XPeng Appoints Ex-Great Wall Motor Executive Wang Fengying as President

XPeng, a Chinese sensible electrical automobile firm, on January 30 introduced that Wang Fengying has been appointed as the brand new president of the corporate. Wang beforehand labored at Great Wall Motor for over 30 years, beginning in frontline gross sales earlier than advancing into varied management positions.

After becoming a member of XPeng, Wang will likely be made accountable for the corporate’s product planning, product portfolio administration and gross sales operations, reporting on to He Xiaopeng, the chairman and CEO of the corporate.

Wang joined Great Wall Motor as early as 1991 and has served as the second-most vital individual overseeing this non-public automobile firm after chairman Wei Jianjun for the previous 20 years. She was answerable for gross sales at first, later selling positioning technique inside Great Wall Motor, turning the Haval H6 into a preferred SUV and driving income to over 100 billion yuan ($14.8 billion).

According to a report by 36Kr, Great Wall Motor first had pickup vehicles, SUVs, automobiles and different product traces. In 2008, Ries & Ries, a strategic consulting firm started to help it in formulating a give attention to SUVs, and Wang was accountable for selling this internally. “It took the Great Wall Motor a long time to cut off the sedan product line. Wang has carried out product planning, brand marketing and dealer communication,” a supply near Wang mentioned. When Great Wall Motor began a brand new spherical of transformation, Wang didn’t proceed this journey. In January and July 2022, she resigned as vice chairman and basic supervisor of Great Wall Motor, leaving the corporate fully.

Wang has mentioned many instances that she has been doing two issues at Great Wall Motor for 30 years: one is technique and the opposite is advertising. She defined her concepts in an interview final July, “If you don’t make product planning according to the market and brand positioning, it will be too late.”

Last 12 months’s G9 launch uncovered many inner issues in XPeng. He Xiaopeng didn’t acknowledge the significance of correct product positioning earlier than, however on the monetary report assembly within the third quarter of final 12 months, he particularly talked about that the positioning of brand name advertising technique will likely be clearer sooner or later, and a long-term plans will likely be made accordingly.

In addition to Wang, in keeping with 36Kr, up to now two months, XPeng has negotiated and attracted many exterior managers, lots of whom come from Alibaba. An individual acquainted with the matter mentioned that a number of senior executives will be a part of the corporate after the Spring Festival vacation, and he can’t assist feeling that “this exchange is too powerful.” Internal mobilization and integration have additionally been carried out, particularly within the gross sales and advertising departments. The auto commerce division answerable for direct shops, person service heart answerable for seller shops and model departments will all be merged.

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Beyond these pressing modifications, XPeng nonetheless faces critical challenges. In the final month of 2022, its gross sales quantity lastly returned to 11,292 automobiles. According to an individual acquainted with the first-line channels, a few of them had been for enterprises as a substitute of particular person customers, and XPeng is underneath nice stress to take care of this degree. By the tip of 2022, it had delivered a complete of 258,710 automobiles, together with 120,800 automobiles in 2022. LatePost‘s report confirmed that its objective in 2023 was to ship practically 200,000 automobiles.

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