Giga Shanghai is the most important production base of Tesla, and is regarded as a miracle in the history of automotive production by being able to deliver within a year after groundbreaking and construction, as well as elevate capacity to more than 600K units within 3 years. This accomplishment came from Zhu Xiaotong and his team, who now may be transferred to Giga Texas to resolve the latter’s production issues.
Zhu Xiaotong, President of Tesla China, also serving as the CEO of the Greater China region of the company, is responsible for the coordination of businesses in Asia. Zhu is currently heading to Giga Texas, Tesla’s headquarters, and the Tesla Fremony Factory with Giga Shanghai’s Plant Manager Song Gang.
From the report of the Reuters, sources say that the working area reserved for Cybertruck at Giga Texas is now seen with many Chinese engineers, and that the plant aims to begin production for the electric truck starting from 2023. Chinese engineers are also joining the optimized project for the assembly of Model Y’s chassis at the Fremont Factory.
Zhu Xiaotong was seen in the group photo taken with hundreds of workers at Giga Texas last week during the celebration of manufacturing 3,000 units of Model Y, but the former is about to have his work cut out for him since Giga Shanghai’s capacity is more than threefold to that of Giga Texas.
Giga Shanghai does not purely rely on cheap labor for its capacity achievement. According to the video uploaded by Tesla China in the beginning of the year, Giga Shanghai is adopted with multiple innovative engineering designs, including the high-efficiency 3D space transportation pipelines, special floor structure, and also of course the famous Tesla casting machine. All these set-ups have allowed Giga Shanghai to surpass other Giga factories in terms of cost management and production efficiency.
Chinese media had recently covered that Tesla will be naming Zhu as the new CEO, which may not be entirely true. Tesla has so far not commented on such rumor, though it is speculated Zhu would become the CEO of Tesla Global, and will be responsible for global production, sales, and logistics, while Musk will remain as the CEO of the company and guides major orientations.
Despite being the automotive company with the largest market value, Tesla remains somewhat unstable as it is closely connected with Musk’s personal endeavors, and handing over the torch would create significant repercussions at Tesla.
On the other hand, the degree of success in replicating the successful experience from the team at Giga Shanghai in the US remains doubtful. Zhu and his team, should they create another miracle that amplifies Model Y capacity and produces Cybertruck with no hiccups, might just ascend Zhu to the throne by earning the trust of Tesla’s board.
(Cover photo source: Tesla)