March 13, the official website of Xiaopeng Motors changed the personnel of the core management team. The co-founders Xia Hang and He Tao were changed from “core management team” members to “lifetime honorary”. In response, Xiaopeng Motors replied that the co-founders Mr. Xia Hang and Mr. He Tao will continue to support the development of the company as lifetime honorary advisors of Xiaopeng Motors.
The official website of Xiaopeng Motors shows that the current “core team members” of Xiaopeng Motors are the chairman/CEO He Xiaopeng, the president Wang Fengying, and the vice chairman/joint president Gu Hongdi.
It is reported that both Xia Hang and He Tao are co-founders of Xiaopeng Motors. Xiaopeng Motors was established in 2014 and is headquartered in Guangzhou. It is an Internet electric vehicle brand under Guangzhou Chengxing Intelligent Automobile Technology Co., Ltd., initiated by He Xiaopeng, Xia Hang, and He Tao. In this year, the three co-founders, Xia Hang, He Tao, and Yang Chunlei, jointly founded Xiaopeng Motors. He Xiaopeng, as the current CEO of Xiaopeng Motors, was initially the angel investor of Xiaopeng Motors. In August 2017, He Xiaopeng resigned from Alibaba and joined Xiaopeng Motors as the chairman. Yang Chunlei also exited the shareholder list of Xiaopeng Motors in this year.
In October 2022, Xiaopeng Motors announced a comprehensive organizational restructuring to reverse the situation of product and sales declines of Xiaopeng Motors. Among them, Xiaopeng Motors plans to establish three virtual product matrix organizations, namely the E-platform product matrix, the F-platform product matrix, and the H-platform product matrix. The E-platform product matrix is responsible for the horizontal E-vehicle product platform and is led by Liao Qinghong; the F-platform product matrix is responsible for the horizontal F-vehicle product platform, led by Xia Hang, and both report to He Xiaopeng. At the end of January 2023, after the original general manager of Great Wall, Wang Fengying, joined Xiaopeng Motors as the president, she was fully responsible for the product planning, product matrix, and sales system of Xiaopeng Motors, and reported to He Xiaopeng. The industry regards Wang Fengying’s airborne as a self-rescue behavior of Xiaopeng Motors in the critical period of organizational structure transformation. Under her performance, there have been innovations within Xiaopeng Motors, including budget reduction and investigation of corruption issues.
After the Spring Festival holiday, He Xiaopeng released an internal letter on the first day of work. In the next three years, XPeng Motors plans to launch about 30 new products or facelifts. It will launch two new models this year, including a new car on the platform of 300,000+ level and 150,000 level. Among them, the first model of the 150,000-level platform is the first car of the “MONA” brand cooperated by XPeng and Didi. The first car of the 300,000-level platform, or the sedan with the code name “F57”, will be listed in the second half of the year.
For this year’s goal, He Xiaopeng said bluntly: “The performance will double, the organization will supplement all the shortcomings, and the operation will start to take the first step towards high quality.” It is expected that the annual sales target will exceed 280,000 vehicles. He Xiaopeng pointed out in the open letter that 2024 will be the first year for Chinese auto brands to enter the “sea of blood” competition, and also the first year of the elimination round. If calculated according to the annual sales target of 280,000 vehicles, it means that about 23,000 new cars need to be delivered every month. For reference, the sales target of XPeng Motors in 2023 is 200,000 vehicles, and the annual sales completion rate is only 70%.
The latest data shows that from January to February 2024, XPeng Motors delivered a total of 12,795 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 14%, of which 8,250 vehicles were delivered in January and 4,545 vehicles in February.
