The electric car company is struggling as anti-Musk sentiment sparks boycotts and protests. It’s not likely to happen, but who could step in if he relinquished the “TechnoKing” CEO reins?
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TechTranscript
00:00Today on Forbes, five people who could run Tesla better than Elon Musk.
00:07Elon Musk runs six companies, each valued in excess of $1 billion, and since January
00:13has also spearheaded DOGE, President Trump's efforts to radically downsize the federal
00:18government.
00:19How does he have time for it all?
00:21The short answer is he doesn't.
00:24At some of his companies he has loyal and competent lieutenants, like SpaceX's president
00:28and COO Gwynne Shotwell, running things day to day.
00:32But that's not true at Tesla, the publicly traded EV maker with a market cap of $770
00:38billion.
00:39It's highly unlikely, but if the world's wealthiest person were to suddenly decide
00:44to step back from his CEO role at the EV maker, there's no obvious successor to
00:49lead the company at this tricky juncture.
00:51When sales are falling, its EV tech edge is threatened by Chinese competitors like BYD,
00:57and it trails Waymo in the emerging robo-taxi business.
01:01If he did step down, it would trigger an even bigger sell-off of Tesla shares than the 50%
01:05slide that's occurred in recent months.
01:08Much of the company's value, far larger than any other carmaker's, and 118 times
01:14its earnings, is tied to Musk's persona as a business visionary.
01:18Dan Ives, a bullish Tesla analyst for Wedbush, told Forbes, quote,
01:23Musk is Tesla, and Tesla is Musk.
01:26Anyone else would change the whole story.
01:30Big public companies typically have a deep bench of in-house CEO candidates waiting in
01:35the wings, managers who've proven they're up for the job, and who investors and analysts
01:39are familiar with.
01:41That's not the case at Tesla, which Musk has so profoundly dominated in his 17 years
01:46as CEO and top shareholder since he bought into it.
01:49In fact, it has no president, COO, or EVP.
01:54And aside from its CFO, the highest-ranking executive below Musk is a single senior vice
01:59president.
02:00The successor pool is far, far smaller than at any other large auto, manufacturing, or
02:06tech company, in part because Musk has pushed out stars such as Jerome Guillen, former president
02:11of auto operations, or Doug Field, a famed Apple engineer who was key to getting Tesla's
02:17top-selling Model Y and Model 3 to market.
02:21We came up with a list of five people who have qualities that make them viable replacements,
02:26though without the social media trolling, bombast, and attention addiction Musk is known
02:30for.
02:31Here are a couple possibilities.
02:33First, there's J.B. Straubel.
02:37After Musk himself, no other individual is more clearly suited to lead Tesla than Straubel.
02:42Straubel is the company's CEO and co-founder of battery recycler and components maker Redwood
02:46Materials and a Tesla board member.
02:49Musk brought him in as a co-founder in 2004, and he was its CTO until 2019, overseeing
02:55the development of its electric motors and battery packs in Tesla's earliest days and
03:00getting its massive battery gigafactory in Nevada up and running.
03:05As one of Tesla's five co-founders and a board member since 2023, the 49-year-old Straubel
03:10is intimately familiar with its history and all aspects of its operations.
03:15While he and Musk first bonded over a shared interest in electric vehicles in 2003, they
03:20have very different personalities.
03:22Where Musk is volatile and prone to exaggerated claims, Straubel, with engineering degrees
03:27from Stanford, is low-key, calm, and enjoys discussing the intricacies of battery material
03:33science.
03:35Another possibility is Tom Zhu, Tesla's only senior vice president.
03:41Zhu is the carmaker's top executive for automotive operations below Musk, and is based in China.
03:46He's also become its de facto COO, particularly as Musk spends less of his time at the carmaker.
03:52Zhu, who is 44 years old, established his importance to the company by overseeing the
03:57construction and operation of its Shanghai plant that's become vital to Tesla's profitability
04:02since 2020.
04:04He joined in 2014, after several years in a variety of roles with Kaibo Engineering Group,
04:10a Chinese civil engineering company.
04:12Zhu's success leading Tesla's Chinese business, and his familiarity with that market, including
04:18its vast EV supply base, will continue to be a crucial asset as the company works to
04:23stay competitive and profitable there, and makes him a competitive candidate to be Musk's successor.
04:31For full coverage and to see our list of all five top contenders, check out Alan Onsman's
04:35piece on Forbes.com.
04:39This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes, thanks for tuning in.