BEIJING (Reuters) – Tesla Inc is seeking a design director in China as part of efforts to open a ‘full-fledged’ studio in Shanghai or Beijing and design electric cars tailored to Chinese consumer tastes, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.
The U.S. automaker’s hiring managers, as well as several headhunters, have been chasing the industry for the past four months, the sources said.
They are looking for “bi-cultural” candidates with 20 or more years of experience who are familiar with Chinese tastes and can bridge the gap between China and the United States, she added.
Some of the candidates, according to people, were interviewed by Franz von Holzhausen, head of Tesla’s global design, although it was not clear how many potential candidates had been approached by the company and by recruiters.
All three sources spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity and confidentiality of the case.
Tesla and von Holzhausen did not respond to requests for comment by email.
According to consulting firm LMC Automotive, China is the largest automotive market in the world, plus the largest for all-electric vehicles, with sales volume expected to be around 1.5 million vehicles this year. It is also Tesla’s No. 2 market after the United States.
The automaker’s plans for the design studio have not yet been fully fleshed out, and sources believe Tesla will likely wait for more clarity on the tense US-China relations under a new US president before making a final decision on the move. and all its details.
The search for talent, which sources said was mostly focused on China, echoes Tesla boss Elon Musk’s comments early last year.
“I think something that would be super cool would be … to create a Chinese design and engineering center to actually design an original car in China for global consumption. I think this would be very exciting, ”he said at a media event in Shanghai.
FLOWERING OF ACTIVITY
Musk’s interest in developing cars in China is part of a broader push from Tesla to push the company’s global sales volume well past 500,000 cars per year, reaching just under 450 by 2020.
All three sources said Tesla’s search for a Chinese studio director began around September, and that there was not a flurry of activity until December when a number of headhunters used LinkedIn and other means to approach candidates.
One source, who has knowledge of Tesla’s headhunting activities in China, said that once a design director was hired, Tesla would recruit the director’s team, which would likely be about 20 people, including designers and modelers who help with converting design view into clay models.
All sources said the planned center was intended as an all-encompassing design outfit, one of which described it as a “ fully functional studio, ” that would help not only conceptualize a car’s design, but come up with its final form – digital three-dimensional data – from a model.
The data can then be handed over to Tesla’s vehicle engineers, who are usually based in Northern California.
Two of the sources said Tesla’s Chinese studio would also likely be researching Chinese consumer tastes as well as work for cars expected to be produced at Tesla’s Shanghai vehicle assembly plant, where designs are modified to ensure specific components fit. in engineers’ specifications.
“They want to give vehicle design much more towards China; they’ve done a lot here, set up a major manufacturing site and sold a lot of electric cars, but it looks like Tesla is ready to take root, ”said one source.
This push could lead to a more independent Tesla China, added the person, who has worked in the country for more than a decade in design centers operated by global automakers, among others.
Chinese consumers bought about 145,000 Tesla cars last year, accounting for about a third of the company’s total global volumes, LMC said.
$ 25,000 ELECTRIC CAR
Two of the sources said a likely ‘China-specific’ model was a lower-cost volume generator, such as a $ 25,000 electric car, which Musk referred to at a Battery Day event in September, which he said Tesla would aim to achieve in about three years.
Musk said Tesla was confident it could enter the market with “a very attractive $ 25,000 electric car that is also fully autonomous.”
According to two industry sources and experts, at that price it would likely be a compact car, smaller than Tesla’s Model 3, which would be as affordable as some regular gasoline cars.
Compact cars are not big sellers in the United States, where larger, taller vehicles like Ford’s F-150 pickup truck and SUVs, as well as mid-size sedans, dominate the road.
They account for about 10% of America’s total auto market. In contrast, according to consultancy LMC Automotive, compact cars make up 25% of sales in China, or about 5-6 million cars per year.
That’s why the planned $ 25,000 car that Musk discussed would be better suited to the Chinese market, according to the two industry sources and experts.
“A Tesla compact car would do well in China, as well as in the rest of Asia and Europe,” said Yale Zhang, head of the Shanghai-based Automotive Foresight consultancy. “It could potentially put a serious dent in sales of cars such as Toyota’s Corolla and Volkswagen Golf.”
Reporting by Norihiko Shirouzu; Additional reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit; Editing by Pravin Char