Tesla’s head of Cybertruck manufacturing is out

Over the last month, Tesla has been conducting several major waves of layoffs across its entire organization.

At least 10% of the workforce has been let go, but Electrek has heard that as much as 20% of the entire headcount could be gone by the time everything is said and done.

Tesla’s automotive business, including charging and manufacturing, as well as new product launches, took the biggest hit as Elon Musk appears to be transitioning Tesla away from its EV manufacturing roots to focus on autonomous driving products.

Now, the latest Tesla executive to leave is Renjie Zhu, director of manufacturing in charge of Cybertruck production. He announced on LinkedIn:

After triumphing the epic launch of Cybertruck program and ramping the volume production line to the steady 1K/W throughput orbit for the past 16 months in GFTX, also 7 weeks after the 5th Tesla-versary, my adventure with this great company has come to an end.

Zhu was in charge of manufacturing operations for Tesla’s highly succesful Model 3 and Model Y production lines at Gigafactory Shanghai.

In 2023, he came to Gigafactory Austin after Tom Zhu, then the head of Tesla’s operations in China, was placed in charge of roughly Tesla’s entire automotive operations with the goal of replicating Tesla’s success in Shanghai at its North American factories.

As we reported, Tom Zhu recently went back to China, leading the company’s effort there, and gave up his responsibilities in North America.

As for Renjie Zhu, it’s unclear if he left Tesla of his own accord or if he was let go as part of the layoffs.

We recently reported that some Tesla employees are leaving the company due to low morale at the company amid the layoffs.

The Tesla Cybertruck production ramp has been going about as expected, with Tesla achieving a production rate of 1,000 units in a week last month. The goal is 5,000 a week in the first half of next year.

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