Tesla’s head of Gigafactory Shanghai, Song Gang, who is behind a lot of the automaker’s manufacturing success, confirmed that he left the company.
Song was one of Tesla’s first manufacturing employees in China.
After a decade of working in the auto industry in China, including with Ford and GM, Song was hired by Tesla in a wide-ranging role in charge of many aspects of Tesla’s manufacturing operations. That was in late 2018 when Tesla started construction of the factory.
He is credited with being a big part of Tesla’s success in building, setting up, and getting Gigafactory Shanghai to production in a record time. And later, it became Tesla’s biggest manufacturing hub.
Last year, Song was made Vice-President in charge of all operations at Gigafactory Shanghai.
He was also on the team that Tom Zhu, Musk’s right-hand man at Tesla at the time, brought from China to help fix issues at Gigafactory Texas.
Today, Song confirmed that he is leaving Tesla. He confirmed this on his LinkedIn profile and in a letter to employees:
Today is my last day at Tesla and I feel extremely fortunate to have worked and fought with everyone on this plot of land.
Fei Wenjin, a recently promoted senior director of quality at the plant, will now be in charge of the factory, according to a Bloomberg report.
Song is leaving as Tesla’s sales and production in China appear to be peaking with only Model 3 and Model Y currently being produced in the country, which happens to be the world’s largest EV market.
Top comment by Bill Kerr
I have no inside information and claim no secret knowledge, but it is clear that Tesla is in a different phase of its arc as a company. It is no longer a startup, no longer growing sales at an exponential rate, and the company itself has shifted priorities away from automotive development.
The first two parts of that transition are natural and expected. I feel certain that the third part, shifting priorities, is a strategic error, at least in the haphazard way it is being done. Top talent that can see that their areas of expertise are not core to the company's function, that see their personal career path limited, are sure to move on to new opportunities.
Son Gang was brought to Austin, near the company's headquarters where new products and projects were happening. Being sent back to his old job in China certainly felt like a demotion and the end of promotion possibilities. I suspect the quiet exodus began with Jerome Guillen leaving as head of the Semi's development effort. People feel that they are put in a dead end job and they leave. Maintaining a sense of mission, of motion toward a shared goal, is key to keeping a team together. Tesla had that, but has been steadily giving it away.
Tesla needs new and cheaper vehicles in the market, which is increasingly growing competitive.
Electrek’s Take
As I have been reporting for years, I think Tesla’s talent exodus is a real problem. We have seen a ton of top talent leave and I’d put Song in that group.
Elon fans love to point out that they might leave for various reasons, and that’s true, but it doesn’t change the fact that they are gone.
There are still plenty of talented people at Tesla, and I wish them luck. Still, based on my close reporting on this for years (I literally spend hours every week tracking employee movements at Tesla), I can confidently say that there are fewer now than a few years ago.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments