It's confirmed that there's been a significant shake-up in the upper echelons of Xiaopeng Motors.
According to the latest update on the official website, Xia Heng and He Tao, the co-founders of Xiaopeng Motors and key executives who have been with the company since its inception, are no longer part of the core management team.
Their names have been moved to a separate section labeled "Lifetime Honorary," where, apart from the title of co-founder, they no longer hold specific positions within the company.
In response to this change, the official statement from Xiaopeng Motors reads:
Mr. Xia Heng and Mr. He Tao, co-founders of Xiaopeng Motors, will continue to support the company's development in the capacity of Lifetime Honorary Advisors.
Co-founders step down, transition to lifetime honorary advisors
Xia Heng and He Tao, who previously served as co-presidents and senior vice presidents of XPeng Motors, respectively, have transitioned from their roles. They are both co-founders of XPeng Motors, having led the company from inception to its initial stages. Prior to He Xiaopeng's arrival, they spearheaded the development of the company's first vehicle, the G3.
△ Core Management Team Before Changes
Both individuals graduated from the Automotive Engineering Department of Tsinghua University and have a solid background in automotive engineering. They are both born in the 1980s and both attended the Automotive Engineering Department at Tsinghua University. Xia Heng graduated in 2008, while He Tao graduated in 2010.
After graduation, they both joined Guangqi Research Institute.
Xia Heng was responsible for the development of control systems for Guangqi's new energy vehicles and intelligent vehicles, later becoming the head of the Control Department. He Tao worked under Xia Heng's leadership and also served as a project manager overseeing Guangqi's autonomous driving project.
At that time, both of them had a mutual friend, Yang Chunlei, and the three of them often discussed technology and the future direction of the automotive industry together.
In 2014, after Tesla released over 200 electric vehicle patents, Xia Heng sensed the incoming wave of change. He approached He Xiaopeng to be an angel investor and, along with He Tao and Yang Chunlei, founded Xiaopeng Motors. Xia Heng served as the CEO, while He Tao and Yang Chunlei served as vice presidents.
Before He Xiaopeng joined, Xia Heng had been the top leader of the company, overseeing the R&D work at Xiaopeng Motors, while He Tao mainly handled the supply chain and coordination with other R&D teams.
After He Xiaopeng joined, both remained in the core management team, with Xia Heng taking on the role of CEO and He Tao becoming the Senior Vice President in charge of the supply chain and R&D.
However, their fade-out was not immediate. It began gradually when Xiaopeng initiated sweeping reforms in 2022. Xia Heng first resigned from his position as an executive director, followed by stepping down from various director, legal representative, and managerial positions in several Xiaopeng Motors-related companies, many of which were taken over by He Xiaopeng.
In the restructuring of Xiaopeng's organizational framework, He Tao's previous responsibilities in supply chain management have also been consolidated and decentralized.
In this latest development, both individuals have stepped down from the core management team to become lifelong honorary advisors. In essence, they relinquish their operational roles, retaining only the honor—along with the financial freedom brought by their entrepreneurial equity.
Following this transformation, XPeng Motors has established a completely new lineup of core executives, ushering the company into a new era, dubbed XPeng Motors 2.0.
The key trio leading XPeng Motors 2.0 are:
He Xiaopeng: Serving as Chairman and CEO, He is the top leader responsible for organizational strategy.
Wang Fengying: Assuming the role of President, Wang joined the company to oversee its operations.
Gu Hongdi: Appointed as Vice Chairman and Co-President, Gu, known as the "Financial Master of XPeng," oversees both financial matters and investments.
Xiaopeng Motors is the second entrepreneurial venture of He Xiaopeng, marking his initial foray into the automotive industry. Despite harboring dreams of automotive manufacturing since childhood, He Xiaopeng, who graduated from the Computer Science Department of South China University of Technology, embarked on his career with a position at AsiaInfo, a company aligned with his academic background. He gradually rose from a software developer to a project manager within the organization.
And in his debut as an entrepreneur, He Xiaopeng has already made it big: founding UC Youshi, developing UCmail and UC Browser, making UC Browser the world's largest third-party browser, and later selling the company to Alibaba for $4 billion, achieving financial freedom.
But even with this financial freedom, He Xiaopeng didn't find the peace and fulfillment he was looking for. He seemed lost, unsure of where his dreams had gone.
Though he initially helped Xia Heng establish Xiaopeng Motors as an angel investor, in the first few years, He Xiaopeng relied solely on his own internet connections and resources to assist Xiaopeng Motors in raising funds and recruiting talent, without actively participating in management.
Later, He Xiaopeng himself claimed that it was the birth of his son and a timely phone call from his friend, Fu Jixun, the managing partner of CCV, that led him to seize the opportunity in the smart car industry, going all in on car manufacturing.
Since He Xiaopeng joined, XPeng Motors has entered the fast lane of development.
Not only did they pioneer in defining intelligence as their core competitive advantage and spare no effort in research and development, but He Xiaopeng also, just like during his entrepreneurial days at UC, brought in many talents. Gu Hongdi is one such executive whom He Xiaopeng poached from J.P. Morgan.
Speaking of Gu Hongdi, those familiar with Wall Street and Lehman Brothers may not be unfamiliar with this name.
With a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from the University of Oregon, an MBA from Yale University, and a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Washington, Mr. Gu Hongdi has an extensive educational background. His career began in the 1990s at Lehman Brothers, where he engaged in global mergers and acquisitions. Recognizing the potential of the Asian capital market, he transitioned to J.P. Morgan, where he rose from Managing Director to Chairman of Investment Banking for the Asia-Pacific region, overseeing transactions exceeding $200 billion.
In 2018, Mr. He Xiaopeng, as CEO, invited Mr. Gu Hongdi to join XPeng Motors. Seeing the potential of the electric vehicle industry, Mr. Gu made the move, assuming the role of Vice Chairman and President of XPeng Motors. In this capacity, he is responsible for financial matters, investment, and financing.
Through the efforts of He Xiaopeng and his team, XPeng Motors secured funding rounds from Series A to Series B+, totaling 6.2 billion CNY. Later, Gu Hongdi continued to assist XPeng Motors in navigating the capital market. In 2020, XPeng Motors successfully went public in the United States, and in 2021, it achieved a secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, making it the fastest among its peers to do so. Meanwhile, Wang Fengying, one of the three core executives, was appointed as the CEO during a transitional period at XPeng Motors.
Previously best known as the deputy chief of Great Wall Motors, with internal authority second only to Wei Jianjun.
Wei Jianjun oversees internal affairs, managing research and development as well as manufacturing. Leading the charge in the market to establish Great Wall as a leader in Chinese pickup trucks and SUVs is Wang Fengying.
Wang Fengying graduated from Tianjin University of Finance and Economics and joined Great Wall Motors in 1991. Starting from frontline sales, she quickly expanded Great Wall's sales territory with her daring and strategic thinking ability.
And two years later, Wang Fengying was promoted to sales general manager, and in 2003, she became the general manager of Great Wall Motors, making her the only female head of a car company at the time.
Not only did she reform the sales model at Great Wall, but she also boldly set up exclusive pickup truck dealerships, helping Great Wall Motors dominate the pickup truck market. Later, when expanding into the SUV business, Great Wall, leveraging its established industry reputation, held the top spot in the independent SUV market for a long time.
In 2022, Wang Fengying left Great Wall Motors and in January 2023, joined Xiaopeng Motors, where she was responsible for product planning, product portfolio management, and sales, reporting directly to He Xiaopeng.
Under her leadership and reforms, Xiaopeng Motors gradually overcame the challenges brought by the unfavorable market performance of the G9. They bounced back from the low point: the G6 became a bestseller, the redesigned G9 revived, and the all-electric MPV Xiaopeng X9 received widespread acclaim.
Xiaopeng Motors, rising from adversity.
Moreover, Xiaopeng Motors underwent its most significant organizational transformation during the previous crisis.
The Saga of Xiaopeng Motors' Organizational Transformation
Xia Heng and He Tao exited the core management team, allowing He Xiaopeng to consolidate power. With that, Xiaopeng Motors' organizational restructuring came to a close.
To sum up this transformation briefly, it was triggered by the unfavorable market reception of the G9's launch.
The recent major revisions to the product configuration, just two days after the new car was launched, indicate a lack of thorough market research by the company beforehand and insufficient understanding of its internal product landscape.
Moreover, there has been a continuous decline in delivery volumes for XPeng Motors, plummeting from the top spot among new energy vehicle manufacturers to well beyond the fifth position.
In response, XPeng Motors promptly initiated an organizational overhaul shortly after the launch of the G9 model. This included the establishment of five major committees: the Strategic Committee, Product and Regulatory Committee, Technical Planning Committee, Production and Sales Balancing Committee, and OTA Committee. These committees were tasked with enhancing communication channels across all business lines within the company to improve collaboration efficiency.
Simultaneously, three product matrix organizations were set up, comprising the E Platform, F Platform, and H Platform, to ensure a customer- and market-centric approach and establish end-to-end responsibility for all products (including service products) throughout the entire business cycle.
Furthermore, in day-to-day operations, a structure consisting of five major systems—Strategy, Research and Development, Supply and Production, Marketing and Services, and Functional Support—was established to drive alignment of goals across various business chains, promote efficient collaboration, and support the implementation of company strategies and the extensive product matrix.
The organizational restructuring is just the beginning; deeper changes involve adjustments to internal personnel.
Among these, the most crucial is the anti-corruption drive implemented internally at Xiaopeng after Wang Fengying joined.
There have been reports alleging that several employees have been taken away for investigation while on their way to work, with a focus on the procurement department, particularly concerning supplier contract issues.
Additionally, Xiaopeng's Vice President in charge of supply chain operations, Li Feng, has reportedly been suspended internally.
The reform has been ongoing until earlier this year. In January, there were reports of personnel adjustments in various departments of XPeng Motors, including manufacturing, product planning, marketing, and human resources.
Wang Fengying brought together former teammates who had fought together, including colleagues from Great Wall and Lixi Strategic Consulting, among whom was her husband, Zhang Li. During this period, there were also departures of several key figures from XPeng Motors' early stages.
The personnel changes involving Xia Heng and He Tao are even more significant, as they are core management personnel and true veterans of XPeng Motors who are stepping back from the forefront.
Interestingly, the organizational trajectory of XPeng Motors is somewhat similar to that of its "rival" Tesla.
Like Musk, who wasn't Tesla's earliest founder, he also underwent the transition from investor to founder during the development process, and similarly, due to the iteration and development of Tesla's organization, Musk saw off the earliest founders.
