2023 has just passed, and it is time for the auto market to summarize last year, look forward to this year, formulate a full-year development plan, and replace the top management.
According to incomplete statistics, in January this year, there have been personnel changes in many car companies, including Volkswagen, Xiaopeng, Great Wall, SAIC, Feifan, Leap, SAIC-GM-Wuling, Audi, Ideal, Jaguar Land Rover, Weilai, Nezha, JAC, Changan, and Polestar.
New power executives either left or were "fired".
At the beginning of the year, a document on the adjustment of Nezha Automobile's personnel was circulated on the Internet. The reason is that its cumulative sales in 2023 are only 12750,000 units, not only only completed half of the annual sales target, but also from the new force sales champion to the only negative growth brand, for which the CEO of Nezha Automobile publicly reviewed the reasons for the decline in sales on social platforms, and proposed a solution, personally "in charge" as the president of the marketing company, and at the same time removed the position of executive vice president of Jiangfeng Marketing Company and the position of executive vice president of Li Changhe Marketing Company, and the number of personnel adjustments was as many as 13 people.
In addition to Nezha Automobile, Xpeng has also recently completed a new round of organizational structure adjustments, including Zhang Li, the former general manager of Great Wall Manufacturing, joining Xpeng Motors to replace Jiang Ping, the retired former vice president of manufacturing, in charge of manufacturing; Jiang Ziyang, a former senior consultant at Reece Strategy Consulting, joined in to replace Wu Meng, who was originally in charge of product planning; Huang Ronghai, the former head of the Data Intelligence Center (DIC), replaced Chen Dan, who left the company. In addition, Wang Tao, the former head of visual perception of Xpeng Motors' U.S. team, has also resigned, and there is no such person in the company's system.
In 2023, the sales volume will surpass Xiaopeng and rank third among the new forces, and there have also been personnel changes, Wu Baojun, co-founder and president of Leapmotor, will resign, and Leapmotor will no longer have the position of president, and the related business will be in charge of Vice President Li Tengfei in the future. It is reported that the reason for the resignation is that the labor contract will not be renewed after expiration, but there are ** reports that Wu Baojun himself said that he did not plan to resign.
According to Weilai's internal email, Yin Shuijun, the head of the mobile phone, will leave, and the mobile phone-related business will be concurrently served by Bai Jian, the head of the hardware of Weilai.
Wu Bing, vice president of SAIC Group, no longer serves as general manager of SAIC Passenger Vehicle Branch and CEO of Feifan Automobile, and Wang Jun, former general manager of Huayu Automobile, took over as general manager of SAIC Passenger Vehicle Branch and CEO of Feifan Automobile. At the same time, there was also news of layoffs in the Feifan Intelligent Driving Department, involving about 300 people, and there has been no official response yet. But Pia Hu, the PP-CEM team leader who is responsible for the Feifan brand's intelligent driving business, has now left.
In addition to the new forces, Qiao Xinyu, executive vice president of marketing at Great Wall Haval, has also left and his whereabouts are unknown. According to people close to Haval, Qiao Xinyu's departure is related to the adjustment of Haval's organizational structure.
Traditional car companies appoint "top leaders".
On January 29, Volkswagen China officially announced that from April 1, 2024, Wu Borui, a member of the management board of the Volkswagen brand responsible for the "New Mobility" business, will take over from Han Hongming to be responsible for the group's research and development in China, promote the localization of the group's product portfolio in China, and serve as the CEO of Volkswagen Group (China) Technology (VCTC). Han Hongming will take up a new role within the group.
At the same time, Audi also announced that from April 1, 2024, Johannes Roscheck will be appointed President of Audi China, replacing Wen Zeyue, the current President of Audi China, and will manage Audi's business in the Chinese market.
Jaguar Land Rover has been vacant for several months as Executive Vice President of Marketing at IMSS. From January 2, Wang Fang, who previously served as President of Aston Martin China and Vice President of National Sales of Mercedes-Benz Canada, will be appointed Executive Vice President of Marketing of Jaguar Land Rover China and Chery Jaguar Land Rover Joint Marketing Sales and Service Organization (IMSS), reporting to Wu Chen, President of IMSS.
In addition, Lynk & Co, which plans to further expand its international business in 2024, has also announced new personnel appointments, Alain Viser will leave Geely Automobile Group, and long-time Volvo executive Nicholas Lopez Appelgren will become the new international CEO of Geely's Lynk & Co brand, with full responsibility for overseeing the launch of Lynk & Co's first all-electric model in Europe, the Lynk & Co 02, and successfully entering new markets such as the United Kingdom, Norway, Austria and Switzerland.
In 2023, Chen Siying, who worked for Lynk & Co and Wei brands, joined Meizu Group on November 30 last year as Senior Vice President and President of the Automotive Division, and then joined Polestar as COO, fully responsible for Polestar's marketing sector.
Of course, this is only one of the many personnel changes. According to incomplete statistics, more than 20 people have adjusted their positions in January this year alone, and personnel adjustments are more frequent than in 2023. Statistics show that in 2023, more than 50 companies will be involved in the changes in senior personnel of car companies, and more than 130 senior managers will change positions.
As a decisive year for the new energy vehicle industry, 2024 has reached a critical moment of life and death to a certain extent.