Halfway through 2024, senior executives from many mainstream emerging forces were reported to have resigned.
Recently, NIO issued an announcement, officially announcing the departure of its Chief Financial Officer Feng Wei, without any prior warning. The reason given by NIO is a common excuse for executives leaving: personal and family reasons.
NIO just announced its June sales report a few days ago. Its market performance has gradually improved, and its US stock price has risen by more than 14%. The main brand sales hit a new high, and the orders for the first car of the sub-brand in pre-sale also "far exceeded expectations" and will be officially launched in the second half of the year.
However, at this moment, Feng Wei resigned.
Feng Wei worked at ZF, a world-renowned auto parts company, for nearly six years, responsible for supply chain and market research. In 2010, Feng Wei switched to the financial industry and worked as an automotive industry analyst at Everbright Securities Research Institute. Three years later, Feng Wei jumped to CICC and rose to managing director of CICC's research department.
In 2019, when NIO was on the verge of collapse, Feng Wei became a "firefighter" and replaced Xie Dongying as CFO. Xie Dongying, as an "IPO expert", left the company after helping NIO go public on the US stock market. The outside world interpreted this as "leaving the company in a huff". It also makes sense logically.
Feng Wei’s departure this time is puzzling.
At the same time, the board of directors has approved the promotion of Qu Yu, the former senior vice president of finance, as the new CFO. Qu Yu first worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers for 10 years. Later in 2013, Qu Yu left PricewaterhouseCoopers and held financial leadership positions in companies such as Lear Corporation and Johnson Controls.
In October 2016, Qu Yu joined NIO. Before this promotion, he was mainly responsible for the company's overall financial and reporting work.
When Feng Wei first took over NIO, the company had to "move funds" even to pay salaries, but now Qu Yu has taken over a NIO with a cash flow of 45 billion yuan and monthly sales of over 20,000 vehicles. But at the same time, it is also facing greater pressure, after all, the sub-brand Ledao and the battery swap alliance still need NIO to continue to burn money to grow.
In early July, it was reported that Jiao Qingchun, vice president of Xpeng Motors, had resigned, and Xpeng Motors confirmed the news. This move may be part of the organizational structure adjustment of Xpeng Motors.
Before leaving, Jiao Qingchun was in charge of the Xpeng Motors Technology Center and was also the project leader of the Xpeng H platform. The MPV model Xpeng X9, which was launched at the beginning of this year, was produced on this platform. Xpeng's Automotive Technology Center is responsible for vehicle-related R&D, including embedded development, chassis, body, interior and exterior, and electronic and electrical architecture.
It is reported that after Jiao Qingchun's resignation, Yu Peng, the former head of the embedded development department under Xiaopeng Motors Technology Center, will take over as the head of the technology center.
Data shows that in June, Xpeng Motors delivered a total of 10,668 new cars, a year-on-year increase of 24% and a month-on-month increase of 5%. In the first half of the year, Xpeng Motors delivered a total of 52,028 new cars, a year-on-year increase of 26%. This performance has increased compared to its own "low period", but the sales gap is large compared to the current first-tier new forces.
Also in early July, it was revealed that Zhang Weili, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Leapmotor, was about to leave the company, and some media even reported that he had joined Geely. This was only one year and nine months after he joined Leapmotor.
On June 28, Leapmotor's new six-seater SUV C16 was launched. According to sources, according to convention, Zhang Weili would celebrate in the company's large group after each new car launch, but this time Zhang Weili was unusually silent in various work groups and left multiple work groups the next day.
Zhang Weili joined Leapmotor in September 2022 and was promoted to senior vice president and chief marketing officer in January 2023. Leapmotor founder Zhu Jiangming has high hopes for Zhang Weili, hoping that he can make up for Leapmotor's marketing shortcomings. According to a former Leapmotor employee, Zhang Weili's management is very meticulous, "from brand planning to the attendance of every employee in the department, card replacement and clocking in must be approved by him personally."
During his tenure at Leapmotor, the department under Zhang Weili's jurisdiction hosted several launch events, including the C11 extended-range version, the Clover Central Integrated Electronic and Electrical Architecture, the C10, and the C16. His team advocated that Leapmotor further emphasize the price-performance label, and phrases such as "let users feel the value of 300,000 to 400,000 yuan at a price of 150,000 to 200,000 yuan", "realize luxury equality with high quality and price ratio", and "price at cost" frequently appeared in Leapmotor's official promotional materials.
In 2023, Leapmotor will sell 144,100 vehicles, achieving 70% of its sales target for the year. In June this year, Leapmotor's monthly sales exceeded 20,000 vehicles for the first time, second only to Ideal, Wenjie, and Weilai, and it can be said that the momentum is strong.
Industry experts said that most of the new forces are in a loss-making state. In an increasingly involuted market, the pressure on enterprises is increasing day by day, and it is a common phenomenon that revenue increases but profits do not. Part of the reason for the replacement is to reduce management and consumption costs to balance the company's income and expenditure. On the other hand, mid-year may be a performance evaluation node for some companies, and the replacement may also have something to do with this.
