Recently, the official website of Xiaopeng Motors showed that the co founders Xia Heng and He Tao have moved from the "Core Management Team" column to the "Lifetime Honors" column, and neither of them has specific company positions for Xiaopeng Motors in their official introductions. Regarding this, Xiaopeng Motors stated that co founders Mr. Xia Heng and Mr. He Tao will continue to support the company's development as lifelong honorary advisors to Xiaopeng Motors.
Interface News learned that Xia Heng and He Tao have currently been involved in entrepreneurship in the field of robotics.
At present, the official website of Xiaopeng Motors shows that the core team members include Chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng, President Wang Fengying, and Vice Chairman and Co President Gu Hongdi.
Prior to this, Xia Heng's title on the official website was Co Founder and Co President of Xiaopeng Motors, while He Tao was Co Founder and Senior Vice President.
At the beginning of its establishment in 2014, Xiaopeng Motors had three founders, namely Xia Heng, He Tao, and Yang Chunlei, all of whom had a background in electric vehicle technology research and development.
Xia Heng and He Tao both come from GAC Group. The former has led the development of GAC New Energy Vehicles and intelligent vehicle control system technology at GAC New Energy Center, while the latter has led the development of intelligent vehicle models such as GAC Trumpchi Witstar and unmanned prototype vehicles. Yang Chunlei has served as the project manager for electric vehicles at FAW Volkswagen and the development project manager for electric vehicles at GAC Toyota.
At that time, the current chairman He Xiaopeng did not hold any specific positions at Xiaopeng Motors, and only attended some public occasions of Xiaopeng Motors as an important investor, providing management, financial and other support for Xiaopeng Motors.
In 2017, He Xiaopeng officially joined Xiaopeng Motors as the chairman, and Yang Chunlei, one of the founders of the same year, withdrew from Xiaopeng Motors. Xia Heng and He Tao respectively served as the president and vice president of Xiaopeng Motors.
Before He Xiaopeng joined, Xia Heng was the head of Xiaopeng Motors, responsible for product development and manufacturing for a long time, and was a key figure in the early development of Xiaopeng Motors. It is understood that the G6 SUV model under Xiaopeng is fully led by it. Another founder, He Tao, has long been responsible for supply chain and sales related work.
Over the past year, the two have gradually withdrawn from the legal entities and shareholders of several Xiaopeng related companies, and gradually faded away in public appearances at Xiaopeng Motors.
These changes, in the eyes of the outside world, are all related to Xiaopeng's adjustment of organizational structure. Starting from October 2022, Xiaopeng Motors began to adjust its organizational structure. Several core executives, including the founding team, left Xiaopeng successively. At the beginning of the following year, Wang Fengying, the former second in command of Great Wall Motors, became the President of Xiaopeng Motors, taking over product planning and sales service system.
Last April, when Xiaopeng Motors announced its 2022 financial report, it announced that it had completed a phased organizational restructuring. After the adjustment, all systems including research and development, production, and supply chain will directly report their work to He Xiaopeng. At that time, First Financial News reported that Xia Heng, He Tao, and Liao Qinghong, the then rumored Chief Talent Officer and Vice President of Sales, were still in office.
In September 2023, He Xiaopeng stated that organizational restructuring would continue. "Last year, there were 12 executives in the financial reports of Xiaopeng's listed company, and today only two remain."