Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Beijing, September 24 (Beijing time), Elon Musk (Elon Musk) is currently one person operating a number of ambitious technology companies, while serving as Tesla, SpaceX CEO, but also set up brain-computer interface company Neuralink, tunnel excavation company Boring Co. What's more, he is busy with a lawsuit against Twitter.

Due to the lack of separation skills, Musk needs to rely on a large team of senior deputies to carry out specific tasks. At Tesla, there are now more than 20 people responsible for keeping Tesla's business running. His direct subordinates often change with changes in the company's strategy or organizational structure, and are occasionally "fired on the spot" or resigned by the capricious CEO.

27 senior deputies according to data compiled by foreign media, as of September 2022, Musk had 27 direct subordinates under Tesla. These data come from interviews with Tesla's current and recent employees, LinkedIn's profile, Tesla's internal and public records, and may not include all those who reported to him.

Musk's direct subordinates are mainly concentrated in the United States, and more than 90% of them are men. Although he has moved Tesla's headquarters from California to Texas, about half of his direct subordinates (14 people) remain in California. There are only seven people in Texas, accounting for 22%.

Regional distribution directly under Musk

These include Tesla CFO Zack Kirkhorn (Zachary Kirkhorn), Human Resources Director Ellie Ali Barlow (Allie Arebalo), Global supply chain Management Vice President Rochan Thomas (Roshan Thomas), Texas plant manager Omid Afshal (Omead Afshar), automotive software vice president David Liu (David Lau), and vice president of hardware design and engineering Peter Bannon (Pete Bannon).

The task will be daunting as Tesla works to bring new plants to full production in Austin, Texas and Glenn Hyde, Germany, and to make progress on many other goals, Musk will need to rely on these senior lieutenants.

Mr Musk has told shareholders and fans that Tesla will "solve the problem of fully autonomous driving (FSD)" this year, improve car services and maintenance, and start delivering Cybertruck pickups in mid-2023. He also said that Tesla will strengthen its battery manufacturing capacity and aims to produce its own 4680 batteries with a capacity of 100GWh this year, which is enough to power more than 1 million Tesla cars.

Tesla 4680 battery

Moreover, Musk's direct subordinates recently need to lay off staff in the face of economic uncertainty. Mr Musk suddenly announced big layoffs at the end of May, when Tesla faced a challenging second quarter, at a time when the war between Russia and Ukraine and the epidemic continued.

In June, Tesla closed his entire Autopilot office in San Mateo, Calif., and laid off at least some employees. The employees had been granted permission to work remotely, but disagreed with Mr Musk's order to work at least 40 hours a week in Tesla's office. In June, Mr Musk mentioned in an email to Tesla employees that he "feels very bad" about the economy.

Three of the Chinese executives directly under Mr Musk work outside the US. One of them is Zhu Xiaotong, Tesla's global vice president and president of Greater China.

Zhu Xiaotong joined Tesla in April 2014 as project director of Tesla's supercharging station in China. In December of the same year, Zhu Xiaotong took over as Tesla's global vice president and president of China. He was responsible for the construction and operation of Tesla's Shanghai plant in 2018 and was promoted to president of Greater China in 2019.

Zhu Xiaotong and Musk

One of Tesla's main businesses in China is the Shanghai Super Factory, which not only meets the needs of the Chinese market, but also becomes an export hub. In August, Tesla sold 76965 vehicles wholesale, with exports accounting for 42463 and domestic retail sales of 34502, according to data released by the China Federation of passengers. From January to August this year, Tesla has completed the delivery of 399939 vehicles, a difference of only more than 80,000 vehicles from the 484130 vehicles delivered in 2021, of which the total number of exports is nearly 160000 vehicles, and the domestic delivery is more than 240000 vehicles.

During the epidemic, the production of Tesla's Shanghai factory was faced with severe challenges. Zhu Xiaotong has been living in the Shanghai super factory since March 28 and is responsible for supervising and ensuring the operation of the factory, according to people familiar with the matter.

Musk has repeatedly praised the Shanghai factory, saying that the Shanghai super factory is difficult to surpass. "I must admit that our Shanghai team is really excellent." He said.

Musk is a workaholic, an employee who likes to work overtime, and used to sleep in the factory. Therefore, he praised the diligence of the Chinese people. "there are many very talented and diligent people in China who firmly believe in manufacturing. They not only stay up late, but also work conscientiously at three o'clock in the morning, even not leaving the factory at all. Americans, on the other hand, try not to go to work." Musk said so in May this year.

Tesla Shanghai Factory

Recently, Tesla Shanghai Factory completed the work of expanding production. The environmental information disclosure platform of Shanghai enterprises and institutions learned that the second phase of the production line optimization project of Tesla Shanghai Super Factory (Phase I) was completed and debugged on September 1, and the acceptance period is expected to be from September 1 to November 30. The project, with a total investment of 1.2 billion yuan, is an expansion of Tesla's existing plant, mainly by improving the production tempo to expand production capacity. According to the environmental impact assessment report released in November last year, the optimization project of the production line is mainly for the expansion of stamping workshop, body workshop, painting workshop, final assembly workshop and logistics operation center.

Many of the departures although Andrej Karpathy, Tesla's senior director of artificial intelligence, was not among those laid off or fired by Mr Musk, he officially announced his resignation from Tesla in July. Autopilot director Ashok Eluswamy (Ashok Elluswamy) reports directly to Musk for the time being.

Other direct subordinates of Mr Musk who left Tesla in 2022 include Chris Lyster, a former Nevada superfactory vice president, and Jean Frazier, Tesla's senior director of employee relations, according to internal documents.

David Searle, Tesla's former head of legal affairs, still works at the company, but insiders say they expect Mr Searle to leave in the coming months because he previously managed more than a dozen employees and now has only one direct subordinate on the internal organisation chart.

According to public and internal records, Tina Dinna Eskin, Tesla's senior legal director, is now the manager of the company's legal department and is, in effect, the company's general counsel. Tesla has not formally hired anyone with the title of general counsel since the end of 2019.

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