Wang has restructured Xpeng‘s overseas business team, adding the Middle East as a key market and will invest more resources, according to local media.
(Image credit: CnEVPost)
Xpeng (NYSE: XPEV) has made extensive organizational and business changes after appointing former Great Wall Motor executive Wang Fengying as president and seeing strong deliveries at the end of 2023.
Now, the electric vehicle (EV) maker appears to be looking to the auto industry veteran to help it succeed in overseas markets.
Ms. Wang has taken over Xpeng’s international business center to take full leadership of the company’s overseas sales, Jiemian said in a February 18 report, citing people familiar with the matter.
Wang has restructured Xpeng’s overseas business team, adding the Middle East as a key market and will devote more resources to it, according to the report.
Wang is expected to help get the company’s overseas sales business on track, the report said, citing comments from an Xpeng employee.
Xpeng appointed Wang as president on January 30, 2023, and she previously worked at Great Wall Motor for more than 30 years.
Wang would be responsible for Xpeng’s product planning, portfolio management and sales operations, reporting to the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, He Xiaopeng, according to a statement from Xpeng last year.
Xpeng had a strong focus on the European market two years ago and made a series of moves there, including opening the company’s first experience store in an international market in Sweden.
However, in June 2022, the company suspended all P5 reservations and pre-orders in four European countries and shifted its focus to the P7 sedan. For more than half a year after that, Xpeng did not announce any new overseas business developments.
In February 2023, Xpeng relaunched its overseas efforts with the launch of the G9 in Europe, as well as the new P7. After that, Xpeng announced a partnership with an Israeli dealer in July and sent its first vehicles to Israel in September.
In an internal letter yesterday — the first working day after China’s 2024 Lunar New Year holiday — He emphasized the company’s focus on international markets, saying that 2024 will be the first year of V2.0 for Xpeng’s internationalization efforts.
Xpeng will lay out in core markets in regions such as Europe, ASEAN, the Middle East, Latin America, and Oceania, and strengthen the local adaptation of its products, including left-hand drive and right-hand drive models, he said, adding that the company will build a new path to globalization in terms of its products, smart driving, and branding.
Xpeng has about 30 new and facelifted models planned for next 3 years, CEO says in internal letter
