Tom Zhu, president of Tesla China, will oversee Tesla's Asia-Pacific region, a position previously held by a US executive, according to Bloomberg.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) has changed its management structure in the Asia-Pacific region, with executives in the region now reporting to Greater China rather than the US, Bloomberg said in a report today, citing people familiar with the matter.
Senior executives in the region now report to Tom Zhu (or Zhu Xiaotong), president of Tesla China, meaning he now also oversees Tesla's Asia Pacific region, a position previously held by a US executive, according to the report.
(File photo shows Tom Zhu being interviewed by Chinese media.)
Tesla, whose offices in Asia include Australia, Japan and South Korea, has been ramping up hiring in Singapore, posting job ads for at least seven positions, the report noted.
Tesla's move comes at a time when the Chinese market is becoming increasingly important to the company, which has a factory in Shanghai that produces the Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.
Tesla sold 78,906 China-made vehicles in June, surpassing last December's record high of 70,847, according to data released earlier today by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
It sold 52,557 China-made Model Y SUVs in June, making the model the best-selling new energy vehicle (NEV) for the month, up from 46,249 units of SAIC-GM-Wuling's Hongguang Mini EV, according to the CPCA.
In the second quarter, Tesla delivered 254,695 vehicles globally despite ongoing supply chain challenges and factory shutdowns "beyond our control," the company said on July 2.
It was the first time since early 2020 that Tesla's quarterly deliveries stopped growing, apparently due to a production hit caused by Covid lockdowns in China.
In the second quarter, Tesla's Shanghai plant delivered 112,583 vehicles, despite the plant's low deliveries of 1,512 units in April, CPCA data show.
This means that in the second quarter, Tesla's Shanghai plant contributed 44 percent of deliveries, down from 58.76 percent in the first quarter.
Tesla is currently laying off employees globally, with CEO Elon Musk previously saying that about 10 percent of the electric vehicle maker's salaried workforce will be cut.
Tesla's China team doesn't appear to have been spared this wave of layoffs at the company.
Tesla China has kicked off a layoff plan of about 10 percent of its workforce, but it does not involve production-related positions, Sina Tech reported on June 23, citing multiple people familiar with the matter.
This is part of Tesla's global layoff plan, one of the people familiar with the matter said.
Tesla sells record 78,906 China-made vehicles in June, CPCA data show
