For most car companies, 2023 is a very involuted year, and many car companies are miserable by the ** war, especially for Xiaopeng Motors, in addition to fierce market competition, there are also many internal problems, after the introduction of the Iron Lady Wang Fengying to carry out drastic internal reforms, Xiaopeng Motors reluctantly handed over 14The sales performance of 20,000 units is not far behind NIO and Ideal, and in order to catch up, Xpeng Motors has also brought its own new plan.
On February 18, He Xiaopeng, CEO of Xpeng Motors, released a start-up letter, which reviewed the adjustments and gains in 2023, and also put forward goals such as "more than doubling the performance in 2024" and "planning about 30 new products or facelifts within 3 years".
He Xiaopeng believes that 2024 is the first year for Chinese auto brands to enter the "sea of blood" competition, and it is also the first year for the knockout round. Xpeng Motors has been fighting in fierce competition from the beginning and has accumulated a lot of experience, and he believes that "persistence will definitely win".
Che-sea tactics are not a "good medicine".
In 2023, Li Auto will start with 3760,000 deliveries topped the list of new forces, while NIO ranked second with 160,000 deliveries, while Xpeng Motors 14Deliveries of 160,000 units ranked only in fourth place.
In terms of performance, Xpeng Motors' net loss in the first three quarters of 2023 was 23400 million yuan, 2.8 billion yuan and 38900 million yuan, the gross profit margin of automobiles was -25%γ-8.6% and -61%γOn the other hand, Li Auto achieved a net profit of more than 6 billion yuan in the first three quarters of last year, becoming one of the few profitable members of the new power car companies.
In 2024, as the tenth year of the establishment of Xpeng Motors, Xpeng Motors also hopes to make new breakthroughs this year, with its sales target of 280,000 units this year, doubling from 2023.
In order to achieve this goal, He Xiaopeng revealed that in the next 3 years, Xiaopeng plans to have about 30 new products or facelifts; More manpower will be invested to recruit about 4,000 people; More than 40% of the R&D budget is invested.
In addition, Xpeng's investment in intelligent driving is still very resolute, with a total of 3.5 billion yuan invested in R&D in "AI technology with intelligent driving as the core" in 2024.
Xpeng currently sells the G3i, G-G9, P7, P7i, 2024 P5 and Xpeng X9. At present, there are only six production models, and although the Xpeng G3 has not yet been announced to be discontinued, it is basically confirmed. This year, in addition to the X9 released on January 1, this year, Xpeng will release the first car of the platform on the platform of 300,000 yuan and 150,000 yuan, which complements the two important cornerstones of Xiaopeng's layout at the 100,000-400,000 yuan level.
Judging from such intensive product planning, Xiaopeng Motors, which has no way to retreat, also wants to seize the market through car sea tactics, but entering 2024, Xiaopeng Motors has not continued last year's highlights.
In January this year, Xpeng Motors delivered 8,250 vehicles, a significant month-on-month decline compared with 20,115 vehicles in December last year, not only losing to Ideal and Weilai, but also lagging behind Wenjie, Deep Blue and Extreme Krypton. Among them, only 2,478 units of its first MPV, Xpeng X9, were delivered. In this regard, He Xiaopeng's explanation is: "In January, there was a backlog of tens of thousands of X9 orders, and the ** of G9 was also affected. β
As a new power car company, Xiaopeng Motors is also slightly tired in the face of fierce competition in the market, although it has the strength to create explosive models, but it cannot guarantee sustainability, G6 and P7 are unable to continue the explosive attributes, as early as October 2022, Wang Fengying publicly pointed out the hidden dangers of Xiaopeng Motors. "First, there is a lack of a clear backbone category, and it is impossible to establish a clear brand awareness. Second, there is a lack of focused intelligence characteristics, and intelligence without differentiation can only be mired in an 'arms race.'"
For example, Xiaopeng G3 as a volume model, but now it has fallen to the end of delisting, in addition to the fierce external competition, it also has a lot to do with the vague positioning of Xiaopeng Motors models, so although Xiaopeng Motors' car sea tactics seem to be full of confidence, but whether it can achieve the expected results, it still depends on whether Xiaopeng Motors can solve the problem of brand recognition, otherwise no matter how many new cars will not escape the fate of mediocrity.
Internal restructuring is ongoing
The "chaos" within the enterprise and the unclear product positioning made Xiaopeng begin to "stall", and in order to save Xiaopeng, its chairman He Xiaopeng began to adjust the internal structure.
Pain and happiness, dare to think and dare to do' is the true portrayal of Xiaopeng people in 2023. He Xiaopeng believes that last year, Xiaopeng Motors had a lot of adjustments in organization, planning, business, operation and efficiency, experienced a lot of pain, and also had huge gains. Doing the hard but right thing will allow Xpeng Motors to bottom out in 2023.
In January 2023, Wang Fengying, the former general manager of Great Wall Motors, officially joined Xpeng Motors as the president, taking full responsibility for Xpeng Motors' product planning, product matrix and sales system. Since then, Xpeng Motors has started to adjust its organizational structure covering marketing channels, product planning, product manufacturing, and the first chain.
He Xiaopeng revealed at the third quarter of last year's financial report that under Wang Fengying's "operation", Xiaopeng Motors eliminated nearly 100 sales stores at the end of the first three quarters of 2023, and at the same time launched a channel reform plan called "Jupiter Plan", which aims to gradually replace the past direct sales model with a dealer model to reduce operating costs and improve market coverage.
It is worth mentioning that Zhang Li, the management of Xiaopeng Motors, who is responsible for the production and manufacturing of Xiaopeng Motors, is Wang Fengying's husband. The two have worked together at Great Wall Motors, and Zhang Li joined Great Wall Motors in 1992 and served as Deputy General Manager of Great Wall Motors' Jingmen Branch. It is also reported that Zhang Li also served as the general manager of manufacturing at Great Wall Motors. Wang Fengying has served as vice chairman, executive director and general manager of Great Wall Motor Co., Ltd.
In addition to the above-mentioned personnel adjustments, Huang Ronghai, the former head of the Data Intelligence Center (DIC) of Xpeng Motors, was transferred to the human resources department, and Chen Dan, the former head of the company, has resigned. As far as the marketing sector is concerned, Yi Han, the former vice president of marketing of Xpeng Motors, has resigned. At the same time, Xpeng Motors' product marketing, integrated marketing, marketing media, user operation and other teams have been adjusted.
According to incomplete statistics, in the past year or so, as many as 9 executives have left from Xpeng Motors. At the 2024 G9 press conference held by Xpeng Motors in September last year, He Xiaopeng also revealed that only 2 of the 12 executives disclosed in the financial report of Xpeng Motors in the previous year (2022) remained.
In January this year, it was reported that Xpeng Motors was undergoing a new round of organizational structure adjustments, which were led by Wang Fengying, involving multiple departments such as marketing, human resources, intelligent data, manufacturing and product planning.
He Xiaopeng himself also wrote in the commencement letter: "This year is the second year of Xiaopeng's 'from 1 to 2, the second entrepreneurship', and the second year of organizational adjustment. β
At present, Xiaopeng Motors has not completely come out of the trough, and the internal changes led by Wang Fengying are still continuing, so the impact of Wang Fengying on Xiaopeng Motors still needs to wait for further testing of time.
Although Xpeng Motors has put forward the goal of 30 new cars in three years and doubling sales to 280,000 units this year, the above plan is still in Xpeng's "beautiful blueprint". The real situation is that Xiaopeng's sales target for 2023 is 200,000 units, and the completion degree is only 70%.