Zwei Star-Angestellte von Tesla haben zu Xiaomi gewechselt.
Two top managers from Tesla China have been recruited by Xiaomi.
According to a report from LanJing News, Song Gang, the former vice - president for production and manufacturing at the Tesla factory in Shanghai, could take on the position of factory director at Xiaomi Auto and form a dual leadership with the current factory director, Ji Guowei.
Actually, it was reported before this that this key person, who led the establishment and capacity increase of Tesla's Gigafactory in Shanghai, would choose Xiaomi Auto.
Song Gang is not the only core manager from Tesla China who has switched to Xiaomi. There are reports that Kong Yanshuang, the former general manager of Tesla China, was hired by Xiaomi Auto in early March 2026 and will take over the position of the former director of Xiaomi Auto, Li Xiaorui, to handle automobile sales work.
However, so far, Xiaomi has shown no reaction.
In view of the current reports, Song Gang is a "Golden Factory Director" on the production side, and Kong Yanshuang is a "Sales Champion" on the sales side. With these two experts on board, one will probably see a Xiaomi car that has better and better sales channels and can be delivered more and more quickly.
"Golden Factory Director"
Song Gang, the former vice - president for production and manufacturing at Tesla's Gigafactory in Shanghai, is not only hailed as a "Golden Factory Director" but is also an absolute expert in the field of automobile manufacturing.
Before joining Tesla in 2018, he had already accumulated 15 years of experience in the automobile industry. He worked successively at Shanghai GM, Dürr, Ford, and Zhidou Electric Vehicle. At General Motors, he had a six - year career and reached the highest position as the national head of manufacturing engineering. Then he worked as a senior manager for capacity planning in the Asia - Pacific region at Ford.
At Tesla, he was not only the head of the Shanghai factory but also the first employee of the Tesla Shanghai factory. It can be said that he personally led the establishment and capacity increase of Tesla's Gigafactory in Shanghai.
At that time, Tesla had just set up its location in Shanghai as the first foreign 100% wholly - owned project for the production of complete vehicles. Construction of the factory began on January 7, 2019; in October, it received production approval and started producing the Model 3. It only took 11 months to achieve the industry miracle from the foundation laying to the first roll - off of the Model 3.
Later, he brought the monthly capacity of the factory to a world - record value of 80,000 vehicles and became the key person for Tesla's local production in China.
In 2020, Tesla began building the second phase of the Shanghai factory for the local production of the Model Y. This project was also led by Song Gang. Before his departure, the Gigafactory in Shanghai was already the factory with the highest productivity and best quality in the world, and the proportion of local components was over 95%.
In addition to the complete vehicle manufacturing factory, Song Gang was also involved in the establishment and setup of Tesla's battery and motor teams.
One must consider that the factory director of the Shanghai Gigafactory is the most important position at Tesla China after Zhu Xiaotong, the president for Greater China, who leads the factories of the first and second phases, the battery, and the motor in Shanghai.
It can be said that at Tesla China, all production - related departments are managed by the factory director, except for the supply chain, which is controlled by the US headquarters.
In addition, Song Gang also worked at Tesla in the United States and was involved in factory construction and business development of potential facilities. Then he returned to Shanghai to build Tesla's energy storage (Megapack) Gigafactory. This is also Tesla's first energy storage Gigafactory outside the United States.
It is not difficult to see how strong Song Gang's professional competence is. Actually, there were already rumors at the end of last year that Song Gang would join Xiaomi. At that time, it was said that after his departure, Song Gang intended to join a domestic up - and - coming automobile manufacturer that is currently suffering from capacity problems.
Many people thought it would be Xiaomi Auto because the capacity problems of Xiaomi Auto at that time seriously affected the delivery of the SU7. However, later, Wang Hua, the head of public relations at Xiaomi, made a public statement: "The highly - praised Mr. Song is really excellent, but our Mr. Ji, the factory director of Xiaomi Auto, is also very competent. That's enough!"
The public generally interpreted these words as an indirect denial. However, shortly afterwards, there were reports that Song Gang had already found a new job after his departure and would work as a senior vice - president for the integrated supply chain at Envision Group, which finally silenced the rumors.
Now, the rumors about Song Gang's joining Xiaomi Auto have resurfaced, and the details are even more specific. A person familiar with the matter revealed: "He could be employed as the factory director and work with factory director Ji Guowei. The factory director is a very important position because the Xiaomi Auto factory has a large number of employees and the management responsibility is very high."
"Sales Champion"
The other manager who has switched from Tesla to Xiaomi also has an impressive career.
It is Kong Yanshuang, the former general manager of Tesla China. The title alone shows her central position in the Tesla China system.
So far, there is only limited public information about Kong Yanshuang, but her career is closely related to Tesla's development in the Chinese market. Since Tesla uses a direct - sales model in China, it means that every aspect of the sales system - from the location selection of branches, employee training, test - drive process, delivery experience to the standardization of customer service - must be directly issued by the headquarters and strictly implemented.
Kong Yanshuang is the "Chief Architect" of this system.
She has successively held key positions as the general manager of the South China region and the general manager of the Chinese region at Tesla and has long - term led the layout of Tesla's sales system in the Chinese market. She has built Tesla's sales system in China from the ground up and developed it from establishment to expansion. She has witnessed the entire expansion cycle of Tesla in China.
If one were to summarize her core competencies with three key words, they would be systematization, fine - tuning, and market penetration.
During her time as the general manager of the South China region, she built the direct - sales network in first - tier cities such as Guangzhou and Shenzhen and at the same time expanded the presence in third - and fourth - tier cities to create the earliest service network structure of Tesla in China.
Between 2022 and 2023, as the general manager of the Chinese region, she participated in several media interviews to present the achievements and strategies of Tesla China. In May 2024, as part of a management restructuring at Tesla, she was transferred to the Shanghai region to continue leading sales management.
It is remarkable that according to a report from Jiemian News, together with Kong Yanshuang, a middle - level manager from Tesla was also hired by Xiaomi. This employee is called "Eason" and works as a "Political Leader" in the Xiaomi Auto area. He belongs to the Xiaomi staff, which is a central department that helps the CEO develop and monitor the corporate strategy and is directly subordinate to CEO Lei Jun.
Standing on the Shoulders of Tesla
The recruitment of two experts from Tesla is closely related to the current situation of Xiaomi Auto.
Yesterday, Xiaomi Auto released its delivery data for March. The total delivery volume of Xiaomi Auto has exceeded 20,000 vehicles. The new SU7 has delivered over 7,000 vehicles in nine days, which corresponds to a daily average of almost 800 vehicles.
These figures are still impressive compared to other new automobile manufacturers. But compared to the monthly record of 50,000 vehicles in December 2025 and the annual target of 550,000 vehicles for 2026, the gap is still very large.
In the first quarter of last year, Xiaomi Auto delivered a total of over 79,000 vehicles. To achieve the annual target, the average monthly delivery volume in the remaining nine months must be about 52,000 vehicles.