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

Beijing, January 10 (Beijing time)-Tesla CEO Elon Musk (Elon Musk) may be able to boldly focus on Twitter because he has found a reliable number two: the hard-working Zhu Xiaotong.

Zhu Xiaotong posted a photo on Twitter on December 16 last year, celebrating the weekly production capacity of the Model Y plant in Teslad to reach 3000 vehicles. In this photo, Zhu Xiaotong smiles on the left of the crowd, wearing an eye-catching reflective vest and a black hat with the white letter "T" printed on his head for Tesla.

Zhu Xiaotong previously led Tesla's Asia-Pacific operations and supervised Tesla's Shanghai plant to become the company's most productive plant in the world. At the end of last year, he was sent to Austin to help run the company's newest Texas plant. Although Tesla has not issued any official statement and has not appointed Zhu Xiaotong as an executive, it is tacit that Zhu Xiaotong is currently in charge of Tesla's global car production, sales and service. His responsibilities can be said to be second only to CEO Musk.

Who's he? So, who is Zhu Xiaotong? Zhu Xiaotong's role is all the more important given that Mr Musk is focusing on Twitter and that Tesla's shareholders demand more transparency on Mr Musk's successor.

Zhu Xiaotong was born in China and reportedly holds a New Zealand passport. He joined Tesla in early 2014 to help him build a network of supercharging stations. Before that, he helped set up an international engineering consulting firm to provide services to Chinese contractors looking to expand overseas. He holds a Bachelor of Business degree in Information Technology from Auckland Polytechnic University in New Zealand and an MBA from Duke University's Fuca School of Business in the United States.

Zhu Xiaotong attended the Model Y weekly productivity celebration at the Texas plant. He was promoted rapidly in Tesla and became a China business manager at the end of his first year. Under his leadership, Tesla's first factory outside the United States, the Shanghai Super Factory, was built at breakneck speed, transforming from a piece of muddy land into a shining factory for electric cars in less than 12 months. Before the Shanghai plant began mass production at the end of 2019, Zhu Xiaotong had been promoted to global vice president and president of Greater China. In July last year, Tesla was further promoted to head Tesla's Asia-Pacific region as he expanded in Thailand, Hong Kong, China and Singapore.

Diligence moved Musk to praise Zhu Xiaotong's Chinese team, saying they were "still working late at 3am" and criticizing Americans for not wanting to work at all.

During the COVID-19 epidemic, Tesla's Chinese team worked around the clock to keep the Shanghai factory running. Over the past 12 difficult months, the plant has been upgraded to increase capacity to 1 million vehicles a year. Tesla produced more than 710000 cars in China last year, accounting for about 52 per cent of the company's global production.

During this period, Zhu Xiaotong's professionalism has been fully reflected. When movement restrictions were first introduced, he stayed in the factory, sleeping in the factory with several security guards who ensured that the factory would not be damaged. Tesla stayed there for two whole months when he implemented closed-loop production.

Tesla Shanghai Factory from a few videos and Chinese media reports, he is fully committed to Tesla's work, even his clothes: he almost always wears a Tesla-branded wool jacket. He lives in a government-subsidized two-bedroom rental apartment, about a 10-minute drive from the factory, for less than 2000 yuan a month. Most of his family live 1200 kilometers away in Beijing.

In an interview with Chinese media last year, Zhu Xiaotong said he usually starts work around 6 a. M. to meet his colleagues in North America before they leave work in the evening. Then he goes to the factory, sometimes carpooling with other employees who live in the same building. "the atmosphere is very good," he said. "you get me a courier and I'll get you something. It's a good way to work and live."

Zhu Xiaotong said that as soon as he arrived at the factory, he would spend time checking the production lines in various workshops and discussing with engineers to solve technical problems. "in our company, you have to do most things yourself." He says and explains why he wears an eye-catching jacket and helmet most of the time. In the nearby office, Zhu Xiaotong and many people, including production director Song Gang, share the free space of standing desks. He often shows up there after midnight.

Several current and former employees of Tesla China say Zhu Xiaotong is pragmatic and responsive, and he tends to respond to emails and messages at any time. Zhu Xiaotong described herself as "very tenacious" in an interview with Duke University's Fuca School of Business. He told the story of a severe storm and drainage problems that nearly led to the collapse of a roof after the Shanghai factory was built. He and about 30 other employees, from new employees to old ones, picked up plastic buckets and braved the downpour on the roof to "protect our property."

Zhu Xiaotong (far left) and Musk attended the start ceremony of the Shanghai factory. "the company's culture is not to waste resources and time on fancy and meaningless things," Zhu Xiaotong said in a recent video interview on a rare domestic automobile website. "focus your main energy and resources on what really matters. We don't have a large administrative agency here to serve the management. Book your own tickets and buy your own meals. Everyone is used to this kind of atmosphere, and this is the expression of true equality, right? "

Zhu Xiaotong chose to avoid the spotlight and rarely made public appearances at factory events in Shanghai. In December 2019, for example, Tesla did not show up at an event to deliver keys to the first owners of Model 3 cars.

He communicated frequently with Musk, though he did communicate regularly with Musk, who last visited China in 2019, before the COVID-19 epidemic. On the earnings call in April of that year, Mr Musk said the progress of the Shanghai factory "proved the excellent execution of our local team. Every day I receive an email from Zhu Xiaotong, head of the Shanghai super factory project, with more than a dozen photos in it."

Zhu Xiaotong advocates true egalitarianism, saying that everyone can contact the top leader of the company. "of course, in China, I am not the only one who can communicate with Elon," he said in a recent interview. "in fact, all our employees can communicate with Elon. You can ask anyone in the factory how to contact Elon. They all know Elon's email address and can reply to him directly."

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