Following the discussion and analysis of the employees and salary levels of 7 representative traditional automotive companies in the previous article ("Comparison of Personnel and Salaries of 7 Enterprises: BYD Recruits More People, GAC Increases Salary, and Ningwang Treats Well"), with the update of the prospectus of ZEEKR US stocks, the relevant situation of new car-making forces in 2023 is also generally clear.
According to the financial report data of the four new car-making forces of Weilai, Ideal, Xpeng and Leap, Xpeng Motors is the only company that has reduced its staff among the five listed new car-making forces; In terms of salary level, the per capita salary of Li Auto's R&D personnel is the highest, reaching 892,400 yuan, while the highest per capita salary of sales, general and management personnel is ZEEKR, which is 347,100 yuan.
On the whole, although 2023 is very "volatile" and everyone is having a hard time, the new car-making forces have not only achieved a year-on-year increase in salary, but also maintained a high level, surpassing many traditional car companies.
01
"Increasing the number of personnel" is still the main theme
Different from the traditional car companies, "increasing the number of employees" is still the main theme of these five new car-making forces.
(Image source: China Automotive HRD official account)
Among them, by the end of 2023, NIO won the first place with a total of 32,820 employees, an increase of 6,057 from the previous year; In the context of the rapid growth of market sales, Li Auto's staff scale has also expanded rapidly, becoming the fastest year-on-year growth in the number of employees among the five new car-making forces, with a total of 31,591 employees, close to NIO. The number of employees has increased from 12,955 in 2022 to 16,645, with more than 3,600 new people, surpassing Xiaopeng and Leap to rank third; In contrast, although Leapmotor does not have as many employees as the other four, it still expands its workforce in 2023, from 8,336 in 2022 to 9,314 in 2023.
In contrast, Xpeng Motors adopted a downsizing strategy in 2023, with the number of employees falling from 15,829 in 2022 to 13,550 in 2023, a reduction of 2,279 positions, involving multiple departments such as R&D and sales.
In fact, in the past two years, the adjustment of the organizational structure of Xpeng Motors has not stopped. As early as October 2022, Xpeng Motors underwent a large-scale organizational structure adjustment, which was mainly focused on business units such as products, sales and services, marketing, and supply chain. At the end of January 2023, Wang Fengying assumed the position of president of Xpeng Motors, and Xpeng Motors has started a new round of all-round organizational structure adjustment, covering marketing channels, product planning, product manufacturing, supply chain and other aspects; In January this year, some media reported that Wang Fengying led a new round of organizational restructuring of Xpeng Motors, involving multiple departments such as marketing, human resources, intelligent data, manufacturing and product planning. Obviously, for Xpeng Motors at present and for a period of time in the future, streamlining the organization, reducing operating costs, and improving efficiency are still one of the important tasks.
In this regard, the Automotive Talent Research Association wrote an analysis: "Overall, although the talent team of these five car companies is growing as a whole, with the intensification of industry competition, the growth of personnel is gradually narrowing. Among them, the ideal growth rate is the first, followed by Weilai and Zeekr, and Xpeng has contracted. ”
02
Emphasis on R&D Li Auto has the highest per capita salary
According to the Automotive Talent Research Association, even multinational car companies with high R&D investment will only account for 3%-5% of their revenue, and Tesla's R&D investment will account for 4.1% in 2023. However, the financial report data shows that the R&D investment of the five new power car companies far exceeds these proportions, and NIO, Xpeng and Zeekr exceed 16%, which fully demonstrates their determination to invest heavily in R&D.
This can also be seen from the proportion of R&D personnel. According to the financial report, the number of R&D personnel of the five new power car companies accounts for more than 20% of the total number of employees, and the number of R&D personnel of Zeekr, Xiaopeng and Weilai exceeds 34%, which is far more than about 10% of traditional vehicle companies.
Interestingly, as the company with the lowest proportion of R&D investment and R&D personnel among the five, the average salary level of R&D personnel in 2023 is the highest, as high as 892,400 yuan (Note: The ideal data is calculated from the proportion of personnel and employee compensation expenses in previous years). In comparison, NIO is not low, reaching 801,900 yuan, while ZEEKR is only 451,000 yuan.
(Image source: China Automotive HRD official account)
It is worth emphasizing that the "employee remuneration" in the R&D expenses in the financial report includes the salary, benefits, bonuses and equity incentive expenses of R&D personnel. Therefore, the real salary level of R&D personnel will be lower than in the table. Taking NIO as an example, the equity incentive fee for R&D personnel in 2023 will be 1.517 billion yuan, and after deducting the company's employee welfare, pension insurance, unemployment insurance, provident fund, education funds and other expenses, the average salary of R&D personnel will be 595,000 yuan.
In addition, although Leaprun has always claimed to be a self-developed enterprise in the whole domain, its R&D investment is low compared with other "small partners", and the data shows that in 2023, Leaprun's R&D investment will only be 1.92 billion yuan, accounting for only 11% of revenue. In this regard, the Automotive Talent Research Association pointed out that it may be because Leapmotor's R&D team is composed of its founding members, which may be able to make up for its lack of R&D investment to a certain extent.
03
Sales, general and management salaries per person: ZEEKR is the highest
According to the analysis of the Automotive Talent Research Association, generally speaking, the sales, general and administrative expenses of a well-run enterprise account for about 10%~15% of the operating income. According to the data disclosed in the financial reports of the five new forces, the management expenses of NIO and XPeng in 2023 have exceeded 21%, which is significantly higher than the industry average, which shows that they are still in the investment stage in terms of operation.
Among them, NIO's selling, general and administrative expenses in 2023 will reach 12.885 billion yuan, ranking first among the five car companies. This is mainly due to the fact that NIO attaches great importance to user experience and has invested heavily in R&D, site selection and infrastructure construction, which has led to its relatively high costs, explained by the Automotive Talent Research Institute. At the same time, NIO offers high-standard configurations and niche models, which undoubtedly increases the cost of design and publicity. In addition, NIO added 5,189 sales and marketing personnel in 2023, ranking first in terms of growth rate. Li Bin, chairman and CEO of NIO, once revealed that the number of sales consultants had reached 5,700 in mid-to-early December last year, and about 3,000 new employees were quickly recruited in October and November alone. By the end of 2023, NIO's sales and marketing staff will increase from 12,000 in 2022 to 17,000.
(Image source: China Automotive HRD official account Note: The ideal data is calculated from the proportion of personnel and employee compensation expenses in previous years)
In contrast, except for Zerorun, the staff size of ZEEKR is relatively streamlined. The Automotive Talent Research Association believes that thanks to the empowerment of Geely Group, ZEEKR has achieved a relatively high per capita salary while gaining certain cost advantages in sales and management, with the average salary of sales, general and management personnel as high as 347,100 yuan/person, surpassing Ideal and NIO.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that the cost control performance of Ideal in management is very good, and its selling, general and administrative expenses account for only 7.89%, which is much lower than that of other car companies.
In fact, as early as a few years ago, Li Zhele, secretary general of the Automobile Talent Research Association, pointed out in an interview with a reporter from China Automotive News: "The automobile manufacturing industry has relatively high requirements for personnel efficiency, and the way of barbaric expansion of the talent team in the past is not conducive to the stable development of enterprises. For new EV manufacturers, it is a compulsory course to reduce staff reasonably and scientifically, reduce unnecessary expenses, and reorganize and build an efficient personnel system and management structure. "I sincerely hope that the new forces of car manufacturing can pay attention to the course of talent team construction and hand over better and better answers.
Text: Shi Yunyun Editor: Xue Yapei Layout: Wang Kun
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