Stand straight, Xpeng will be the BYD of ten years from now

Article | Jiang Xiaohua

If I were to name one among all the new car-making companies that I least want to see sink and be annihilated, that would be Xiaopeng.

I don’t want to discuss performance, financial reports, losses and damn capital chains in this article. I just want to talk about people.

There are currently three visible factions of car-making entrepreneurs, and scammers or extreme opportunists are not among them. The first type is the "Westernization Movement" faction such as Li Bin and Li Xiang. Although the two Lis are very different, generally speaking, both of them can be regarded as typical examples of Chinese style and Western style.

The second category is the "professional founder faction". This faction has three characteristics: industry background, professional managers are more temperamental than entrepreneurs, and those who are still alive today are all focused on low-end electric vehicles. Among this faction, Nezha, led by Zhang Yong, is still active on the front line.

The third category is the "Chinese-style entrepreneurial school". The representatives in my eyes are He Xiaopeng and Zhu Jiangming.

Both of them have had successful entrepreneurial experiences. One was making a browser and the other was making a smart camera, both of which were successful.

But with their respective successful experiences, the car-building route chosen by Zhu Jiangming is more like the thorny and treacherous road taken by Geely and others; while He Xiaopeng chose the technology of the strongest player in the industry. field, and the price field where the industry is most concentrated, forcefully advance.

From a visual perspective, He Xiaopeng’s choice is naturally more encouraging. Of course, this obviously also means greater risks.

All new car companies have obviously made some mistakes. As smart as Li Xiang was, he was almost killed in his infancy by an old man's music that was never released on the market. Zhu Jiangming, who is frugal, also launched a nondescript small-town youth car designed by a camera designer.

But now, Xiaopeng, who was so high-spirited in the past few years, is almost drowning in saliva.

Of course saliva can never drown anyone. Those who die in saliva drown themselves.

What’s more, this wave of saliva is quite strong in the secondary market, taking advantage of the timing of the release of Xiaopeng’s annual report to short-sell in advance, and then take advantage of the annual report’s market surge to sell.

After the public opinion manipulation in the capital market ended, some relatively serious media began to join in the fun and follow up on Xiaopeng’s topic selection. It also makes us feel sad. Great Wall recently issued a 10 million C-side troll cleanup bonus. In fact, the I-side (investment market side) trolls are the regular army among the trolls.

In my opinion, it is biased to use purely financial methods to judge the success or failure of Chinese entrepreneurs. The founders themselves are the key to the success or failure of a business.

Wu Xiaobo said in last year’s year-end show: It is difficult for a startup to die if its founder and founding team don’t want to die.

When encountering difficulties, they think of withdrawing. This mostly happens to professional founders. The roll call is too ugly, but everyone can think of something anyway.

If I am not mistaken, death is not in the entrepreneurial dictionary of a founder like He Xiaopeng. Even if one day he had to completely overhaul everything, He Xiaopeng would never even think about giving up halfway.

I have always believed that among the pure cross-industry intruders so far, He Xiaopeng is the one that is most helpful to the development of the industry. He is truly thinking about the new scene that may arise after the integration of the Internet industry and the automobile manufacturing industry, and he is truly starting from scratch to recreate an industry leader like Tesla in China.

I never thought that Xpeng Motors would reach a critical moment in 2023. Perhaps changes and adjustments are necessary, but absolutely not if there is no other way out.

First, there are some problems with Xpeng's early settings, but they are not problems that cannot be adjusted, and they are not much bigger than the problems of NIO when Li Bin was at his worst.

Xpeng’s biggest problem in building cars comes from the company’s insufficient understanding of the scope of the automotive industry. For example, the length of the supply chain, the length of the marketing chain including the product use cycle, and the length of the automobile manufacturing industry itself as a long-distance running track. So something went wrong during the initial setup of the enterprise link.

Many people are disapproving of Xiaopeng’s invitation to Wang Fengying to join, but I just feel that this is an action brought about by He Xiaopeng’s clear understanding of the above-mentioned issues. I very much hope that the two of you can be magnanimous enough to complement each other's strengths and resolve differences.

As for some specific issues in the supply chain and sales end, this is a headache that Xiaopeng will have to worry about when it grows into fruit again. In these difficult times, it is easier to work together.

Secondly, many people think that Xpeng’s positioning is not smart enough. For example, Li Xiang made it clear that in the price range of RMB 200,000 to RMB 300,000, new forces are not competitive enough and they need to achieve greater sales above RMB 300,000 to gradually enter.

In the evaluation of Xpeng, most people in the industry believe that Xpeng is positioned in the price zone where traditional car companies have concentrated their collective efforts, which is superimposed on Tesla’s price squeeze, resulting in Xpeng’s You will be under attack from both sides for a long time.

This is true. The fundamental reason is that Xiaopeng did not have enough judgment on the length of the industry and did not arrange a route that would be unfavorable. In fact, not only are the stubborn Lingpao and Nezha struggling, but also Li Bin and Li Xiang are struggling in a perhaps more glamorous and respectable way?

Nowadays, BYD, Geely, Great Wall and other arrogant companies have not reached this point only by dreaming high-profile and by prioritizing survival.

In the hardware field, under the same cost, it is not easy to make something outstanding that can be recognized by the market.

In my opinion, of course, Xpeng cannot give up its outstanding ideas. Its advantages in autonomous driving should not be abandoned, but should also be strengthened. In the final analysis, the capital market has not yet made a decision on Xpeng. Supported by technology valuations that exceed those of peers. This is He Xiaopeng's most important responsibility after Xiaopeng's round of adjustments.

If Xiaopeng gives up its pursuit of being a technology leader due to market pressure, then there will really be no way to go other than quickly adjusting its strategy to the low end and firmly following the old path of surrounding cities from rural areas. If BYD had not withstood the grueling wait for electrification, it would be nothing now.

Yes, the era of autonomous driving and software-based cars will not come for a while. You can think about BYD in 2003. At least your wait for the smart car era will not be longer than Wang Chuanfu's wait for the electric car era.

So, what Xiaopeng should do now is to learn from your predecessors in Shenzhen. How did they manage to thrive in the fuel vehicle market while always holding high the banner of electric vehicles?

Both the ideals of industrial innovation and the definition of realistic products must be done well. Who said that the most crowded market cannot produce products with character?

In the game of time, if you are not strong, you will lose your original intention, and if you are not strong, your bones will be broken. Only by being able to hold on to the core and hold on to the present is the best way for the automobile industry to truly grow from zero to one.

And I just think that He Xiaopeng can do these two things. Judging from the newly launched P7i and the G6-related information that has been revealed, both cars have the dual functions of revitalizing the market and sorting out the internal affairs.

Of course, the test of the market this year has become very difficult with the liquidation of joint venture car companies and the participation of government subsidies. Although these storms are driving away people, it should not be driving away entrepreneurs like He Xiaopeng. who.

Xpeng’s biggest life and death crisis today is not external, but internal. After a huge wave of personnel changes, how to quickly clean up the previous internal chaos, form a unified force, and endure the difficult market. Bearing force is the urgent job nowadays.

As evidence, I believe that Xiaopeng was improperly eliminated.

Xiaopeng himself has to stand up straight. Any mistakes in positioning or anger will make Ning Wang angry. If he can't survive, it will be lessons and jokes. If he survives, it will be experience and good stories. Stand up straight, you will be BYD ten years from now.

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