The most cited detail about Tom Zhu, the Tesla executive who runs the company’s China operations, is that he is extremely hard working — so much so that he slept at the company’s Shanghai Gigafactory during the Covid-19 lockdown to ensure that cars were still coming off the production line.  Zhu himself often references this; describing his team in China, he said, “We leave our families aside, and work day and night.” Nearly every person interviewed for this article also brought it up, including former employees who admire his in-the-trenches approach. Zhu stands by his desk inside the open plan office in Tesla's Shanghai gigafactory. Credit: 解放日报 “If we were running on a battlefield,” says Leon Wu, a former Tesla China employee, “he would be fighting alongside the soldiers instead of sitting behind the front lines.” Zhu’s boss, Elon Musk appreciates the work ethic as well. In China, he recently said, “There are a lot of super talented, ha