Text | Angel Li Qin Li
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Since October last year, Xpeng Motors sent an email announcing the major adjustment of the organization, and the personnel turmoil has continued to this day. Especially since January 30 this year, Great Wall veteran Wang Fengying became the president of Xpeng Motors, and the company's blood change has exceeded the imagination of the industry.
36Kr learned from a number of people familiar with the matter that many core executives of Xpeng Motors are in a state of resignation or will resign. Among them, Liu Minghui, vice president of powertrain, has left and is replaced by Gu Jie, a former technology executive at parts company Delphi, who has joined Xpeng Motors as senior director of the power division, reporting directly to He Xiaopeng.
In addition, Liao Qinghong, chief talent officer and vice president of sales, will also leave and is currently on leave. According to sources, Liao Qinghong's follow-up schedule has been emptied, and the sales and marketing business he is responsible for has been taken over by Wang Tong, an old man of Xpeng Motors, and Yi Han, who has just joined from Geely, both of whom report to Wang Fengying.
Liu Minghui and Liao Qinghong were both vice presidents who reported to He Xiaopeng, chairman and CEO of Xpeng Motors, and both were on the list of executives listed on Xpeng's US stock market. But the change of the two vice president-level executives may only be the beginning, and the bigger personnel shock will involve the two core founding members of Xpeng Motors, Xia Heng and He Tao.
In 2014, Xpeng Motors was co-founded by Xia Heng, He Tao and Yang Chunlei. In 2017, investor He Xiaopeng officially joined Xpeng Motors as chairman and CEO. Within the company, Xia Heng has been in charge of product development, manufacturing, quality and other businesses for a long time, while He Tao focuses on procurement supply chain and direct sales. However, since October last year, after Xpeng Motors began a large-scale personnel adjustment, the jurisdiction business of Xia Heng and He Tao has been continuously adjusted and contracted.
"He Xiaopeng intends to launch a similar 're-entrepreneurship' plan internally, first break and then establish, and the follow-up company will be led by He Xiaopeng and Wang Fengying." A source who contacted the senior management of Xpeng Motors told 36Kr that under this plan, Xia Heng and He Tao, members of the co-founding team, will be greatly shocked.
36Kr also learned that in mid-February, an organizational adjustment email was only sent to the middle and senior employees of Xpeng Motors, showing that Xpeng Motors will make personnel adjustments to core businesses such as automotive technology center, manufacturing engineering center, supply chain center and user development center, and the highest responsibility authority for these businesses is almost concentrated in the hands of He Xiaopeng and Wang Fengying.
At present, the internal system of Xpeng Motors shows that Xia Heng and He Tao are still working. According to 36Kr, one of the directions of current internal discussions may be that Xia Heng will be responsible for Xpeng's various independent parts business, such as batteries, motors and charging technology, to continue to support Xpeng Motors.
A recent flurry of business information also points to this change. On March 3 and February 28 respectively, Guangdong Xpeng Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. and Guangzhou Xpeng Automobile Technology Co., Ltd., two affiliates of Xpeng Motors, and Guangzhou Xpeng Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. (the former is the parent company of Guangzhou Orange Mobility Automobile Technology, the main company of Xpeng, and the latter is a 97.9% holding subsidiary of Xpeng), the legal representative, executive director and general manager has been changed from Xia Heng to Xpeng.
At the same time, a series of Xpeng auto parts companies with a registered capital of billions of yuan continue to appear, including charging station research and development, battery manufacturing and motor research and development, and the legal person of these companies is Xia Heng.
On February 16, 2023, Guangzhou Penghui Automotive Technology Co., Ltd. was established, the legal representative is Xia Heng, the registered capital is 5 billion yuan, and the business scope includes centralized fast charging stations, electric vehicle charging infrastructure operation, engineering and technology research and experimental development;
On January 5, 2023, Zhaoqing Xiaopeng Intelligent Manufacturing Research Institute Co., Ltd. was established, the legal representative is Xia Heng, the registered capital is 1 million yuan, and the business scope includes: motor and its control system research and development; Internet of Things technology research and development; R&D of energy recovery systems; Auto parts and accessories manufacturing, etc., indirectly wholly-owned by Guangzhou Orange Xing Intelligent Automobile Technology Co., Ltd.;
On November 21, 2022, Guangzhou Pengyue Power Battery Co., Ltd. was established, the legal representative is Xia Heng, the registered capital is 5 billion yuan, and the business scope includes: battery manufacturing; battery parts production; auto parts and accessories manufacturing; Intelligent vehicle equipment manufacturing, etc.
In addition to the possible major changes in Xia Heng's whereabouts, He Tao, another co-founder of Xpeng Motors, is also unknown.
People familiar with the matter revealed to 36Kr that Xpeng Motors is currently carrying out a series of compliance reviews, involving many supply chain procurement businesses. At the executive pilot meeting earlier this year, He Xiaopeng also lamented Chen Xiaopeng's "cost control and integrity" and other issues.
Two vice presidents changed, and the whereabouts of the two co-creations are unknown... This is also the most profound personnel earthquake since the establishment of Xiaopeng when Wang Fengying entered as an external force - except for the chairman He Xiaopeng and Gu Hongdi, who is responsible for investment and financing, almost all of the founding team of the car manufacturing team have changed. In other words, He Xiaopeng is building a new car-making team.
36Kr asked Xpeng Motors for verification on the above information, but the official did not respond.
New course
The powertrain center and sales and service system are the first places where Xpeng Motors' personnel earthquake first cracked.
Liu Minghui, head of powertrain, joined Xpeng Motors in October 2017 to be in charge of the research and development of automotive powertrains, and built an internal Sanden team and technical products from 0-1. Prior to that, Liu Minghui worked for FAW Group for 25 years.
Compared with the large investment in the intelligent driving business, Xpeng Motors has always lacked iconic achievements in the field of three electric vehicles (batteries, motors, electronic controls), "In the field of three electric products, self-developed are some non-core technologies, never thought to do some core technologies at the earliest, such as inverters, silicon carbide, battery cells, etc." An Xpeng Motors employee said. At the user level, Xpeng's vehicle range false standard is often complained about by users.
Taking the car heart power battery as an example, its cost accounts for at least 40% or even more of the price of the whole vehicle. In the face of strong fluctuations in upstream lithium resources, strong supply from battery companies, and Tesla's repeated price cuts last year, it is almost difficult for Xpeng Motors, which has few technical reserves in the field of three electric powers, to fight back. The software and hardware integration and hardware design of its in-house self-developed battery BMS system are still developed by the automotive technology center team under the jurisdiction of He Tao, rather than the powertrain center headed by Liu Minghui.
Ultra-fast charging is also an important starting point for Xpeng to enhance the core competitiveness of Sanden, but previously the core components of Xpeng's 800V high-voltage platform, such as power semiconductors, mainly came from Infineon and Zhanxin Electronics (a power semiconductor company invested by Xpeng in 2022).
The ideal car chooses to self-research and build a factory in power semiconductors. It said in the 2022 earnings conference call that according to internal tests, compared with the 400V platform of silicon-based IGBTs installed on mainstream models, its self-developed 800V high-voltage platform power semiconductors can achieve 15% energy efficiency improvement and save more battery costs.
With the departure of Liu Minghui, Xia Heng's focus shifted to power core components, which also confirmed Xpeng Motors' determination to hold the core technology of Sanden in the future.
In terms of sales and service system, Liao Qinghong, who is on vacation, is a human resources general recruited by He Xiaopeng from Qihoo 360 in 2018, and Liao also served as the human resources president of Huawei.
For a long time, Liao Qinghong served as Xiaopeng's chief human resources officer, but also took charge of part of the sales business and managed the authorized dealer system. However, after Wang Fengying became president of Xpeng Motors in January 2023, fully responsible for product planning, product matrix and sales system, Liao Qinghong has actually changed to report to Wang.
After Wang Fengying joined, she "acted resolutely" and "killed decisively" for people, and employees "avoided talking" in private.
According to Xpeng employees, after the restructuring in October last year, only He Xiaopeng was left on the board of directors of Xpeng Motors, and now Wang Fengying has joined it. He Xiaopeng is busy with financing and corporate strategy.
In the work reporting session, although the management at the vice president level still reports to He Xiaopeng on the surface, "in fact, many business decisions are made by Wang Fengying (except for automatic driving), and I feel that she is the second in command." The employee said.
Break first and then stand
Looking at this personnel shock, the most direct starting point is still the failure of the launch of the new car G9 in September 2022, which also triggered Xpeng Motors' major adjustment of the organizational structure in October last year, He Xiaopeng's return to the focus of car manufacturing, and the invitation to Wang Fengying to join, which promoted the personnel change.
In the entrepreneurial circle, it is not uncommon for co-founders to encounter "out" because it is difficult to keep up with the company's development, and He Xiaopeng's friend Lei Jun also replaced the ineffective co-founder Zhou Guangping 5 years after creating Xiaomi mobile phones.
With the adjustment of the organization and the departure of personnel, there are also many new blood added to Xpeng Motors, according to 36Kr, including Delphi executive Gu Jie, Geely talent Yi Han, etc.
Some Xpeng Motors investors and partners said to 36Kr that they are optimistic about the new management team and hope that the arrival of Wang Fengying and the new management can bring new product planning and sales methods to Xpeng. Last year, Xpeng Motors delivered a total of 120,000 units, the lowest target sales completion rate among "Wei Xiaoli". This means that Xpeng Motors needs to be more cautious than ever to seize opportunities this year to stay in the competition.
At present, Xpeng's core advantages such as intelligent driving are still stable. The recently launched facelifted model P7i is equipped with Xpeng City's high-end driver assistance NGP function. Wu Xinzhu, vice president of Xpeng autonomous driving, said in a recent interview that Xpeng is the first company in China that can implement static networks based on BEV and transformer architectures and has the ability to produce high-precision maps in real time. According to official sources, since March, the NGP function of Xpeng City will be implemented in many cities such as Shenzhen and Shanghai.
At the same time, Xpeng also plans to launch a mid-size SUV model this year, positioned lower than the G9, equipped with a pure electric 800V high-voltage platform. How to grasp the marketing of these key models is a test for the employees who are new to Xpeng Motors.
More importantly, this round of personnel earthquakes may help Xpeng Motors quickly build a relatively stable "backyard". After all, entering 2023, the market of pure electric vehicles is more intense, Tesla, BYD, Great Wall, Geely and other car companies model offensive and price war will only become more fierce, ideal cars are also looking for the opportunity to cut into the pure electric market, NIO is not soft in research and development. The backyard is strong enough to concentrate more on dealing with the strong siege of friendly businessmen.
People in the industry chain who recently visited Xpeng Motors concluded to 36Kr: I feel that Xpeng's internal morale has no impact, but because there are more personnel rotations, there are more adjustments to work content, and the pace of work is somewhat slow.
For Xpeng Motors, this personnel shock needs to be settled as soon as possible.