There is no talisman in the auto market, and the new car companies that are the first to run have not yet gained a firm foothold, and even show fatigue.
Following the strategic cooperation between the Volkswagen brand and Xpeng Motors in July last year, the cooperation between the two sides has taken another substantial step. On February 29, Xpeng Motors and Volkswagen Group announced that they have signed a technical cooperation agreement for the joint development of platforms and software, which focuses on two Volkswagen-branded mid-size vehicles jointly developed by the two parties in the early stages of the cooperation, the first of which is an SUV model, both of which will be launched in 2026.
Why Xpeng?
Commenting on the signing of the agreement, Volkswagen Group's Managing Director for China, Richard Braid, said, "Through the cooperation with Xpeng Motors, Volkswagen will shorten the product development cycle, improve efficiency, and optimize the cost structure.
Especially after the cooperation was implemented in July last year, it quickly attracted the attention of the industry. At that time, Zhang Xiang, a researcher at the Automotive Industry Innovation Research Center of North China University of Technology, said, "Volkswagen Group is one of the largest car companies in the world, and one of the reasons for choosing Xpeng as a partner is that in the new energy vehicle market, BYD and Tesla are its direct competitors, while Xpeng's intelligent network technology and software are more advanced; The second reason is the sluggish sales of Volkswagen's new energy vehicles in China. ”
Similarly, Lin Xi, Secretary General of the China-Europe Association for Intelligent Connected Vehicles, also said, "Although Volkswagen cooperates with Horizon and Thundersoft in the field of intelligent cockpits, vehicle development is an integrated process, and intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit are Xpeng's strengths." At present, it is recognized in the industry that among all the new car-making forces in China, Xpeng Motors is the closest to Tesla in intelligent driving. ”
Obviously, Xpeng and Volkswagen are considered to be a landmark event in the industry, and a super multinational car company has recognized the electrification and intelligence level of Chinese car companies, which has a great impact on Xiaopeng's brand.
Adjust the time to Xiaopeng Technology Day in 2022, and at that time, Wu Xinzhou, the soul of Xiaopeng's intelligent driving, was still sitting next to He Xiaopeng. Wu Xinzhou stood on the stage and released the XNET perception architecture based on visual neural network, announcing that Xiaopeng has officially embarked on the route of heavy perception and light map, which is earlier than all domestic intelligent driving players.
Based on this, He Xiaopeng set up a city NGP covering Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen in 2023; Nationwide traffic light recognition; Most cities without maps open a series of flags such as autonomous lane changes, overtaking, and left and right turn capabilities.
Although some of the many flags have been cashed out, and some have "bounced", Xpeng's intelligent driving has always maintained its industry-leading position. Especially in the most testing ability of the city navigation assistance, everyone is working hard to promote their own city opening plan, but at present, Xpeng is the only manufacturer covering five cities (north, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Foshan), and the range of availability is the widest.
In this way, Volkswagen is obviously interested in the intelligent research and development level of Xpeng Motors. In addition, from the feedback of the market terminal, especially the word-of-mouth and user research of the ID series of electric vehicles, Volkswagen is also well aware of the shortcomings of its products in intelligence.
Based on this, instead of spending money, time and resources on research and development, Volkswagen should directly "take it" to be practical.
Internally, then "move the knife".
On the first day of construction after the Spring Festival in 2024, He Xiaopeng, CEO of Xpeng Motors, sent an internal letter to all employees. In the letter, he shared his thoughts on the company's business, and also put forward the goal of "more than doubling the performance" in 2024 and "planning about 30 new products or facelifts within 3 years".
For 2023, He Xiaopeng believes that "pain and happiness, dare to think and dare to do" is the true portrayal of Xiaopeng people in 2023. He wrote, "Last year, there were a lot of adjustments in organization, planning, business, operation, and efficiency, and I experienced a lot of pain and great gains. ”
In fact, the adjustment of Xpeng Motors' organizational structure has not stopped, and it has spread to this day. It is said that this round of change is led by Wang Fengying, adjusting the departments involved, including human resources, intelligent data, manufacturing and product planning.
He Xiaopeng supported almost all of Wang Fengying's decisions. Among them, the most striking thing is that Zhang Li, the former general manager of Great Wall Motors, replaced the retired Jiang Ping and was in charge of manufacturing; Jiang Ziyang, a former senior consultant at Reese Strategic Positioning Consulting, succeeded Wu Meng in charge of product planning. The reason why it attracts attention is because both Zhang Li and Jiang Ziyang were once Wang Fengying's old generals, especially the former had a close relationship with Wang Fengying.
Regarding the purpose of the adjustment, a person close to Xiaopeng Motors said, "The internal structure of Xiaopeng Motors has indeed been adjusted, and the adjustment involves many departments, and the purpose is to form a more efficient organization from manufacturing to marketing." ”
It is worth noting that this is not the first time that Xpeng Motors has undergone large-scale organizational restructuring adjustments. As early as October 2022, after the failure of Xiaopeng Motors in the listing of Xiaopeng G9, it started a first-class adjustment, at that time, Xiaopeng Motors established five committees and three product matrix organizations, and He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xiaopeng Motors, personally served as the director of the product and strategy committee, and the heads of the three platforms reported directly to him.
With the adjustment of the organizational structure, Xpeng's executives have also begun a major change. "There are only 2 of the 12 executives left" This is He Xiaopeng's simple summary of the changes in senior management in the past year. Although he did not tell the story in detail, from the information so far, Xpeng Motors has made drastic changes in its senior management and organizational structure.
Of course, this also includes Wang Fengying. Wang Fengying joined Xpeng Motors on January 30 last year, which is the automotive talent recruited by He Xiaopeng from traditional car companies after the failure of Xiaopeng G9 listing, and has joined Xpeng Motors for more than a year so far. Soon after Wang Fengying came to Xiaopeng Motors, she led the reform of Xiaopeng's marketing system and the subsequent exposure of the ** chain anti-corruption.
She is in the Lord, and I am outside the Lord. Regarding Wang Fengying's positioning, He Xiaopeng disclosed it at the launch conference of the 2024 Xpeng G9.
In the eyes of the industry, perhaps it was He Xiaopeng who saw the achievements brought by Wang Fengying's reform, and gave the latter greater trust and rights, so that Wang Fengying led this round of new organizational structure adjustment within Xiaopeng Motors.
Can "size matching" become He Xiaopeng's "good medicine"? (Below)" will be released in the near future, so stay tuned.