Xpeng Motors, which was once thriving, has now "lost momentum"?

In the ever-changing business world, some people take advantage of the situation and rise, while others "retreat" after winning. This person is He Xiaopeng.

In 2014, Xiaopeng Motors was one of the most prosperous companies in the electric vehicle market. With favorable policies and capital, the Xiaopeng Motors project received attention and support from all parties. With its strategic location in Guangzhou and its outlets across the country, it was only waiting for sufficient production capacity before heading north.

Unfortunately, He Xiaopeng called a halt at this time. Under the call, there were more images of him apologizing for delayed delivery, and the bet with Li Bin of NIO that he suddenly admitted and never mentioned again, and the stage where the policy dividends gradually ended. After calling a halt, Xiaopeng's speed dropped, and the competitors behind him surpassed him: the industry is already full of competition, and without speed, there is death, so why wait? How dare we wait? How can we wait?

But He Xiaopeng was helpless. Who wouldn't want to compete with others? He once "mounted on a horse and drew his spear, inspecting the troops on the battlefield in autumn"; but there were always inexplicable and inexplicable things that dulled his fighting spirit and sharpness at that time, and he could only sigh helplessly.

Today, with the ever-increasing user orders, the Zhaoqing factory that has been built but not yet started, and the high-speed production line of the Haima OEM factory, the warning of empty internal inventory and insufficient liquidity, IPO is a way out. However, He Xiaopeng still called a halt. "One wrong step, all wrong steps", if he didn't call a halt, Xiaopeng Motors might have to stop on its own.

"Thirty years of fame is nothing but dust, eight thousand miles of journey is nothing but clouds and moon. Don't wait, your hair will turn grey and you will be filled with regret..."

01｜The fever-reducing madman

"It's too early to retire in my thirties, so I had to do something, and finally I chose cars." Every time He Xiaopeng talked about his original ideal, he always felt a little restless.

Born in the Internet industry, He Xiaopeng is a person who can't sit still. In 2014, with the overall merger of UC into Alibaba, He Xiaopeng achieved financial freedom, but it was obvious that he didn't enjoy such a life. During that time, he paid attention to many projects, especially Xiaopeng Motors, which he co-invested with YY founder Li Xueling and Cheetah Mobile CEO Fu Sheng.

This year, Silicon Valley's "Iron Man" Musk opened up all of Tesla's technology patents, encouraging manufacturers to enter this somewhat deserted industry that will sooner or later become crowded.

New energy vehicles are about to take off.

He Xiaopeng has the opportunity to become the "Lei Jun" of the new industry, the person he regards as a mentor, and can hardly hide his excitement and nervousness: in this market, he has already made a forward-looking layout, and Tesla's move has added fuel to the fire; however, the layout cannot be used to make a living, making money is the end goal, NIO, Qiantu, WM Motor... many manufacturers have caught up.

"The industry chain of smart cars is long and complex. It takes six years of accumulation and sufficient funds to attract the best talents in the smart car market. Only in this way can it be successful." Lei Jun once kindly reminded the young people that it is very difficult to enter the new energy vehicle market. However, He Xiaopeng still joined Xiaopeng Motors on August 29, 2017, and his enthusiasm arose spontaneously.

At that time, Lei Jun, who was already 45 years old, saw himself four years ago in He Xiaopeng: If it weren't for such passion and determination, how could there be Xiaomi today?

Now, Xiaomi is a success, and so is Xiaopeng Motors. The latter lived up to expectations, and one month after He Xiaopeng took up his new position, Xiaopeng Motors achieved small-scale production.

Capital lacks patience. When it makes a profit in the new energy vehicle market, the entire industry immediately starts to speed up metabolism and output quickly. This has given rise to a number of new brands entering the market, and has also forced manufacturers that have already entered the market to start mass production urgently, thus giving rise to Weilai's "full self-manufacturing" + "external OEM" model.

* Recent developments of Xpeng, NIO, WM Motor, and Byton

He Xiaopeng couldn't bear to see others being faster, so he also started "two-wheel drive": while planning the production of the Zhaoqing manufacturing plant, he chose Haima as the OEM, just to see the product one day earlier. To encourage himself, he also accepted the bet of Li Bin, CEO of Weilai - whoever can deliver 10,000 new cars in 2018 will get a new car as the stakes.

In March 2018, Xiaopeng Motors' 1.0 mass-produced model successfully passed the review and obtained the first new energy license plate for mass-produced vehicles of China's new car-making forces. However, surprisingly, He Xiaopeng did not continue to accelerate, but showed signs of cooling down and began to call a halt.

All parties hoped that Xiaopeng Motors could launch the market promotion as soon as possible, but He Xiaopeng chose to leave the first batch of products to employees and continue driving tests in different scenarios. "Consumers should never be our first users." He Xiaopeng's attitude was very firm, without considering the 2,000 car owners who had completed the reservation on April 27 of that year.

Since then, Xiaopeng Motors has lost its initial speed. He Xiaopeng attended various forums and talked about his anxiety, the prospects of technology, and future plans, but rarely talked about the progress of delivery. Later, the bet with Li Bin was no longer mentioned.

At He Xiaopeng's command, Xiaopeng immediately "stopped" and then fell behind its competitors in all aspects. It took Xiaopeng Motors 24 months from the initial mass production to the delivery of the first new car, and its competitors quickly overtook it. The bet with Li Bin was bound to lose, so how could it be brought up? The situation was originally very favorable for Xiaopeng Motors, but in the end it lost the game and was forgotten by everyone.

02｜Sacrifice

The knife circled on the cake, but He Xiaopeng stopped and didn't take another step forward.

Is it limited by the capacity of the foundry? It seems not. At the end of September 2017, Haima's workshop was opened to Xiaopeng. The 300 industrial robots and the complete assembly line of Haima's third factory in Zhengzhou were renovated. It was a very complete automobile industrial system in China, and it was ready to start work immediately after Xiaopeng's order.

However, throughout the winter, Haima’s workshop did not work quickly. This cooperation should have allowed both companies to get what they needed - Xiaopeng to improve its delivery capacity and Haima to activate its dormant production line. However, Xiaopeng remained reserved and dormant, and the workshop was unable to create miracles until January 2018, when it delivered 39 new cars.

Three months later, Haima announced its performance in 2017. Due to the sluggish sales of its own brands and the lack of production orders from Xiaopeng, Haima's revenue and production and sales were both declining (revenue of 10.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 30.29%; net profit of -994 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 531.9%; production of 134,637 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 39.02%; sales of 140,432 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 35.13%).

Does Xiaopeng not trust Haima? It seems not. In order to get the answer, in July 2018, I drove from Guangzhou to Zhaoqing to learn about the production progress of Xiaopeng Motors Base. After arriving at the destination, I only saw the distant loess and scattered people. The 10 billion yuan investment, a total of 3 phases of construction projects, did not seem to have started construction.

For this reason, He Xiaopeng came out to say that the Zhaoqing factory is still under construction and is not the current product base, so there is no possibility of any products. In other words, the Zhaoqing factory currently has no production capacity. Therefore, all the hopes of Xiaopeng Motors are placed in the production workshop of Haima.

What exactly is the reason that makes Xiaopeng deliver so slowly? After a long period of speculation, on November 16, 2018, He Xiaopeng announced the reason to the public.

On the same day, He Xiaopeng issued an open letter, saying that Xiaopeng's sudden stop was intended to find loopholes hidden in the edge of the vehicle and to build a talent team from R&D to production, operation, security inspection, sales and maintenance, so as to continuously produce new cars that are safe enough. Obviously, all of this takes time.

To put it bluntly, He Xiaopeng was scared. He thought Xiaopeng Motors was too weak and wanted to build up a solid foundation before launching it again, but he eventually gave up on delivery.

It is hard to deny such a confession. If Lei Jun shouts "everything for user experience", he can only delay the release of new products; Musk is determined to optimize the driverless system to ensure driver safety, and is forced to delay the delivery of Tesla cars, and users will forgive him - although it is a bit uncomfortable, but the reason is irrefutable. Moreover, Xiaopeng Motors already carries this heavy risk factor, how can it be taken lightly?

He Xiaopeng has an almost paranoid insistence on his own values. Because of this, Xiaopeng Motors has also shown a clear tilt.

In summarizing 2017, He Xiaopeng was excited that Liu Minghui, former vice president of FAW Technology Research Institute, and Gu Junli, Tesla Autopilot machine learning technology expert, joined Xiaopeng Motors to lead the automotive power system, artificial intelligence innovation and autonomous driving technology. At this time, the proportion of R&D personnel in the team has exceeded 70%, and there is no sign of leaning towards the market.