Based on a report in the present day by media publication PingWest, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has determined to advertise the President of Tesla China – Tom Zhu Xiaotong – to the place of worldwide CEO for the electrical automaker. The knowledge is alleged to return from “individuals accustomed to the state of affairs.”
Zhu has been integral in main Tesla to many successes in China, together with an exponential enhance in gross sales. He helped develop Giga Shanghai, which is now Tesla’s major export hub. As well as, the Tesla China president labored to ascertain Service Facilities within the nation.
When Zhu first joined Tesla in April 2014, he wasn’t the president of the automaker’s model in China. Fairly, he began because the director of Tesla’s Supercharger program within the nation. That mentioned, it wasn’t lengthy earlier than he was promoted to the position of International Vice President and President of China for Tesla.
As you might bear in mind, some data got here out in a latest trial revealing that Musk had made the Tesla board conscious of a possible successor for the CEO place. Some media retailers assumed this meant Musk was contemplating stepping down, although he might have simply alerted the board of the successor’s title in case a brand new CEO was ever wanted.
Musk has mentioned many instances over time that he by no means actually wished the Tesla CEO position, however there was nobody else to do it. Now that he is additionally the CEO of Twitter, he has already made it clear that he hopes to seek out another person to fill that place as soon as he is prepared handy over the reins.
Based on PingWest, Musk shared throughout a court docket case associated to Tesla’s acquisition of SolarCity that the roles he does at Tesla aren’t actually CEO jobs. He has all the time referred to himself as an engineer. He mentioned:
“I attempted to not be CEO of Tesla, however I needed to or it could die. I reasonably hate being a boss. I’m an engineer.”
At this level, we actually don’t know if Musk plans to step down as CEO of Tesla, and if he’s planning, we don’t know when he would possibly carry them out. Musk is now even busier than earlier than since he acquired Twitter and is operating the present on the social media firm. He additionally has a full plate at SpaceX, the place he is CEO as nicely.
Whereas it could be unrelated, Tesla’s inventory share worth has taken a large hit this yr. There are numerous causes the inventory could possibly be seeing a decline, however a lot of the downward motion started when Musk began promoting massive quantities of his private shares, first to pay taxes, and later to purchase Twitter.
The CEO has mentioned a number of instances up to now that he was the primary one in and would be the final one out. He additionally mentioned just a few instances this yr that he was achieved promoting his Tesla shares, solely to promote extra at a later date. Some buyers and analysts have voiced a insecurity within the model due partly to Musk’s inventory gross sales.
This can be a creating story. We’ll have to attend and see if we be taught extra concerning the potential for Tom Zhu Xiaotong to turn out to be Tesla’s upcoming world CEO.
