Many eyes are on Musk, and everyone wants to know what kind of “drastic” reforms this “superman” who has returned to the business world from politics will make to Tesla.
Recently, Tesla’s personnel change news has aroused widespread attention inside and outside the industry.
According to Bloomberg and a number of foreign media reports, after the departure of Omead Afshar, senior vice president of sales and manufacturing in North America and Europe, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has personally taken over the supervision of sales in Europe and the United States, while the Asian business is coordinated by Tom Zhu, vice president and head of Greater China, and Zhu Xiaotong will also take over Tesla’s global manufacturing business.
This adjustment is seen as Musk’s “emergency intervention” to reverse the decline in sales and reshape the global supply chain, and it is undoubtedly full of uncertaintiesNew energy vehiclesThe market dropped a “bombshell”.
First “save” the European and American markets
Perhaps the most direct reason behind Tesla’s management change is its continued decline in sales in the European and American markets.
From the data point of view, in terms of the European market, data released by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) shows that Tesla’s new car sales in the European market will fall by 27.9% year-on-year in May 2025.
At the same time, European pureElectric vehicleOverall sales increased by 27.2% in May, and total vehicle sales in Europe increased slightly by 1.9% year-on-year in May. However, Tesla’s market performance has not improved, with its market share falling to 1.2% from 1.8% in the same period last year, and sales have been declining for five consecutive months, even the launch of the facelifted Model Y model has not been able to reverse this decline.
In core markets such as Germany and France, Tesla’s share is being eroded by local brands such as Volkswagen and BMW.
Source: Tesla Weibo
The North American market is also not optimistic, with Tesla delivering only 147,000 units in the first quarter of 2025, a new low since the second quarter of 2022. Analysts expect deliveries to fall more than 10% year-on-year to 392,800 units in the second quarter.
Under such a decline in sales, Musk personally took over the sales business in Europe and the United States, which shows the importance he attaches to these two key markets and his determination to turn the situation around.
He expects to adjust sales strategies more quickly by directly controlling the sales link and increasing Tesla’s sales and share in the European and American markets.
Zhu Xiaotong “ascended to the top”, and Chinese executives shine again
While Musk focuses on sales in Europe and the United States, Zhu Xiaotong’s authority has been further strengthened.
Zhu Xiaotong joined Tesla in 2014 and since joining the company, he has quickly risen through the ranks and played a significant role in several key projects. He led the entire process of Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory from construction to mass production, setting an industry record of “10 months to complete and 45 seconds to roll off the production line”, laying a solid foundation for Tesla’s expansion in China and even the global market.
Zhu Xiaotong’s appointment to take over the global manufacturing business and continue to lead Asian sales is strategically significant.
On the one hand, Tesla faces many challenges in global manufacturing, including improving production efficiency, optimizing supply chain management, and reducing production costs. Zhu Xiaotong’s rich manufacturing and operation experience accumulated at the Shanghai factory is expected to be extended to other factories around the world and enhance the competitiveness of Tesla’s global manufacturing system.
For example, by optimizing manufacturing processes, it improves production efficiency at the Fremont plant in California and the Gigafactory in Texas; In key projects such as the construction of the Mexican plant and the mass production of 4680 batteries, the efficient collaboration experience of Chinese suppliers was introduced to further optimize the supply chain system.
On the other hand, the Asian market, especially the Chinese market, has become globalNew energyA key battleground for automotive competition. Zhu Xiaotong has been in charge of the Asia-Pacific business for a long time and has a deep understanding and insight into the Asian market. He will continue to lead Asian sales, and will be able to better formulate sales strategies that meet the needs of the Asian market, seize the opportunities of rapid growth in the Asian market, and increase Tesla’s market share in Asia.
Reuters commented: “He has become Tesla’s ‘No. 2 soul’ after Musk, and his integrated management capabilities of manufacturing and sales are the key to Tesla’s response to the global supply chain crisis.” ”
The challenges and opportunities behind the change
For Tesla, this major management adjustment is not only an emergency move to deal with the current market dilemma, but also an important reshaping of the future global strategic layout.
However, the process has not been smooth sailing, and both Musk and Zhu Xiaotong have faced many challenges.
After Musk takes over the sales business in Europe and the United States, how to formulate an effective sales strategy in a short period of time to stop the trend of declining sales will be the primary problem he faces.
At the same time, he also needs to balance the affairs of Tesla’s other businesses with other companies such as SpaceX and Twitter, and the distribution of energy will be a big challenge.
When Zhu Xiaotong is responsible for the global manufacturing business, he needs to face the differences in culture, regulations, supply chains and other aspects of factories in different regions, and how to promote the successful experience of the Shanghai factory to the world according to local conditions, improve the operational efficiency of global factories, and achieve cost reduction and efficiency increase, is a key issue he needs to overcome.
However, challenges and opportunities coexist, and if this management adjustment can be successfully implemented, Tesla is expected to usher in new breakthroughs in product competitiveness, market share and global supply chain management: the pace of mass production of new products may accelerate, pushing the affordable Model Y and other models to cross the trial production bottleneck.
Tesla’s management shock has undoubtedly added a lot of uncertainty to its future development, but it also provides an opportunity for it to readjust and start again in the complex and changeable global new energy vehicle market.
Both inside and outside the industry are paying close attention to how Musk and Zhu Xiaotong’s new “partners” will lead Tesla to break the game and continue to write the legend in the field of new energy vehicles.