By Michael Elkins
According to an exclusive report by Reuters Tuesday, Tesla's (NASDAQ:TSLA) China chief Tom Zhu has been promoted to take direct oversight of the electric carmaker's U.S. assembly plants as well as sales operations in North America and Europe. The report cites an internal posting of reporting lines reviewed by Reuters.
The move makes Zhu the highest profile executive at Tesla after Chief Executive Elon Musk, with direct oversight for deliveries in all its major markets and operations of its key production hubs.
The reporting lines for Zhu would keep Tesla's vehicle design separate while creating an apparent deputy to Musk on the more near-term challenges of managing global sales and output.
According to Reuters, the posting showed that Zhu's title of vice president for 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 of Tuesday.
Zhu and his team were brought in by Tesla late last year to troubleshoot production issues in the United States, driving an expectation among his colleagues then that he was being groomed for a bigger role.
Zhu joined Tesla in 2014. Before that, he was a project manager at a company established by his MBA classmates at Duke University, advising Chinese contractors working on infrastructure projects in Africa.
Shares of TSLA are down 4.95% in pre-market trading on Tuesday.