Tesla’s Director of Manufacturing Engineering at Gigafactory Texas, Renjie Zhu, announced his departure from the company this week. This latest resignation marks a continuation of recent staff changes at the electric vehicle manufacturer.
Zhu revealed his decision to leave in a LinkedIn post on Monday, concluding a five-year tenure that included significant contributions in both Texas and China. Since January 2023, Zhu has overseen the launch and production ramp of the Cybertruck at the Texas facility.
“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 wrote. “It has been great honour and pleasure working with those most talented yet super diligent colleagues, as well as all of our amazing vendor partners, either back in Shanghai or here in Austin.”
Zhu’s role at Giga Texas followed his tenure as Manufacturing Director at Gigafactory China, where he managed operations for the Model 3 and Model Y from February 2021 to December 2022. He initially joined Giga Shanghai in March 2019 to develop the site’s body-in-white (BIW) manufacturing team.
Hinting at his future plans, Zhu mentioned, “like a Falcon 9 back to the base to refuel and prepare for next launch,” without disclosing specifics.
Reflecting on his time at Tesla, Zhu stated, “Every single day in the past 5 years we brought the world a little closer to the transition to sustainable energy, not just with our incredible products Model 3/Model Y/Cybertruck, but the innovative ways in which we built those high volume production lines with an unprecedentedly high efficiency and delivered the products to our customers with impeccable quality.”
He added, “Everyone actively involved in these cheerful accomplishments feels the fundamental changes we brought to the automobile manufacturing industry since the start of legendary GFSH in 2019. I’m so grateful that I had the chance of playing a big part in it with y’all!”
Zhu’s departure follows a series of layoffs at Tesla, affecting various departments including advertising and Supercharging teams. On the same day as Zhu’s announcement, Tesla re-hired Max de Zegher, the company’s former Director of Charging in North America, as part of ongoing adjustments within the company.
