Elon Musk took on China in the EV market today with a mass job recruitment drive in neighbouring Thailand to boost growth.

The controversial billionaire's company Tesla held a walk-in event for positions in customer support, finance, sales, vehicle service, construction, engineering, and IT and the InterContinental Bangkok Hotel on Friday January 13.

Hundreds of hopefuls in suits - and many still wearing bizarre face masks - queued to hand in their resumes and covering letters for positions at the niche tech company.

It came after Tesla opened a pop-up showroom in a shopping mall in Bangkok last month as the company pushes growth plans in Southeast Asia. It is the firm's first 'foray into the regional hubs' which have been dominated by Japanese powerhouses such as Toyota and Nissan.

Tesla, which is selling its cars online in Thailand, is facing its strongest competition yet from Chinese carmakers BYD and Great Wall Motors amid a wider push for a shift to EVs across Asia. The Chinese cars have received impressive reviews, despite being produced in a repressive Communist regime with a notorious reputation for shoddy copies.

The China-made cars are also much cheaper than Tesla EVs, which have prices ranging between 1.7 million baht to 2.5 million baht ($48,447 to $71,205).

Adding to Musk's woes, Tesla is now seen by many financial analysts as being in a bubble with a vastly overpriced share price, even after the massive fall in recent weeks which has decimated its market capitalisation.

Tesla also faces growing competition from established rivals such as Volkswagen, General Motors, and Toyoto, which both have mass production capacities for their own electric cars.

Elon Musk's last venture in Thailand went disastrously when he designed a submarine pod to save schoolboys stranded in a cave in Chiang Rai province in 2018.

British cave hero Vern Unsworth - one of the divers who actually rescued the boys - told Musk to 'stick it where the sun doesn't shine' before Musk branded him a 'pedo guy'. A defamation case followed in Los Angeles which Musk won.