The US carmaker's human resources managers, as well as
several headhunters, have been trawling the industry over the past four months,
the sources said.
They are looking for "bi-cultural" candidates with
20 or more years of experience who are familiar with Chinese tastes and can
bridge the gaps between China and the United States, they added.
Some candidates have been interviewed by Tesla's global
design chief Franz von Holzhausen, according to the people, though it was not
clear how many potential candidates had been approached by the company and
recruiters.
All three sources spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity
due to the sensitivity and confidential nature of the matter.
Tesla and von Holzhausen did not respond to emailed requests
for comment.
China is the world's biggest auto market, plus the largest
for all-electric vehicles with sales volumes expected to reach roughly 1.5
million vehicles there this year, according to consultancy LMC Automotive. It
is also Tesla's No.2 market after the United States.
The carmaker's plans for the design studio are not fully
developed, and the sources believe Tesla will likely wait for more clarity on
strained US-China relations under a new US president before making a final
decision on the move and all its details.
The talent search, which the sources said was mainly focused
within China, fits with comments from Tesla boss Elon Musk early last year.
"I think something that would be super cool would be
... to create a China design and engineering centre to actually design an
original car in China for worldwide consumption. I think this would be very
exciting," he said at a media event in Shanghai.
Flurry of activity
Musk's interest in developing cars in China is part of a
broader push by Tesla to boost the company's global sales volume well past the
5,00,000-vehicle-a-year mark, which it came just 450 short of hitting in 2020.
All three sources said Tesla's search for a China studio
director began around September, and that there was a flurry of activity as
recently as December when a number of headhunters used LinkedIn and other means
to approach candidates.
One of the sources, who has knowledge of Tesla's headhunting
activities in China, said that once a design director was hired, Tesla would
recruit the director's team which would likely be around 20-strong and include
designers plus modellers who help turn design renderings into clay models.
All the sources said the planned centre aimed to be a
comprehensive design outfit, with one describing it as a "full-function
studio", which would not only help conceptualise the design of a car but
also come up with the final shape – digital three-dimensional data - of a
model.
The data could then be handed over to Tesla's vehicle
engineers, who are mostly based in northern California.
Two of the sources said Tesla's China studio would likely
also carry out research on Chinese consumer tastes, as well as work for cars
expected to be produced at Tesla's vehicle assembly plant in Shanghai, where
designs are tweaked to make sure specific components fit within engineers'
specifications.
"They want to give vehicle design a lot more bias
toward China; they have already done a lot here, setting up a major
manufacturing site and having sold a ton of EVs, but it seems Tesla's ready to
put roots down," said one of the sources.
This push might lead to a more independent Tesla China,
added the person, who has spent more than a decade in the country working at
design centres run by global automakers, among other places.
Chinese consumers bought around 1,45,000 Tesla vehicles last
year, accounting for roughly a third of the company's overall global volumes,
LMC said.
$25,000 electric car
Two of the sources said one likely
"China-specific" model was a lower-cost volume generator such as a
$25,000 electric car that Musk referred to at a Battery Day event in September,
which he said Tesla might aim to bring to market in about three years.
Musk said Tesla was confident it would be able to hit the
market with "a very compelling $25,000 electric vehicle that's also fully
autonomous".
At that price, according to two of the sources as well as
industry experts, it was likely to be a compact car, smaller than Tesla's Model
3, which would be as affordable as some mainstream gasoline-fueled vehicles.
Compact cars are not big sellers in the United States where
bigger, taller vehicles such as Ford's F-150 pickup truck and SUVs, as well as
midsize sedans, rule the road.
They account for about 10 percent of America's overall
vehicle market. By contrast, compacts make up 25 percent of sales in China, or
around 5-6 million cars a year, according to consultancy LMC Automotive.
That's why the planned $25,000 car Musk has discussed would
be better suited to the China marketplace, according to the two sources and
industry experts.
"A compact Tesla car would do well in China, as well as
the rest of Asia and Europe," said Yale Zhang, head of Shanghai-based
consultancy Automotive Foresight. "It could potentially put a serious dent
in sales of cars like Toyota's Corolla and the Volkswagen Golf."
© Reuters