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Source | Bohu Finance (bohuFN)

Author | Kaikai

Recently, the first half of the year performance of new car-making forces was released. In the environment where new energy is becoming popular, some are happy while others are sad.Xpeng Motors(hereinafter referred to as "Xiaopeng") is obviously the one that is "worried".

In the first half of the year, Xpeng delivered 52,028 vehicles, a 26% increase over the same period last year, but it only achieved 18.6% of its annual target. According to the annual delivery target of 280,000 vehicles, an average of 38,000 vehicles need to be delivered per month in the second half of the year. The pressure can be imagined.

The goal of selling 30,000 vehicles per month is not impossible for other car companies, such as Ideal,Hongmeng Intelligent DrivingThe monthly delivery volume ofXiaomi MotorsAlthough it has only been on the market for 3 months, the cumulative delivery has exceeded 20,000 units.

No wonder the outside world says that the original "NIO-Xiaopeng-Li" pattern has become "Li-NIO-Xiaopeng". If Xpeng's sales volume cannot be increased, it will probably fall out of the first echelon of new forces.

However, Xiaopeng has also released its big move, and recently launched two models, P7+ and M03, which represent "smart driving" and "low price" respectively. However, whether these two new cars can help Xiaopeng successfully "turn around" is probably still uncertain.

01 Despite frequent changes in leadership, Xpeng's sales have not improved

Xiaopeng's "worry" did not start this year. At the end of 2022, Xiaopeng was at the crossroads of life and death. In the first half of 2022, Xiaopeng was still the semi-annual sales champion of new forces, but the sales situation began to take a sharp turn for the worse in the second half of the year. Throughout the year, Xiaopeng's sales ranked last among the three "Weibo, Xiaopeng and Li Auto", and the goal of delivering 250,000 vehicles for the whole year was only half completed.

To be launched in the second half of 2022Xpeng G9, which was considered by the outside world to be the "fuse" that caused Xiaopeng's sales to stall. Because of the insincere and extremely unreasonable configuration and pricing, Xiaopeng G9 was complained by car owners and even cancelled their orders, which also meant that Xiaopeng's "high-end" plan was declared a failure.

Three months later, at the launch of the 2024 G9, He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xpeng Motors, enumerated the "seven sins" of the old models from the aspects of products, users, prices, and delivery. These problems all directly pointed to the organizational structure problems within Xpeng.

He Xiaopeng once said in an interview with the media that he was not strong enough in "business" from a certain perspective, but it was not easy to find someone who understood cars and had new ideas. The implication was that He Xiaopeng was more like a "science man" who focused on technology, but was not good at management and strategy.

This is why Xiaopeng has made a comprehensive change in its organizational structure.Great Wall MotorsPresident Wang Fengying joined Xiaopeng Motors. Subsequently, Xiaopeng’s two founders, Xia Heng and He Tao, were also reported to have gradually withdrawn from the management team. In August, Wu Xinzhou, the number one figure in Xiaopeng’s intelligent driving team, announced his resignation.

As of this year, Xpeng's management structure seems to have not stabilized. In July this year, it was revealed that Jiao Qingchun, vice president of Xpeng, had resigned. Prior to this, he served as the organization director of Xpeng Motors' technical center. Before that, Yishu Lin, head of Xpeng Intelligent Driving North America, and Wang Tao, a Xpeng autonomous driving expert poached by Wu Xinzhou, also announced their resignations.

Smart driving has always been Xiaopeng's "trump card", but in the past year, Xiaopeng has undergone a major replacement from the smart driving team to the core management team, which shows its urgency to adjust its strategy and save sales. However, at present, the results seem to be ineffective.

In 2023, Xpeng's sales volume was 141,600 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 17%, but it only completed 70% of its annual target. Although it still ranks in the first echelon among new forces brands, there is not much gap between it and other brands.

Xiaopeng's overall sales volume did not meet expectations. From a product perspective, this is because it has always lacked blockbuster products.Xiaopeng G6For example, this model was led by Wang Fengying after joining Xiaopeng. He also changed the original 5D music cockpit as the core selling point to a model where all five configurations are equipped with smart driving functions as standard, hoping to enhance consumers' perception of smart driving.

After the Xpeng G6 was launched in June last year, it was in short supply. However, after entering 2024, the sales of G6 dropped drastically, from 7,673 units sold in December last year to only 1,800 units sold in January 2024. In June, when the entire new energy vehicle market rebounded significantly, the G6 did not sell as well as last year.

Xiaopeng G6 failed to become a hit product again. Firstly, there are many similar competing products. The price war in the automotive industry was so fierce last year that the cost-effectiveness of G6 was outweighed. Secondly, the outside world believes that this is also related to the distribution model reform led by Wang Fengying. The large amount of inventory in the early stage made Xiaopeng G6 look popular, but in fact it may have been suppressed by dealers.

From the perspective of channel model, the channel reform led by Wang Fengying, called "Jupiter Plan", is also facing difficulties. According to China Business News, the "Jupiter Plan" aims to gradually replace the direct sales model with the dealer model, but the inventory pressure brought by the wholesale model has also been opposed by many dealers, and it may have been temporarily shelved.

02 With nothing but technology, Xiaopeng struggles to “reach higher”

However, the core reason why Xiaopeng has difficulty in launching hit products and poor sales is actually the confusing product positioning. Xiaopeng's product series include P and G series, and the numerical positioning includes 3, 5, 6, 7, and 9.

The first model, the G3, is a small SUV targeting the low-end market. Subsequently, the P7 and G9, two mid-to-large sedans and SUVs targeting the mid-to-high-end market, and the P5, a compact sedan targeting the mid-to-low-end market, were launched. Last year, the G6, a mid-size SUV, and a mid-to-large MPV targeting the mid-to-high-end market were also launched.X9。

It is not difficult to see that Xiaopeng's product matrix is ​​"big and complete", covering three major categories of sedans, SUVs and MPVs, and four sizes of small, compact, medium and medium-large. The configuration of each SKU is very complicated, which makes consumers' perception of Xiaopeng rather confusing and increases the difficulty of consumers' purchase.

It is reported that Wang Fengying's arrival is actually to solve Xiaopeng's product and brand positioning problems. For example, under her leadership, the new versionXpeng P7iOnly two versions, rear-wheel drive and four-wheel drive, were launched, solving the problem of redundant subdivisions of the old P7. But at present, Wang Fengying seems to have failed to bring about much change in "helping Xiaopeng to re-position itself".

In fact, since its establishment, Xiaopeng has been very clearly focused on the positioning of intelligent driving, but has not been able to establish a clear brand mind in the emotional cognition of consumers. For example, the ideal positioning is a large-space family car;NIOFocusing on the high-end pure electric field, even if it wants to enter the mid- and low-end markets, it will be achieved through the sub-brand "Ledao".

As a result, Xiaopeng seems to be a bit "not high enough, not low enough". Xiaopeng has always wanted to impact the higher-end market, so after P7, it launched G9 and X9 to anchor the high-end market. But in the end, G9 failed in the market due to the "seven sins"; and although X9 has a good reputation, the MVP market is too small to make much splash.

Why is it that despite having the "weapon" of intelligent driving, Xiaopeng still cannot enter the high-end market? On the one hand, Xiaopeng's first product, the G3, was targeted at the low-end market. The first model often lays the foundation for people's impression of the brand. In addition, the subsequent hit P7 also focused on the mid-end market, so it is difficult to adjust the brand impression.

On the other hand, the gap in high-end intelligent driving technology between automakers is narrowing. Currently, the industry-recognized first-tier intelligent driving companies are Xiaopeng and Huawei, but new forces such as NIO, Ideal, and Xiaomi are also catching up.

More importantly, most consumers do not only consider the "smart driving" factor when buying a car. Space, battery life, and brand will all influence users' choices, so it is difficult for Xiaopeng to win in the high-end market with just one move.

But there is no doubt that Xiaopeng will not give up "intelligent driving". Recently, Xiaopeng launched a new model P7+. He Xiaopeng said that P7+ is not a modified version of P7, but a brand new model. The "+" represents the size of 5 meters+ and the use of a brand new intelligent driving technology solution.

He Xiaopeng did not explain what the "new intelligent driving technology solution" is, but there are reports that the P7+ will adopt a pure visual intelligent driving solution and will no longer be equipped with laser radar.TeslaThis is similar to FSD Beta V12, the first “end-to-end” AI autonomous driving model released by FSD last year. Musk himself commented “…” under this report.

Coincidentally, He Xiaopeng recently released a video praising Tesla FSD for its excellent performance in Silicon Valley and on highways. Combined with his previous statement in last year's Q1 earnings call that "more than 50% BOM cost reduction for autonomous driving will be achieved by the end of next year", it seems that Xiaopeng Zhijia's move towards pure vision is not just speculation.

In addition, He Xiaopeng stated at the AI ​​DAY press conference in May this year that by the third quarter of 2024, Xiaopeng Intelligent Driving will be able to "drive across the country and on every road"; by 2025, urban intelligent driving will be comparable to highway intelligent driving experience.

However, Xiaopeng is not the only one pursuing "end-to-end" at the moment. Huawei, NIO, and Ideal have all released plans to "install" end-to-end models on vehicles. As the gap in intelligent driving technology between automakers continues to narrow, it seems that it will still be difficult for Xiaopeng to "reach higher" again by upgrading its "intelligent driving."

03 Fighting again in the A-class car market, Xiaopeng is surrounded by competitors

Perhaps realizing that "reaching high" requires not only technology, but also the right time, place and people, He Xiaopeng's mentality has also changed recently. In an interview with the media at the May Auto Show, he said, "In the past, we considered scale first, but later the logic was to survive the elimination round and to lead in scale under the multi-faceted warriors."

At present, Xpeng's sales have stagnated, and its net loss in 2023 will expand by 13.6% year-on-year to 10.38 billion yuan. If Xpeng wants to "survive", the most urgent task is sales and profits.

To this end, Xiaopeng decided to enter the A-class car market of 100,000-150,000 yuan and launched the MONA series M03, positioning it as a pure electric coupe designed for young people, while filling the gap in Xiaopeng's 100,000-150,000 yuan market segment.

MONA is the product of the strategic cooperation between Xiaopeng and Didi. Xiaopeng originally hoped to build MONA into a new sub-brand, integrating models below the mid-range market such as P5 and G3, and targeting users who pursue cost-effectiveness.

But Xiaopeng ultimately did not regard MONA as a new brand, but adjusted it into a product series. This was due to Xiaopeng's concern that launching another sub-brand would further blur consumer perception, and also because Xiaopeng was unable to allocate a large amount of resources to promote the launch of the second brand.

However, no matter how the process goes, the important thing is whether M03 can really win? He Xiaopeng is full of confidence in this regard. On the one hand, He Xiaopeng said that M03 will be "the strongest intelligent driving capability in the same gear". Xiaopeng's intelligent driving level is obvious to all. There are indeed not many models that focus on intelligent driving in the current 150,000 yuan market. According to the factor of "intelligent cost performance", M03 is indeed a "dimensionality reduction attack".

Second, M03 was previouslyLamborghini、FerrariJuanma Lopez, a designer of luxury car brands, participated in the design personally, changing the pain point of Xiaopeng Motors that was criticized for its weird shape in the past, and achieving "not only good-looking, but also good-looking". In addition, He Xiaopeng clearly stated that the M03 will not launch a "taxi version", which greatly improved its positioning and texture.

From its luxury car-like styling to its positioning as “young people’s first car”, it is inevitable that the outside world will confuse the M03 with theXiaomi SU7For comparison, He Xiaopeng also expressed his hope to achieve better sales than Xiaomi SU7 in the second half of this year.

So whether M03 can replicate the success of Xiaomi SU7 and become the life-saving straw for Xiaopeng's "counterattack" still has many uncertainties at present.

First of all, in this price range, Xiaopeng has already been surrounded by many competitors, such asBYD Seal, Tesla model3, Xiaomi SU7, and even Xiaopeng's own G6. Although the "intelligent driving" of M03 is labeled as AI, it is not easy to break through with "intelligent driving" alone.

Secondly, in the A-class car market with a price range of RMB 100,000 to RMB 150,000, consumers are often more sensitive to price than to smart driving technology. According to the original plan, MONA, as a product jointly created by Xiaopeng and Didi, has the opportunity to go the online car-hailing sales route.

But now that MONA is back under Xiaopeng, He Xiaopeng has also made it clear that he will not make a "taxi version". The M03 has little room for price reduction in this price range. To quickly achieve economies of scale will also test Xiaopeng's marketing plan. Recently, He Xiaopeng apologized to car owners at the M03 launch conference, saying that he had not done a good job in marketing Xiaopeng Motors in the past, and he would definitely do the best marketing in the future.

Admittedly, the hot sales of Xiaomi SU7 have shown the new energy vehicle industry a new marketing method, but the reason why Lei Jun was able to make full use of his identity as a founder to bring traffic to a new high is because Lei Jun's personality, Xiaomi's popularity, and the freshness of cross-border business are all rare and this is not a routine that the automotive industry can easily replicate. So in order to do marketing well, Xiaopeng probably needs to think more about it.

Of course, for Xiaopeng, whether it is the climbing of "intelligent driving" or the low position of "A-class car", it is just the beginning. However, under the pressure of sales and profits, Xiaopeng Motors must play these "two cards" effectively.

Although there are many difficulties at present, these two cards are still worth looking forward to. However, in this process, He Xiaopeng may need to listen more to the opinions of netizens and not stubbornly stick to the "smart driving" strategy.

After all, what Xiaopeng Motors lacks most at the moment may not be technical talents, but how to show "attitude" in brand marketing and product creation. I hope that this time it will not be like last year's changes, which were just a lot of noise but little results.

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