the company.”
musk tweeted Fifth, he went on to “oversaw both Tesla & SpaceX, but the teams there are so good that I usually don’t need much”.
This is a development story. . .
