The electric car company is struggling as anti-Musk sentiment sparks boycotts and protests. It’s not likely to happen, but who could step in if he relinquished the “TechnoKing” CEO reins?
Elon Musk runs six companies, each valued in excess of $1 billion, and since January has also spearheaded DOGE, President Trump’s efforts to radically downsize the federal government. How does he have time for it all? The short answer is he doesn’t. At some of his companies he has loyal and competent lieutenants, like SpaceX’s President and COO Gwynne Shotwell running things day-to-day. But that’s not true at Tesla, the publicly traded EV maker with a market cap of $770 billion, that’s been Musk’s most valuable asset (though SpaceX might now be worth more).
It’s highly unlikely, but if the world’s wealthiest person were to suddenly decide to step back from his CEO role at the EV maker, there’s no obvious successor to lead the company at this tricky juncture, when sales are falling, its EV tech edge is threatened by Chinese competitors like BYD and it trails Waymo in the emerging robotaxi business.
As Tesla puts it in SEC risk disclosures: “We are highly dependent on the services of Elon Musk, Technoking of Tesla and our Chief Executive Officer. Although Mr. Musk spends significant time with Tesla and is highly active in our management, he does not devote his full time and attention to Tesla.”
“Musk is Tesla and Tesla is Musk. Anyone else would change the whole story.”
Dan Ives
If he did step down, it would trigger an even bigger selloff of Tesla shares than the 50% slide that’s occurred in recent months. Much of the company’s value–far larger than any other carmaker’s and 118 times its earnings–is tied to Musk’s persona as a business visionary. “Musk is Tesla and Tesla is Musk,” Dan Ives, a bullish Tesla analyst for Wedbush, told Forbes. “Anyone else would change the whole story.”
So who could take over, if Tesla’s board were to intervene and push him to step down as CEO? Who has the skills, background and temperament to help it transition into the AI and robotics giant Musk envisions?
Big public companies typically have a deep bench of in-house CEO candidates waiting in the wings, managers who’ve proven they’re up for the job and who investors and analysts are familiar with. That’s not the case at Tesla, which Musk has so profoundly dominated in his 17 years as CEO and top shareholder since he bought into it. In fact, it has no president, COO or EVP, and aside from its CFO, the highest-ranking executive below Musk is a single senior vice president. The successor pool is far, far smaller than at any other large auto, manufacturing or tech company–in part because Musk has pushed out stars such as Jerome Guillen, former president of auto operations, or Doug Fields, a famed Apple engineer who was key to getting Tesla’s top-selling Model Y and Model 3 to market.
But the following five people have qualities that make them viable replacements–without the social media trolling, bombast and attention addiction Musk is known for.
JB Straubel
After Musk himself, no other individual is more clearly suited to lead Tesla than JB Straubel, currently CEO and cofounder of battery recycler and components maker Redwood Materials and a Tesla board member.
Musk brought him in as a cofounder in 2004, and he was its CTO until 2019, overseeing the development of its electric motors and battery packs in Tesla’s earliest days and getting its massive battery Gigafactory in Nevada up and running. As one of Tesla’s five cofounders and a board member since 2023, Straubel, 49, is intimately familiar with its history and all aspects of its operations.
“He is perfect. The stock would rally.”
Ross Gerber
While he and Musk first bonded over a shared interest in electric vehicles in 2003, they have very different personalities. Where Musk is voluble and prone to exaggerated claims, Straubel, with engineering degrees from Stanford, is low-key, calm and enjoys discussing the intricacies of battery material science.
“He is perfect” for the Tesla CEO role, said Ross Gerber, CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management, who has publicly advocated for Musk to resign. “The stock would rally.”
There’s little indication the job holds interest for Straubel, however, who’s more focused on building up Redwood, according to people familiar with the matter. He didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tom Zhu
Tom Zhu, Tesla’s only senior vice president, is the carmaker’s top executive for automotive operations below Musk and is based in China. He’s also become its de facto COO, particularly as Musk spends less of his time at the carmaker.
Zhu, 44, established his importance to the company by overseeing the construction and operation of its Shanghai plant that’s become vital to Tesla’s profitability since 2020. He joined in 2014 after several years in a variety of roles with Kaibo Engineering Group, a Chinese civil engineering company. Zhu’s success leading Tesla’s Chinese business and his familiarity with that market, including its vast EV supply base, will continue to be a crucial asset as the company works to stay competitive and profitable there—and makes him a competitive candidate to be Musk’s successor.
A Chinese native with an undergraduate degree from New Zealand’s Auckland University of Technology and an MBA from Duke, Zhu is one of only three company executives listed on Tesla’s corporate website, including Musk and CFO Vaibhav Taneja. He briefly shifted to the U.S. to help open the Austin Gigafactory but was sent back to China last year to bolster business there.
By all accounts, he’s an effective manager and the kind of workaholic Musk likes, though he’s kept a very low public profile and isn’t well-known to investors. Zhu didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Stella Li
Beyond Tesla insiders, Stella Li, executive vice president of auto and battery giant BYD and head of its operations in the Americas, would make a compelling Musk alternative.
Li, 55, has played a key role in helping BYD expand its international auto business, particularly in fast-growing Latin America. She’s a known player to U.S. analysts and investors, having made lists including Time Magazine’s Time 100 Climate Leaders and World Car Person of the Year.
A graduate of China’s Fudan University, she worked her way up at BYD since joining as a marketing manager in 1996, a year after the company’s founding, to become one of its top executives. Based in Los Angeles for more than a decade, Li is a charismatic and dynamic speaker, frequently representing BYD at international EV and climate conferences.
Though she’d come to Tesla as an outsider, BYD is among the company’s battery suppliers in China. Her BYD ties and familiarity with the Chinese market would be hugely beneficial to Tesla, particularly as BYD prepares to begin offering its “God’s Eye” driver assist technology–a competitor to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system–as a standard feature on its EVs and plug-in hybrids.
Li didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
John Krafcik
John Krafcik, Waymo’s former CEO, has a resume that makes him surprisingly well-suited to the range of skills a Tesla chief would need.
In addition to running the Alphabet Inc. unit for over six years and leading its shift from an R&D program to a revenue-generating ride service, he currently serves on the board of Tesla rival Rivian, as well as Germany’s Daimler Truck.
A Stanford-trained engineer with an MBA from MIT, Krafcik, 63, was one of the first engineers hired at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., or NUMMI, in 1984, the joint-venture plant Toyota and General Motors operated in Fremont, California. (It was sold to Tesla by Toyota in 2010, becoming its largest U.S. vehicle production facility ever since.) He later joined Ford, rising to the role of chief engineer, before going to work for Hyundai Motor to help it develop new U.S. models. He eventually served as the South Korean company’s U.S. CEO, overseeing a five-year sales boom.
Though he’s a Tesla outsider, Krafcik is familiar to many investors as well as global auto and parts companies and has relationships with Chinese automakers thanks to his time at Waymo. His background in auto engineering, manufacturing, product development and marketing, as well as robotaxis, ticks many boxes that would benefit Tesla. Krafcik declined to comment.
José Muñoz
Given that he just started a new job this year as Hyundai Motor’s CEO, José Muñoz is a less likely candidate for Tesla’s top position, but his professional background makes the Spaniard another intriguing outsider option.
Becoming the first non-Korean to lead Hyundai–and also its first CEO who’s not part of its founding Chung family–is a major accomplishment. Before his current job, Muñoz, 59, was the carmaker’s global COO, after 15 years with Nissan, where he’d been chief performance officer and chairman of North American operations. His resume also includes a five-year stint with Toyota’s European unit.
“I am very happy at Hyundai!”
José Muñoz
Outside of China, Hyundai, along with affiliate Kia Motors, has proven itself to be one of Tesla’s fastest-growing EV rivals, bringing multiple new, affordable models to the U.S. and other markets in recent years. This month, Hyundai also opens its “Metaplant” in Georgia, where it will make EVs, plug-in hybrids and hybrids, as well as batteries, flexing between models that are most in demand in the market. A version of the Ioniq 5 hatchback built at the plant will also become a major new part of Waymo’s electric robotaxi fleet.
“I am very happy at Hyundai!” Muñoz told Forbes.
And while Musk is famous for presenting himself as a scientist, he isn’t one. Muñoz, by contrast, has a PhD in nuclear engineering from Spain’s Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, in addition to an MBA.
Any of these people would make solid Tesla CEOs. But even if Musk were to give up that job, they’d still have to contend with his huge influence over the company, both as a top shareholder and board member, making the job potentially less appealing to the best candidates. And while Gerber believes Tesla would be better off with a new leader, he’s not optimistic that will happen.
“The board of directors has done nothing to protect the company from Elon. There’s no Tim Cook. There’s no number 2,” he said. “If he just gets somebody who’s competent, it’s a big win for everybody. But it’s all ego for Elon now.”
