Source: Bloomberg
Author: katrina nicholas
In the celebration of Teslald's super factory last month, the Model Y output of 3,000 vehicles last month, Zhu Xiaotong (Tom Zhu) was wearing a reflective vest and a white head printed with Tesla.The black baseball cap of the letter "T" stood with a smile on the left side of the crowd.
Zhu Xiaotong was responsible for leading Tesla's operation in the Asia -Pacific region.Under his supervision, the production capacity of Shanghai Super Factory became the highest in the world.He was transferred to Austin at the end of last year to help the operating company in a new local factory.Although Tesla has not issued any formal announcement, it is generally believed that he is now responsible for Tesla's global automobile production, sales and service business. This level of responsibility can be said to be second only to the company's CEO Elon Musk.
In view of Musk's lack of skills due to Twitter affairs, at the same time, Tesla's shareholders demand that Musk's successor has a higher transparency, and Zhu Xiaotong's role played is very important.So who is he?
Zhu Xiaotong, born in China and reportedly holding New Zealand passports, joined Tesla in early 2014 to help the company establish a super charging network network.Prior to this, he helped create an international engineering consulting company to serve Chinese contractors seeking to expand overseas.He graduated from Oakland University of Science and Technology and obtained a bachelor's degree in information technology, and then obtained an MBA degree at the Fuga Business School of Duke University.
Zhu Xiaotong's promotion in Tesla is very fast, and at the end of the first year, he took over as the person in charge of the operation of China.Under his leadership, Tesla's first factory outside the United States, the Shanghai Super Factory, was completed at an amazing speed. In less than 12 months, he changed from a ruin to a shiny production facility.Before the Shanghai factory invested in mass production at the end of 2019, Zhu Xiaotong had been appointed as global vice president and president of China.
In July last year, with Tesla's expansion in Thailand, Hong Kong and Singapore, Zhu Xiaotong was further promoted and was responsible for all the businesses in Tesla Asia Pacific.The Chinese team he led was also praised by Musk because of ensuring that the factory kept the operation of "overtime until three o'clock in the morning".In the past 12 months, the Shanghai Super Factory upgraded the production line to increase the annual production capacity to 1 million vehicles.
In 2022, Tesla produced a total of more than 710,000 cars in China, accounting for about 52%of the global output.During the Shanghai sealing control, Zhu Xiaotong fully showed his professionalism -he stayed in the factory at the beginning of his self -sealing city and slept in the factory with security personnel who prevented someone from entering the production facilities.In the two months of production in the Shanghai factory closed -loop operation and the production of workers in the "bubble" in isolated from the outside world, Zhu Xiaotong has been staying in the factory.
A few YouTube videos and Chinese media reports showed by Zhu Xiaotong showed that he devoted himself to devoted himself to Tesla, and even wearing it -he was almost wearing the Tesla brand's clothing.He lives in a two -bedroom room subsidized by the government, about 10 minutes from the factory, about 10 minutes from the factory, and a monthly rent of less than 2,000 yuan, and most of his family lives in Beijing, which is far away from 1,200 kilometers.
In an interview with the Chinese media in 2021, Zhu Xiaotong said that he would usually start working around 6 am in order to meet him before get off work in North American colleagues.He then went to the factory and sometimes carried a car with other employees in the same park."The atmosphere is also very good," Zhu Xiaotong said, "You help me get a courier, I can help you get something. I think it is a good way to work and live."
After arriving at the factory, he will inspect the production lines of each workshop and discuss solving technical problems with engineers."Our company often experienced everything in everything," he explained why he said when he was wearing a reflective jacket and a safety helmet for most of his time.In the office area near the factory, Zhu Xiaotong and many colleagues, including the manufacturer director Song Gang, worked together in a large -scale standing station.He often sees him where he works there in the middle of the night.
Sence of Tesla China, the current and ex -employees of China, said that Zhu Xiaotong was pragmatic and the response speed was very fast, pointing out that he often responded to emails and information quickly around the clock.In an interview with Duke University Faka Business School, Zhu Xiaotong described himself as "tenacious".He mentioned that after the Shanghai factory was completed, due to the encounter with a strong storm and a problem with the drainage system, the top of the plant faced the risk of collapse.Zhu Xiaotong took about 30 employees including new employees and executives, and took a plastic barrel to rain to the roof to manually drain the roof to "protect our property".
"The company's culture is not waste of resources and spending time on those who are hoeing," Zhu Xiaotong recently appeared in a video interview with the car evaluation website Pacific car and said, "Then invest in your main energy and resources to the most.The investing things are above. There is no huge administrative agency here for the management of the management. We here are our management personnel from the book book and booking. What should I do?Habits, because this is a truly equal manifestation, right? "
In the Shanghai factory, Zhu Xiaotong rarely appeared in public in public. For example, in December 2019, the first Chinese Model 3 sedan was delivered to the local owners.
However, he really often communicates with Musk.The last visit to China was 2019 before the outbreak of the crown disease.At the performance conference call in April of that year, Musk said that the progress of the Shanghai plant "proves the outstanding execution of our local team. I will receive an email with more than a dozen pictures with more than a dozen pictures with the head of Shanghai Super Factory."
He also follows the principles of equality, indicating that everyone can contact Musk, the highest -level figure of the company.How to contact Elon, they all know. Everyone can reply to the email. "
