Tesla’s pricing decreases have driven sales in China. The China Passenger Vehicle Association reported 88,869 March deliveries. It implies almost half of Q1 deliveries came from Shanghai.
Tom Zhu, Tesla’s China leader, has swiftly risen through the company’s corporate ladder. A recent SEC filing says Zhu became Tesla’s automotive senior vice president in April. The executive joins CEO Elon Musk, CFO Zachary Kirkhorn, and SVP of powertrain and energy engineering Andrew Baglino as the company’s top four executives.
According to the filing, Zhu joined Tesla in 2014 and worked in different operational roles until becoming vice president of Greater China, where he oversaw the building and management of Gigafactory Shanghai. In December, Bloomberg reported that the 43-year-old CEO was sent to Texas to supervise the new Gigafactory in Austin while China production ramped up.
Tesla’s China factory was hard-won. Zhu, like Musk, values hard labor. Reuters said he slept at the workplace with other workers during Shanghai’s COVID-19 shutdown to maintain output.