Originally published on CleanTechnica.
Tesla has appointed as its new Vice President of Vehicle Production the (now former) Audi head of production for the A4, A5, and Q5, Peter Hochholdinger, according to a new press release from Tesla Motors published on Friday.
As part of his new position as the Tesla Vice President of Vehicle Production, Peter Hochholdinger will be working to improve and ramp up Model S and Model X production. As well as, of course, helping to “build a scalable, cost-effective and quality manufacturing program specifically designed for Model 3.”
Considering how rapidly Tesla is intending to scale up production over the next few years in anticipation of the Model 3 release, one would assume that Hochholdinger will be spending much of his time working specifically on Model 3 production.
The press release provides more:
Peter joins Tesla from Audi where he has spent the last 22 years working across the entire production chain. He is currently responsible for leading the production of Audi’s A4, A5 and Q5 vehicles, including 14 derivatives of those models, at Audi’s flagship production facility for volume and technology. In total, Peter is responsible for the production of about 400,000 vehicles annually at Audi while managing thousands of employees. Peter has also been serving as an advisor for bringing Audi’s new production facility online in Mexico, guiding the implementation of the production processes that are responsible for the standard of quality expected at Audi. Tesla is excited to have Peter join the team.
The Vice President of Production position at Tesla opened up just earlier this month when Greg Reichow left Tesla. The Vice President of Manufacturing at Tesla, Josh Ensign, left right around the same time as well. I imagine we’ll see soon who replaces him.
Interesting news. It had been publicly stated previously that competition for the position was rather strong — with there being serious interest from many qualified candidates.
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