In a Twitter picture celebrating Tesla Inc. producing 3,000 Mannequin Ys per week at its Texas manufacturing unit final month, Zhu Xiaotong, who goes by Tom Zhu, stood smiling to the left of the big crowd in a hi-visibility vest and black cap imprinted with a white “T” for Tesla.
Zhu, who spearheaded the U.S. carmaker’s Asia Pacific operations and oversaw Tesla’s manufacturing unit in Shanghai turn out to be its most efficient on the earth, was introduced over to Austin late final 12 months to assist run the corporate’s latest plant. Though Tesla hasn’t made any formal announcement and has but to call him as an govt officer, it is understood Zhu is now overseeing international automotive manufacturing, gross sales and repair, a degree of accountability arguably second solely to Chief Government Officer Elon Musk.
So who’s Zhu, whose function is all of the extra essential in mild of Musk’s preoccupation with Twitter Inc. and shareholder calls for for extra transparency about who’s subsequent in line after Musk?
Born in China and in addition reportedly holding a New Zealand passport, Zhu joined Tesla in early 2014 to assist construct out its Supercharger community. Previous to that, he helped discovered a world engineering consultancy providing providers to Chinese language contractors desirous to broaden abroad. He holds a Bachelor’s diploma of commerce in data expertise from Auckland College of Know-how and later graduated from the MBA program at Duke College’s Fuqua Faculty of Enterprise.
Zhu rose via Tesla’s ranks shortly, turning into supervisor of China operations by the tip of his first 12 months. Beneath his purview, Tesla’s Shanghai manufacturing unit — the corporate’s first exterior the U.S. — materialized at breakneck pace, going from a muddy discipline to gleaming facility producing electrical automobiles in lower than 12 months. Earlier than mass manufacturing even began on the finish of 2019, Zhu had been promoted to international vice chairman and president of Larger China.
Final July he was elevated additional to supervise all of Tesla Asia Pacific because the automaker expanded in Thailand, Hong Kong and Singapore. Zhu’s China group additionally gained reward from Musk for “burning the three a.m. oil” as they labored across the clock to maintain the Shanghai manufacturing unit working through the metropolis’s Covid lockdowns. Throughout what was an awfully troublesome final 12 months, the plant underwent upgrades to spice up manufacturing capability to 1 million EVs a 12 months.
The greater than 710,000 automobiles Tesla made in China final 12 months was round 52 p.c of the corporate’s worldwide output. Zhu’s work ethic was on full show through the lockdown — he stayed within the plant when motion restrictions have been first launched, sleeping within the manufacturing unit with a handful of safety workers who made positive the ability wasn’t breached. He remained throughout the complete two months that Tesla ran a closed-loop manufacturing system with staff introduced again to function in a bubble atmosphere that sealed them off from the skin world.
The few YouTube movies and native language media experiences that Zhu seems in present him to be wholly dedicated to Tesla, even all the way down to his apparel — he is nearly at all times wearing a Tesla-branded fleece. He is lived in a two-bedroom, government-subsidized rental house a few 10-minute drive from the manufacturing unit that prices lower than 2,000 yuan ($300) a month. Most of his household lives in Beijing, some 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) away.
In an interview with Chinese language media final 12 months, Zhu mentioned he usually begins his work day round 6 a.m. to catch his North American colleagues earlier than they sign off for the night. He then travels to the manufacturing unit, generally automobile pooling with different workers who reside in the identical complicated. “It is an ideal environment,” Zhu mentioned. “Say, you assist me get my parcel, I get one thing for you. It is a great way of working and dwelling.”
As soon as on the manufacturing unit, Zhu mentioned he spends time strolling the manufacturing traces of the assorted workshops and speaking with engineers to unravel technical points. “In our firm, many of the belongings you do it together with your palms on it, get your palms soiled,” he mentioned, explaining why he principally wears hi-vis jackets and a security helmet. Within the close by workplace, Zhu shared an open area at standing desks with many others, together with manufacturing director Track Gang. He was typically noticed there properly past midnight.
A number of present and former Tesla China workers describe Zhu as pragmatic and responsive, noting that he tends to answer to emails and messages promptly and in any respect hours of the day. In an interview with Duke’s Fuqua Faculty, Zhu described himself as “tenacious.” He recounts the story of how, after the Shanghai manufacturing unit’s building, an intense storm and water-drainage drawback threatened to break down a piece of the roof. Zhu and round 30 different workers, from new hires to senior workers, grabbed plastic buckets and went up on the roof within the driving rain to “safeguard our property.”
“The corporate’s tradition is to not waste assets and time on these fancy and nonsense issues,” Zhu mentioned in a latest and uncommon video interview with PCAuto, an area car-review web site. “Focus your principal power and assets into what actually issues. We do not have an enormous administrative group right here to service the administration. E-book tickets by your self, seize your meals by your self. Everyone could be very used to it, that is an expression of true equality, proper?”
Zhu has eschewed the limelight, hurrying off from public appearances on the Shanghai manufacturing unit, such because the handoff of keys to preliminary Mannequin 3 house owners in December 2019.
He does, nevertheless, talk continuously with Musk, who made his final go to to China in 2019, previous to Covid. Throughout an earnings name in April of that 12 months, Musk mentioned progress on the Shanghai manufacturing unit was “testomony to the excellent execution of our group on the bottom there. I get every day emails with a dozen footage from sooner or later to the following from Tom Zhu, who leads the Gigafactory program.”
And in true egalitarian style, Zhu has mentioned everybody can contact the large man on the high, too. “After all, in China it isn’t solely me who can talk with Elon,” Zhu mentioned within the latest interview. “Really all of our workers, you’ll be able to randomly ask any on this manufacturing unit, learn how to contact Elon. All of them know Elon’s e mail and might instantly reply to him.”