This article**: Times Weekly Author: Li Zhuoling.
Since the beginning of the year, there has been continuous news of personnel changes in the automobile circle.
A few days ago, according to Leifeng.com, Zeng Lintang, assistant to the chairman of Leapmotor, left the company in December 2023, which is only 7 months after he joined Leapmotor.
In this regard, a reporter from the Times Weekly interviewed Leapmotor on February 4, and relevant people responded that Zeng Lintang had been a consultant in the company for a period of time and left Leapmotor for personal reasons last year. And last month, Leapmotor just announced that its former president Wu Baojun's labor contract had expired and the company would not renew his employment.
Coincidentally, this wave of personnel changes has also set off in other new power car companies, including Feifan Automobile, Nezha Automobile, Xiaopeng, Weilai and other car companies. According to incomplete statistics from the Times Weekly reporter, in January this year, there were more than 20 new power executives who underwent personnel changes, including CEOs, business leaders, and core executives of marketing companies, and some executives were even "dismissed" and "left the field".
Xpeng Motors **Photo by Times Weekly
Jiang Han, a senior researcher at Pangu Think Tank, told the Times Weekly reporter that there are many reasons for this round of personnel adjustments, such as performance pressure, strategic adjustment, and capital operation needs. Ren Wanfu, a senior analyst in the automotive industry, also told reporters that the recent intensive adjustment of senior executives of the new car-making forces is nothing more than two situations, one is to take the initiative to adjust, for the sake of sales and enterprise development to layout; The other is passive adjustment, performance is not up to standard, poached, etc.
There is a big change in the executives of the new forces.
In January this year, some new power car companies took turns to stage a drama of executive replacement.
First of all, at the beginning of the month, a personnel adjustment document involving 13 people from the marketing company of Hezhong New Energy Automobile (Nezha Automobile) circulated on the Internet, including Daniel Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Nezha Automobile, as the president of the marketing company, and the appointment of Zhou Jiang (concurrently) as the executive vice president of the marketing company; Hu Enping was appointed Executive Vice President and Director of Creative & New Initiatives.
At the same time, it also appointed 1 executive vice president, 4 vice presidents, 2 assistant presidents and 1 general manager of the marketing company. In addition, two senior executives were removed from their positions in the personnel adjustments, including Jiang Feng's position as executive vice president of the marketing company and Li Changhe as executive vice president of the marketing company.
In this regard, a reporter from Times Weekly sent an interview to Nezha Automobile, and the relevant person did not comment, but said that it was an internal document. Previously, Nezha Automobile also confirmed the content of the document to the Financial Associated Press, Economic Observer, etc.
Since the beginning of this year, the adjustment of the organizational structure of Xpeng Motors has continued. On January 23, according to Red Star News, it was learned from Xiaopeng Motors that President Wang Fengying led the promotion of a new round of organizational restructuring of Xiaopeng Motors, involving multiple departments such as marketing, human resources, intelligent data, manufacturing and product planning. In this round of personnel changes, Huang Ronghai, the former head of the Data Intelligence Center (DIC), is in charge of the human resources department, and Chen Dan, the former head of the human resources department, has resigned from Xpeng Motors; Zhang Li, the former general manager of Great Wall Motors, joined Xpeng a few months ago, replacing the retired Jiang Ping in charge of manufacturing. Jiang Ziyang, who previously worked as a senior consultant for positioning consulting at Reece Strategy, joined Xpeng Motors to be responsible for product planning, after being led by Wu Meng. In addition, the resignation of Wang Tao, the former head of visual perception of Xpeng's US team, is also believed to be related to this structural adjustment.
The Times Weekly reporter asked Xiaopeng for confirmation of the personnel adjustment, and the relevant people said that they could not respond for the time being.
In terms of Feifan Automobile, the commander was changed at the beginning of the year. On January 11, SAIC Motor announced that Wu Bing, vice president of SAIC, will no longer concurrently serve as the general manager of SAIC Passenger Vehicle Branch and CEO of Feifan Automobile; Wang Jun, the former general manager of Huayu Automobile, took over as the general manager of SAIC Motor Passenger Vehicle Branch and CEO of Feifan Automobile. It is reported that this is also the first time that the brand has changed its CEO after Feifan Auto became independent: in October 2021, SAIC said that it would invest in the establishment of Feifan Automotive Technology *** and separate the R brand of SAIC Group's passenger car branch, which will be operated by Feifan Automobile in an asset-light manner. Subsequently, Wu Bing became the helmsman of Feifan Automobile.
In this regard, a person from Feifan Automobile told the Times Weekly reporter, "At present, Wang Jun is the CEO of Feifan Automobile, and he is still familiar with the overall business. ”
Leapmotor
In addition, many executives have announced their "departure". Leapmotor issued a statement on January 24 saying that Wu Baojun will not renew his employment due to the expiration of the labor contract. In terms of Weilai, after the head of its mobile phone, Yin Shuijun, was exposed to his resignation, his successor, Bai Jian, publicly confirmed the adjustment on January 6, and bluntly said, "I came to pick up the mobile phone, which also shows that I Wei is firmly determined to do a good job in the interconnection of drivers and mobile phones." ”
The blade is inward, and performance pressure has become a major reason.
From the perspective of the industry, there are many reasons for this round of personnel adjustments, such as performance pressure, strategic adjustment, and capital operation needs.
Taking Nezha as an example, behind the personnel adjustment of the aforementioned marketing company, Daniel Zhang publicly posted on social platforms on January 2 that "2023 will not be done well". Daniel Zhang also mentioned several reasons: the new and old production did not connect well, and the rhythm was chaotic; The price of new products on the market is too high, and although the adjustment is in place in the second half of the year, it has lost the opportunity; Loss-making product lines have significantly reduced production; The way of communication is old, and there are good things that can't be said.
Screenshot of Daniel Zhang's Weibo
Daniel Zhang also directly pointed out that "the marketing headquarters is centralized and the management is weak." In December last year, he bluntly said, "There are good things that can't be said, and they must be deeply reviewed, and the marketing system is sorry for the efforts of the R&D team." ”
In terms of market performance, in 2023, Nezha Automobile will deliver a total of 127496 vehicles. On the other hand, other new car companies, last year, Li Auto delivered a total of 376,030 vehicles, NIO delivered a total of 160038 new cars, and Leapmotor delivered a total of 144155 units in 2023. In 2022, Nezha Automobile won the championship of new car-making forces in 2022 with the annual delivery of 152073 vehicles.
For 2024, Daniel Zhang said that he will start again, including his concurrent general manager of the marketing company; The marketing system all stood up and returned to work; Comprehensively improve marketing communications and user communication.
In addition, in terms of Xpeng Motors, public reports show that its organizational structure can be traced back to October 2022, when it established five committees and three product matrix organizations. Chairman He Xiaopeng personally served as the director of the product and strategy committee, and the heads of the three major platforms reported directly to him. In January last year, Wang Fengying, the former general manager of Great Wall Motors, joined Xpeng Motors and was fully responsible for the product planning, product matrix and sales system of Xpeng Motors. In He Xiaopeng's words, the specific division of labor between him and Wang Fengying is "she is in the main, and I am outside the master".
Under the leadership of President Ms. Wang Fengying, the sales channel is undergoing a radical transformation, which I believe will make the whole system more efficient and flexible, and the channel will expand faster and reach more third- and fourth-tier cities. He Xiaopeng has previously said that the upgrading and expansion of channels will become one of the important driving forces for Xiaopeng's sales growth in 2024 and beyond. In an interview, he also pointed out that in 2024, Xiaopeng will focus on "making up for shortcomings", one of which is to enhance marketing capabilities, and reached a consensus with Wang Fengying that by the end of 2024, while technology and products will be done well, marketing will also be recognized by everyone.
Jiang Han told the Times Weekly reporter that with the increasingly fierce competition in the new energy vehicle market, all car companies are facing increasing performance pressure. In order to cope with this pressure, car companies need to make personnel adjustments, optimize management teams, and improve execution. Therefore, performance pressure is an important reason for this round of personnel adjustments.
Since the beginning of this year, the competition in the new energy vehicle market has become more intense. As of January 31, more than 10 new cars have been launched in the new energy vehicle market alone, according to the Economic Economy**. Wang Jun, President of Changan Automobile, previously pointed out that according to incomplete statistics, there will be 202 new products on the market in China's auto market in 2024, including 152 new energy products, accounting for 75%.
Li Bin, chairman and CEO of NIO, also said in his first internal letter in 2024 that the next two years will be the most important stage of transformation in the automotive industry, and the competition will be fierce beyond imagination. "We will face more powerful competitors, more and more excellent products, more fierce battles, more complex atmosphere, and a macro environment full of uncertainty. Every colleague should be mentally prepared, give up illusions, and face challenges head-on. While ensuring long-term investment in key core technologies, leading edge in technology and products, and on-time and high-quality delivery, NIO must ensure that its sales and service capabilities can cope with fierce market competition, so that 'sales energy' can be converted into sales as soon as possible." ”
With the continuous development of the new energy vehicle market, enterprises need to constantly adjust their strategies to adapt to changes in the market. As the formulator and executor of the corporate strategy, the senior management team also needs to adjust accordingly to ensure the effective implementation of the strategy. For example, companies may place more emphasis on the development of intelligence, electrification, etc., so it is necessary to bring in executives with relevant backgrounds to drive the implementation of these strategies. Jiang Han further told reporters.