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Tesla's global core public relations team at the US headquarters has been disbanded, and CEO Musk is single-handedly maintaining the brand image and unified promotion. To Musk, Tesla does not seem to need public relations. However, in the special Chinese market environment, Tesla urgently needs to expand the public relations team, so as to deal with the public opinion crisis well.

A few days ago, a piece of information about Tesla's recruitment of a regional external affairs manager in China was circulated on the Internet. According to the recruitment information, Tesla China has decided to recruit regional external affairs managers in Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and other cities.

Tesla's recruitment information describes the position as: responsible for establishing and maintaining a positive corporate image of Tesla in the regional market, using efficient and flexible communication skills to establish contacts with external organizations, including the media, government agencies, industry associations, and so on, to build a harmonious external environment to support Tesla's business development in the regional market.

In the description of the main responsibilities, it is mentioned to "deal with all kinds of government affairs and media-related matters in the region", "grasp the trends of network public opinion in real time, timely early warning and effectively deal with the crisis of public opinion", "collect and develop new strategic plans" and so on.

The public relations team of Tesla's headquarters in the United States is collectively disbanded, while the Chinese region is wantonly recruiting, which forms a sharp contrast. It seems that Tesla's brand image, public opinion environment and operation strategy in the Chinese market are different. In response to this matter, Tesla China responded to the media that the recruitment information is true.

Tesla is very active in the public relations team in China. Not long ago, Tesla cut prices again after five months, and the domestic Model 3 entry-level model dropped to 249900 yuan, and many car owners who just picked up the car complained that they were cut "leeks". Within six days after the official announcement, Tao Lin, vice president of foreign affairs of Tesla (China), responded to the price reduction six times via Weibo.

In the Chinese market, some of Tesla's official responses were also sent through the official Weibo account of Tao Lin, vice president of foreign affairs of Tesla (China). At the same time, Tesla also operates a "Tesla customer support" Weibo account, which is not only an official channel for answering users' questions, but also an official response channel for Tesla's accidents and accidents.

Tao Lin, vice president of foreign affairs of Tesla (China), has repeatedly said on social media: "both time and money should be spent on meaningful things. Consumers end up paying for PR (public relations) and marketing." Even though Tesla China expands its public relations team this time, Tesla spends less on public relations and marketing than other traditional car companies.

Tesla's marketing spending in 2019 is only 186 million yuan, according to a list of marketing spending in the automobile industry released by Morketing, a media outlet.

In the face of the complex, ever-changing and highly competitive Chinese market, Tesla does not seem to have completely let go of the confidence of the public relations team, leaving communication matters, media relations and dealing with public opinion crisis to the professional public relations team.

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