Tesla CEO Elon Musk appears to be preparing to leave his position at the electric carmaker and bring a new face to the role. Chinese publication PingWest reported that Musk has decided to promote Tesla China president Tom Zhu Xiaotong to the position of global CEO of the electric car maker. It also claimed the information came from people familiar with the situation. Interestingly, the news comes just weeks after Musk acquired microblogging social media site Twitter. Over the past few months, he has often been accused by Tesla investors of not paying the necessary attention to the automaker and focusing more on Twitter.
Also read: Elon Musk may use Tesla money to cut risky Twitter debt
Since joining the company in 2014, Zhu has been a key figure in leading the EV brand to multiple successes in China. Tesla’s sales growth in China is often credited to Zhu’s strategy. In addition, he helped the automaker establish Giga Shanghai, one of the company’s most important factories and the automaker’s main global export hub. Zhu started his journey as director of Tesla’s Supercharger project in China. Soon, however, he was promoted to the automaker’s global vice president and president of China.
The report further said Musk had made Tesla’s board aware of a potential successor to the CEO job. Interestingly, he has stated several times that he never really wanted to be Tesla CEO, but at the time no one else was up to the role. He also reportedly said that the job he does at Tesla is not the CEO’s job. Instead, he has always referred to himself as the company’s engineer.
While news of Tesla’s appointment of a new CEO has captured the world’s attention, it’s unclear when Elon Musk will step down as CEO of the electric car company. In addition, it is unclear what plans he has and when they will be carried out.
First published date: Dec 8, 2022 at 09:51 AM CST
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