Founder of XPeng Summarizes Achievements and Problems in 2022
On January 18, Chinese electric vehicle maker XPeng held its annual meeting. He Xiaopeng, the firm’s chairman, reviewed his five-year entrepreneurial journey from 2018 to 2022, reflected on the firm’s performance in 2022, and shared its main plan for 2023, 36Kr reported.
In the past year, as a leading player in the market, XPeng suffered a lot of crises. 68,983 vehicles were delivered in the first half of 2022, achieving a year-on-year increase of 124%. However, in the second half of the year, the sales volume dropped sharply, causing a failure to meet its annual sales target of 250,000 units.
In He Xiaopeng’s view, deliveries last year were not too bad. “The upgraded version of the G9 and P7 in 2022 did not stop the decline in sales, but I think the G9 and P7 are very successful products, and I believe the sales decline is only for a moment. In 2023 and 2024, the G9 and P7 can make XPeng become the top two in the industry,” said He.
XPeng has completed a large number of platform classification and modular development, including electronic architecture, intelligent cockpit, and 800V high voltage charging. “Each platform of XPeng can produce different models, and meet the needs of different customers, which laid a very good foundation,” He added.
However, He listed some shortcomings, including its low stock price, sales volume and morale, the collapse of its consumer image and reputation, and the inefficiency of departments. In order to solve these problems, he has carried out drastic internal rectification, including the planning of a clear future strategy, higher requirements for net promoter score, canceling the reporting relationship and approval conditions of the president’s office, and more.
In 2023, He will mainly be responsible for strategy and planning, organizational ability and values. Now, some committees have been formed and started to move forward, while some committees are still in preliminary discussions. “In the past five years, we were a vertical matrix developed around a product at the same time. From 2023 to 2027, we will be a large product matrix developed around a variety of products at the same time. This is a huge change,” He added.
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Finally, He proposed a medium and long-term strategy and key work in 2023 to tens of thousands of employees. The operating profit will turn positive in 2025, and the sales volume will reach 1.2 million units in 2027. In the next five years, the company will take customers as the key and build product competitiveness, focus on automatic driving and expansion of overseas markets, as well as actively explore software and new business models.
He also predicted that the annual sales volume of new energy vehicles in China may reach 15 million units in 2027, and its market share may even reach about 70%.
