So you want to work for Tesla China? “Leave your family aside” is the hardcore work motto that produces “Tesla speed”

The boss of Tesla China has shed a little light on how the brand’s workforce is able to produce what’s become known locally as “Tesla speed”, revealing an eight-word motto that highlights just how much its local employees are expected to sacrifice in the name of the brand.

That motto? “Leave your family aside, work day and night”, which doesn’t exactly speak to an ideal work-life balance in Tesla’s Chinese factories.

The motto wasn’t unearthed via some kind of investigation, either. Instead, it was offered up as the reason for Tesla’s success in the region, by none the than Tesla China President, Tom Zhu, in an interview with China’s Xinhua Net – which has been helpfully subtitled here.

In an answer to a question about “Tesla speed”, Mr Zhu first credits the Chinese government’s reforms and incentives, then Tesla’s broader culture, before congratulating the Chinese workforce.

“And of course, credits also go to our own team,” he says.

“Tesla local team, in eight words: ‘Leave our family aside, work day and night.’

“Without this kind of entrepreneurial spirit, and the hard-work attitude, we can’t achieve the speed.”

Tesla has recorded impressive results in China to date, and has set some ambitious targets for the future.

The company’s Lingang Gigafactory in Shanghai built a quarter of a million examples of the Model 3 in 2020, with a plan to increase that to nearly 500,000 cars in 2021.