China Media Outlet Claims Elon Musk Will Be Kicked Out Of Tesla

In a truly bizarre situation, Chinese media outlet Pingwest has claimed that Tesla has decided to replace Elon Musk as CEO with Tom Zhu, president of Tesla China, right after losing a lawsuit for spreading a rumor against Tesla, Fred Lambert reported for Electrek.

Photo Insert: While Tesla won the case against Pingwest before the Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Court, the news outlet is now reporting that Tesla will be replacing Elon Musk as global CEO with Tom Zhu, president of Tesla China.

Pingwest is a Chinese tech publication with a decent-size following on social media and dozens of employees, according to LinkedIn. Last year, the publication published a damning article on Tesla titled “Giga-Sweatshop Meets Corporate Overlords: an Exclusive Look Into How Tesla China Runs its Shanghai Gigafactory 3.”

The article includes wide-ranging claims of quality problems at Tesla’s factory as well as poor working conditions and even questionable sales tactics.

Most of the claims are based on single unnamed sources that Pingwest says work at Tesla or Tesla suppliers. The claims range from simply serving bad food to workers to more serious offenses, like knowingly using defective parts. Tesla decided to sue the publication over the article a month after it came out.

Last week, Tesla won the case against Pingwest before the Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Court. The publication was reportedly ordered by the court to remove the article, issue a retraction admitting the article wasn’t accurate, and even pay a small retribution equivalent to $14,000.

Now a week after basically being forced to admit posting rumors about Tesla by the court, Pingwest is reporting what would be major news about Tesla if true: Tesla replacing Elon Musk as global CEO with Tom Zhu, president of Tesla China, who is responsible for Tesla’s operations in Asia-Pacific.

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