Tesla Motors Inc.’s share price down, President of China operations to step down

Tesla Motors Inc. announced that its top executive in China is to leave the company. According to a statement taken by the electric-car makers spokesman, Richard Lan, the President of the China-based operations of Tesla, Veronica Wu, has issued her resignation. Mr. Lan refused to reveal when the last day of Ms. Wus tenure will be.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the companys official Mr. Lan also said: “Tesla is going very well in China. We remain confident in the Chinese market.”

U.S.-based Tesla also said in the statement, cited by Bloomberg: “We’ll continue to focus on providing an amazing experience to all customers, so that they can become our advocates and help us accelerate the transition to sustainable transportation.”

According to the e-mailed statement by the company, the responsibilities of Ms. Wu will be transferred to the Chief of Teslas charging network development in the country, Tom Zhu.

The management changes in Tesla come at a time when the electric-car manufacturer is showing signs of growth due to a series of incentive policies initiated by the government. The company has been recently focused on increasing its competitiveness by investing hundreds of millions of dollars in building charging outlets on the territory of China.

Veronica Wu was not reached for comment. She has spent twelve months in the company after joining in December last year from the China-based division of Apple Inc. Now her responsibilities related to operational leadership in China will be taken by Mr. Zhu. The decision of Ms. Wu to depart from the company comes shortly after Teslas China Chief of communications, Peggy Yang, resigned.

Mr. Zhu joined the company in April this year and has been leading the charging network development in China. He is also known as a co-founder of Kaibo International.

Tesla Motors Inc. was down 0.90% to close at $207.00 per share on Friday, marking a one-year gain of 40.37%. The company is valued at $26.31 billion. According to CNN Money, the 19 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Tesla have a median target of $300.00, with a high estimate of $400.00 and a low estimate of $75.00. The median estimate represents a +44.93% increase from the last price of $207.00.