Elon Musk Dispatches Tesla’s ‘Fireman’ to China Amid Slowing Sales

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By Raffaele Huang

(The Wall Street Journal) — When Elon Musk made a surprise visit last month to Beijing, the Tesla chief executive brought along a trusted lieutenant: Tom Zhu, the company’s former China head who had skyrocketed through the ranks as a turnaround guru.

Now, Zhu — one of just three senior executives including Musk currently named on Tesla’s website — is getting deployed from Tesla’s Texas headquarters back to China at a vulnerable time for the world’s most valuable automaker, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Zhu, who was born in China and educated in the U.S. and New Zealand, had last year been promoted to Tesla’s global leadership team in Austin, where he shouldered some CEO duties as Musk split his time elsewhere. Zhu is credited with turning Tesla’s Shanghai factory into one of the company’s standout performers. Some employees refer to Zhu internally as the “fireman” due to his ability to troubleshoot issues and hit high targets.