SHANGHAI - Tesla’s China chief Tom Zhu has been promoted to take direct oversight of the electric carmaker’s assembly plants in the United States, as well as sales operations in North America and Europe, according to an internal posting of reporting lines reviewed by Reuters.

The Tesla posting showed that Mr Zhu’s title of vice-president of Greater China had not changed, and that he also retained his responsibilities as Tesla’s most senior executive for sales in the rest of Asia as at Tuesday.

The move makes Mr Zhu the highest-profile executive at Tesla after Mr Elon Musk, with direct oversight of deliveries in all its major markets and operations of its key production hubs.

The reporting lines for Mr Zhu would keep Tesla’s vehicle design and development – both areas where Mr Musk has been heavily involved – separate, while creating an apparent deputy to Mr Musk on the more near-term challenges of managing global sales and output.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Mr Zhu and his team were brought in by Tesla in late 2022 to troubleshoot production issues in the US, driving an expectation among his colleagues then that he was being groomed for a bigger role.

His appointment to a global role comes at a time when Mr Musk has been distracted by his acquisition of Twitter, and Tesla analysts and investors have urged action that would deepen the senior executive bench and allow him to focus on Tesla.

Under Mr Zhu, Tesla’s Shanghai plant rebounded strongly from Covid-19 lockdowns in China.

Tesla said on Monday it had delivered 405,278 vehicles in the fourth quarter, short of Wall Street estimates, according to data compiled by Refinitiv. The company delivered 308,600 vehicles in the same period a year earlier.

Mr Zhu, who was born in China but now holds a New Zealand passport, joined Tesla in 2014. Before that, he was a project manager at a company established by his Master of Business Administration classmates at Duke University, advising Chinese contractors working on infrastructure projects in Africa.

During Shanghai’s two-month Covid-19 lockdown, Mr Zhu was among the first batch of employees sleeping in the factory as they sought to keep it running, people who work with him have said.

Mr Zhu, a no-fuss manager who sports a buzz cut, favours Tesla-branded fleece jackets and lives in a government-subsidised apartment that is a 10-minute drive from Tesla’s Gigafactory Shanghai. It was not immediately clear whether he would move after his promotion.

He takes charge of Tesla’s main production hubs at a time when the company is readying the launch of Cybertruck and a revamped version of its Model 3 sedan.

Tesla board member James Murdoch said in November the company had recently identified a potential successor to Mr Musk, without naming the person. Mr Murdoch did not respond to a request for comment. REUTERS