Zhu Xiaotong: Tesla's Cook?

From the success behind the scenes to the focus in front of the scenes, Zhu Xiaotong's name is becoming more and more known.

On March 1, local time, at the Tesla Investor Day, Zhu Xiaotong, global vice president and president of Tesla Greater China, rarely met the public's eyes and attracted people's attention.

He expressed full confidence in Tesla's Gigafactory in Shanghai, saying that the Shanghai factory has a straight design, which can improve efficiency:

We did a lot of simplifications and deletions, and before there was a lot of redundancy in the buffer, we all removed. If there is a job that others can't do well, we think about doing it ourselves, and we have achieved a lot.

The analysis believes that this Tesla investor day not only revealed the much-anticipated "grand plan 3", but also the new Tesla management team. Zhu Xiaotong's debut as an executive caused a lot of discussion: Will he become Musk's successor?

Who is Zhu Xiaotong?

After the successful operation of Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory, Zhu Xiaotong's name gradually began to become known.

According to public information, Zhu Xiaotong joined Tesla in April 2014 as the director of Tesla's China Supercharger Project, helping the company build a network of Superchargers.

In December 2014, Tesla Global Vice President and President of Greater China Wu Bixuan left and Zhu Xiaotong took over. During his tenure as President of Greater China, Zhu Xiaotong led a series of Tesla product localization projects in China, including the opening of the experience center, the spread of new cars in China, and the construction of Tesla's Gigafactory in Shanghai.

By December 2022, Zhu Xiaotong and some of his engineering team members came to Tesla's Austin factory in the United States to oversee the upgrade of the Austin factory. On January 3, 2023, the media, citing an internal company announcement, said that Zhu Xiaotong took over the responsibility of overseeing the company's assembly plants in Europe and North America.

Musk's focus on the company has been worrying investors since he took over Twitter in October 2022, so the board began asking Tesla to develop a succession plan. It is in this context that Zhu Xiaotong is considered a potential successor.

Under Zhu Xiaotong's management, Tesla's Gigafactory in Shanghai took a record nine months from the start of construction to the delivery of the first car. In 2022, Tesla's total global sales were 1.313 million units, of which 710865 were made in China. Even under the influence of the epidemic, Tesla accelerated its recovery at twice the speed of normal.

Therefore, Zhu Xiaotong's ability can be said to have won the recognition of the public.

Tesla Investor Day pushed Zhu Xiaotong from behind the scenes to the front of the scenes

On March 1, 2023, Tesla Investor Day put Zhu Xiaotong in the spotlight again.

On that day, many of the managers who came to power were unfamiliar to Tesla's average investor: Their voices were unrecognizable on quarterly earnings calls, and their titles didn't appear on the company's website.

But at this investor day, Zhu Xiaotong made his debut wearing Tesla's black "Gigafactory" T-shirt. He said he oversees most of the company's operations, including global production, sales and service, and represents all of the company's gigafactories. This makes him almost Tesla's "second-in-command" after Musk.

When analysts asked questions about Sino-US relations, Musk even intimately told him: "Don't be too nervous." ”

Zhu Xiaotong also expressed his views on several issues. He dismissed Tesla's demand concerns in China: "As long as you can provide valuable products at a reasonable price, you don't have to worry about demand." ”

In addition to Zhu Xiaotong, there are several new faces of Tesla management, including Tesla's new general counsel, Brandon Ehrhart. He briefly told investors: "We have an active board and management team. We have met with you, and today is the culmination of that process. We have heard you. ”

Recently, Musk has been trying to promote his management team, mainly at recruitment-focused events, such as Tesla's AI Days in 2021 and 2022.

Investors, analysts and the media have long been closely watching Musk's proposed successor to the public. At Tesla's 2019 annual shareholder meeting, then-vice president of technology Drew Baglino made an awkward appearance on stage alongside co-founder JB Straubel, which sparked talk from the company's close followers who thought Straubel might leave the company.

A few weeks later, Straubel did leave, and Baglino took over from him to lead all powertrains, and Baglino was one of the few named executives in regulatory filings.

Tesla's "Cook"

In December last year, a number of media reported that Tesla was going to build a new gigafactory in the Mexican state of Nuevo León, and the new factory planned to invest $10 billion to ensure the production of the next new entry-level new car, which is the long-awaited Tesla Model 2.

The governor quoted Zhu Xiaotong as saying that Tesla's planned Gigafactory near the city of Monterrey, in the state, will be faster than the record 9 months of production at the Shanghai Gigafactory.

From a profit perspective, the Chinese market is also important, because cars produced in China are more cost-effective than cars made in gigafactories elsewhere. Given his low-key and efficient operational capabilities, Tesla investors began affectionately calling Zhu Xiaotong Tesla's "Tim Cook."

In fact, in December last year, there were rumors that Musk decided to appoint Zhu Xiaotong as Tesla's global CEO.

In August 2011, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs appointed Tim Cook, then chief operating officer, as CEO. Until then, Cook had been unknown, but he proved to have managed to grow Apple into the most valuable company in the world.

According to the Office Board.com website, Zhu Xiaotong holds a bachelor's degree in business in information technology from Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand and an MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. Notably, Cook is also an alumnus of Fuqua.

Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, called Tesla's investor day a showcase for Musk and the Tesla community, arguing that Zhu "clearly played an important role in Tesla's success in China and globally." Fund manager Ross Gerber tweeted:

It seems that we know who is the second in command of production.