In Charge: James Murdoch, son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, is the latest addition to the Tesla team with an appointment to the company’s board of directors.

TESLA has appointed 21st Century Fox chief executive officer James Murdoch, as well as Johnson Publishing Company chairman and chief executive officer Linda Johnson Rice, to its board of directors.

Mr Murdoch, son of media tycoon Australian-born Rupert Murdoch, was embroiled in a phone hacking scandal with the British newspaper News of the World back in 2011 and has held several senior positions at multinational companies including News Corporation, Festival Mushroom Records and British Sky Broadcasting Group.

Ms Rice’s experience on the other hand, has come from roles within Ebony Media Operations, Continental Bank, Quaker Oats and Dial Corporation as well as serving as a council member of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and board member of After School Matters.

The electric car-maker’s personnel move comes after criticism that its leadership was too insular with five out of six directors having direct ties to Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk.

In a tweet back in April, Mr Musk stated that “we’d add more independent members during SCTY (SolarCity Coporation) merger”, which Tesla acquired last year in June.

Earlier this month, Mr Musk travelled to South Australia to announce plans to build the world’s largest lithium-ion battery to help with the state’s energy woes – a feat which he aims to deliver in 100 days or less.

If the proposed 100-megaWatt Powerpack system is not installed by December, the estimated $33 million cost will be covered by the entrepreneur instead of the taxpayer.

Tesla is also gearing up to launch its entry-level all-electric Model 3 at the end of the month, with 30 vehicles on schedule to be produced by July 28 with numbers increasing exponentially each month thereafter.

The company is reportedly holding around 373,000 orders for its latest model, which is expected to wear a pricetag of $US35,000 ($A44,366) in the United States.

By Tung Nguyen