BEIJING (Reuters) – Tesla Inc. is looking for a design director in China, part of efforts to open a “full-featured” studio in Shanghai or Beijing and design electric cars tailored to Chinese consumer tastes, according to three people who have knowledge of matter.
The U.S. carmaker’s human resource managers, as well as several headhunters, have been pulling the industry for the past four months, the sources said.
They are looking for ‘bicultural’ candidates with 20 or more years of experience who are familiar with Chinese taste and can bridge the gaps between China and the United States, they added.
According to the people, some candidates were interviewed by Tesla’s global design chief, Franz von Holzhausen, although it was not clear how many potential candidates were approached by the company and recruiters.
All three sources spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity and confidential nature of the case.
Tesla and von Holzhausen did not respond to email requests for comment.
China is the largest automotive market in the world, plus the largest for all electric vehicles, with sales volumes expected to reach about 1.5 million vehicles this year, according to consultant LMC Automotive. It’s also Tesla’s no. 2-market to the United States.
The carmaker’s plans for the design studio have not been fully developed, and sources say Tesla will likely wait for more clarity on strained US and Chinese relations under a new US president before making a final decision on the move and all its details.
The talent search, which according to the sources was mainly focused in China, joins the comments of Elon Musk, Tesla boss, early last year.
‘I think something that would be super cool would be … to create a design and engineering center in China to design an original car in China for global consumption. I think it will be very exciting, “he said during a media event in Shanghai.
FLOOR OF ACTIVITY
Musk’s interest in China’s car development is part of a broader push by Tesla to increase the company’s global sales volume, exceeding the 500,000 vehicles per year, which fell short by just 450 in 2020.
All three sources said that Tesla’s search for a director of China studio began around September, and that there was a boom as fast as December when a number of headhunters used LinkedIn and other means to approach candidates.
One of the sources, who is aware of Tesla’s headhunting activities in China, said that once a design director has been appointed, Tesla will recruit the director team, which will probably be around 20, and will include designers plus modelers who help design versions to transform into clay. models.
All the sources said that the planned center was aimed at being a comprehensive design equipment, with one describing it as a ‘full-function studio’, which would not only help to conceptualize the design of a car , but would also come up with the final shape – digital three-dimensional data – of a model.
The data can then be handed over to Tesla’s vehicle engineers, who are mostly based in Northern California.
Two of the sources said that Tesla’s China studio will probably also do research on the tastes of Chinese consumers, as well as work for cars that are expected to be produced at Tesla’s vehicle assembly plant in Shanghai, where designs are being adjusted to make sure that specific components fit within the engineering. specifications.
‘They want to give vehicle design a much greater bias towards China; ‘they have done a lot here by setting up a big manufacturing yard and selling a lot of cars, but it looks like Tesla is ready to take root,’ said one of the sources.
This push could lead to a more independent Tesla China, the person, who has spent more than a decade in the country, worked at, among others, design centers run by global automakers.
Chinese consumers bought about 145,000 Tesla vehicles last year, accounting for about a third of the company’s total volume, LMC said.
$ 25,000 ELECTRIC MOTOR
Two of the sources said that a likely ‘China-specific’ model was a lower-cost generator, such as a $ 25,000 electric car that Musk referred to during a Battery Day event in September, which he said Tesla may aim to bring about about the market. three years.
Musk said Tesla is confident it will be able to reach the market with a very compelling $ 25,000 electric vehicle that is also completely autonomous.
At that price, according to two of the sources as well as industry experts, it would probably be a compact car, smaller than the Tesla Model 3, which would be just as affordable as some ordinary petrol-powered vehicles.
Compact cars are not big sellers in the United States, where larger, taller vehicles such as Ford’s F-150 pickup and SUVs, as well as mid-size sedans, dominate the road.
They account for about 10% of the U.S. vehicle market. In contrast, compact accounts for 25% of sales in China, or about 5-6 million cars a year, according to consulting firm LMC Automotive.
That’s why the planned $ 25,000 car that Musk discussed will be better suited to the Chinese market, according to two sources and industry experts.
“A compact Tesla car will perform well in China, as well as in the rest of Asia and Europe,” said Yale Zhang, head of Shanghai-based automotive consulting firm Automotive Foresight. “It could put a serious dent in sales of cars like Toyota’s Corolla and the Volkswagen Golf.”
Reported by Norihiko Shirouzu; Additional reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit; Edited by Pravin Char