Tesla's Shanghai factory will be taken over by Fei Wenjin, and the former factory director Song Gang will join Envision Energy. | Exclusive from 36Kr.
36Kr exclusively learned that Song Gang, the former vice president of manufacturing at Tesla and the former factory director of the Shanghai Gigafactory, who recently left his position, will join Envision Energy in a few weeks at the earliest. Envision Energy is an energy company specializing in the integration of wind turbines and energy storage systems.
The position of the factory director of Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory will be taken over by Fei Wenjin, the senior director of automotive and parts quality. Insiders told 36Kr that Fei Wenjin's quality department has contact with various processes, is familiar with the entire production process, and he is also very energetic.
The position of the factory director of Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory is one of the key positions in Tesla's China system, overseeing the Phase I, Phase II, battery, and motor factories in Shanghai. Except for the supply chain directly managed by Tesla's US headquarters, the rest of the manufacturing-related businesses are managed by the factory director.
Song Gang previously worked at Ford and SAIC-GM and has a background in procurement and supply chain. After joining Tesla in 2018, he led Tesla to achieve the localized production of Model 3 within one year.
At the same time, he was also responsible for the commissioning of the Phase II factory where Model Y is produced. Currently, Tesla's Phase II factory has become a factory with leading production line efficiency and quality globally.
After Song Gang's departure was made public, the industry speculated about his career move, and there were continuous rumors that Song Gang would join new energy vehicle companies such as Xiaomi and NIO.
According to 36Kr's understanding from the inside of vehicle companies where such rumors originated, such as Xiaomi and NIO, there are currently no signs that Song Gang will join them.
Wang Hua, the general manager of the public relations department of Xiaomi Group, publicly stated on a social platform, "Our factory director of Xiaomi Automobile Factory is also very excellent, and that's enough," indirectly denying the rumor that Song Gang would join Xiaomi.
A senior executive of a vehicle company told 36Kr that we should believe that the local manufacturing system is also full of talents, and Tesla's achievements are also based on China's industrial foundation, "It is not in a deified state".
In the early stage of the industry's development, the manufacturing model of Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory was leading, but with the efforts of domestic vehicle companies in automotive manufacturing, this gap is narrowing or disappearing.
Since November 2019, when the first vehicle of Li Auto rolled off the production line, in less than five years, this new energy vehicle company has successfully produced 1 million vehicles.
Xiaomi, which was established for three years and entered the automotive manufacturing industry for the first time, set a record for the fastest production of 100,000 vehicles by a new vehicle company in just 9 months. Less than a year after its listing, its monthly output has exceeded 20,000 vehicles.
Behind such speed, the manufacturing model of domestic vehicle companies is becoming increasingly mature.
Integrated die-casting is a manufacturing process that Tesla first adopted and then became the industry mainstream. And Xiaomi's "Xiaomi Super Large Die-Casting" launched this year weighs 9,100 tons, not only exceeding the 6,000 tons of Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory, but even 100 tons heavier than Tesla's most advanced 9,000-ton die-casting equipment in the United States.
The core of Li Auto's factory is intelligent manufacturing. Li Auto's independently developed "Li-MOS" management system covers the entire cycle from order scheduling to vehicle production, achieving closed-loop management of the entire process in various business areas, effectively improving product quality and production efficiency.
Currently, it only takes 25 hours for Li Auto to complete a vehicle from a steel plate to the final product.
Behind the "deification" of Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory, its local supply chain exceeds 95%, and 99.99% of its employees are Chinese. Both consumers and vehicle manufacturers are demystifying this "myth".
The progress in automotive manufacturing is actually the result of the continuous advancement of Made in China. The increasingly perfect industrial chain is bringing opportunities for domestic vehicle companies to overtake in the manufacturing level.