Electric car maker Tesla Motors confirmed on Friday morning that its China president, Veronica Wu, has resigned after just 9 months on the job.
Wu provided no reason for her departure, according to a company statement. Tom Zhu, who now runs Tesla's charging network development in China, will take over the role.
"We remain confident in the Chinese market," the company said in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg. "We'll continue to focus on providing an amazing experience to all customers, so that they can become our advocates and help us accelerate the transition to sustainable transportation."
Wu signed on with Tesla in December of last year from the China unit of Apple. She replaced Kingston Chang, who left in March.
Tesla started delivering its Model S sedans in the world's biggest auto market in April and wants to start building them in China by 2017.
"Tesla counts on China as one of their main drivers of growth after California, and it might have been more difficult than they thought," said Jochen Siebert, a Shanghai-based managing director at JSC Automotive Consulting, according to Bloomberg. "They need to succeed in China, as it's one of the markets that's open to electric vehicles."
The change comes as China's electric car market is showing signs of growth, due to a series of incentive polices from the Chinese government.
China's green vehicle market has attracted global companies like BMW, Nissan Motor and Volkswagen AG.
Tesla wants to increase its competitiveness by investing money into building outlets in China, the automaker's billionaire co-founder Elon Musk said.
Zhu joined Tesla back April and was a co-founder at Kaibo International, which provides project and construction management services, according to Tesla.
Tesla has nine stores and service centers in six Chinese cities and has tied up with companies like China Unicom and Soho China to build charging stations in the country.
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