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lei jun visited xpeng motors' guangzhou headquarters, and he xiaopeng held up a slogan that read "childhood sweethearts".

recently, lei jun visited xpeng motors' guangzhou headquarters and personally experienced the xpeng mona m03. the slogan of xpeng motors welcoming lei jun reads: "two little kids are close friends. warmly welcome mr. lei to xpeng motors."

the two "smalls" must refer to xiaomi and xiaopeng. lei jun did a live broadcast that day, in which he bluntly said that he opposed the "interference" between car dealers. however, judging from the current sales of xiaopeng motors and xiaomi motors, this statement is quite subtle.

according to hexun.com, on august 27, the launch conference of xiaopeng mona m03 was successfully held. he xiaopeng attended the conference and delivered a speech. lei jun just visited xiaopeng motors a few days ago, perhaps to warm up for the new car launch conference.

he xiaopeng said that the investment in xiaopeng mona m03 was huge, 4 billion yuan, and it took 4 years to complete. the goal is to become a super classic in the 200,000 yuan level. according to data, the number of orders for xiaopeng mona m03 exceeded 10,000 units in just 52 minutes after its release. it is worth noting that although xiaopeng mona m03 and xiaomi su7 are at different levels, they are both considered by the industry to be equal substitutes for model 3. both are pure electric family sedans and are known as the first car for young people.

lei jun's visit to xpeng and the launch of the new xpeng mona m03 may have led to a continuous rise in xpeng's stock price. after lei jun's visit to xpeng on august 22, xpeng's us stock price rose from us$6.91 to us$8 at the close of august 27, an increase of 16%. xpeng motors' hong kong stocks also rose, with the share price rising from hk$27.15 to hk$30.900, an increase of 14%.

as of the close of august 28, xpeng's us stock market value was us$7.589 billion and its hong kong stock market value was hk$58.62 billion. xiaomi's stock price has also seen a significant increase recently. since entering august, xiaomi's stock price has increased by 13%, with a total market value of approximately hk$473 billion. however, compared with their peak stock prices, both xpeng and xiaomi have fallen significantly. among them, xpeng's us stock price has fallen by nearly 90%, and xiaomi's hong kong stock price has almost halved.

are he xiaopeng and lei jun really childhood sweethearts?

xiaopeng's slogan welcoming lei jun reads "two childhood sweethearts". it is not surprising that he xiaopeng invited lei jun to help out. as the top traffic king in the automotive industry, lei jun actually has a close relationship with he xiaopeng.

not long ago, in lei jun's fifth personal speech with the theme of "courage", lei jun spent a lot of time telling the story behind xiaomi's car manufacturing. lei jun said that xiaomi's car manufacturing originated from an accident, that is, xiaomi was suddenly sanctioned by the united states in 2021, and xiaomi quickly convened an emergency board meeting to discuss how to deal with it. at that time, a director asked, if xiaomi mobile phones could not be made, what would happen to tens of thousands of employees? a director suggested that they could consider making cars.

what really made lei jun determined to build a car were his good friends he xiaopeng and li bin, who both suggested lei jun to build a car. lei jun once publicly admitted that it was he xiaopeng and li bin who urged him to build a car.

after lei jun visited xiaopeng's guangzhou headquarters for the third time, he xiaopeng posted a weibo post, saying that august was the 20th anniversary of uc and the 10th anniversary of xiaopeng. he and lei jun are brothers who are both teachers and friends. judging from the photos he xiaopeng posted, both of them were relatively "green" back then, which also shows that they had a good relationship back then.

lei jun is from xiantao, hubei, and he xiaopeng is from huangshi, hubei. their hometowns are only about 200 kilometers apart, so they are considered fellow villagers. whether in business or in ordinary friendships, fellow villagers can always quickly close the distance, which may be one of the reasons why lei jun and he xiaopeng are so close.

in 2014, he xiaopeng sold uc to alibaba and cashed in $4 billion. at this time, the 35-year-old he xiaopeng achieved financial freedom. he bought a big house for himself and his parents, and also bought himself a yacht. with he xiaopeng's level of financial freedom at the time, he could have lived his life in peace, but he eventually chose to start a business again and started making cars.

when he xiaopeng first started making cars, it was very difficult to attract investment. few investors were willing to invest in entrepreneurs from the internet who had no experience in making cars. lei jun came to the rescue and sent $1 million. this money was of great significance to the newly started xiaopeng. it was lei jun's trust and example that attracted many investors to xiaopeng motors. well-known institutions such as alibaba, idg capital, and morningside capital began to follow up, and also attracted investment from yao jinbo, zhang tao and others.

(image source: enniu data)

after he xiaopeng survived the difficult start-up period, xiaopeng motors gradually got on the right track. in 2018, xiaomi went public, and he xiaopeng also invested $100 million in xiaomi to support lei jun.

he xiaopeng wrote in his tweet that this was lei jun's third visit to xiaopeng's guangzhou headquarters. as the head of xiaomi group, lei jun is a workaholic, but he was able to take out precious time from his busy schedule to visit xiaopeng. in addition to the relationship between the two, it also reflects lei jun's ability to learn.

when will xpeng's sales volume take off?

as a representative of new car-making forces, xpeng motors is the weaker party among "nio, xiaoli, and li auto", and both its market value and sales volume fluctuate to the bottom. in 2023, xpeng's sales volume was 141,601 vehicles, while ideal's sales volume was 376,030 vehicles, and weilai's cumulative sales volume was 160,038 vehicles. ideal is the first profitable new car-making force, and has greatly surpassed xpeng's market value, which may have put great pressure on xpeng.

judging from the latest semi-annual report, in the first half of 2024, xpeng's sales obviously did not meet expectations. in the first six months, xpeng's sales were 8,250, 4,545, 9,026, 9,393, 10,146 and 10,668, respectively, with a cumulative sales of 52,028, a year-on-year increase of 25.6%. in the same period, ideal's sales were 188,981, and weilai's sales were 87,426. in terms of sales, there is a big gap between xpeng and ideal and weilai. in terms of growth rate, xpeng's 25.6% increase is also lower than weilai's 60.2% and ideal's 35.8%.

from the latest weekly sales from august 12 to 18, xpeng motors sold only 2,300 units, surpassed by xiaomi motors (2,600 units). the slogan "two little innocents" is particularly intriguing at this time.

in order to increase sales, xiaopeng has made huge reforms.for example, the new round of organizational structure adjustments at the beginning of the year involved multiple departments such as marketing, human resources, product planning, and intelligent data, and even the senior management was shaken. xpeng motors co-founders xia heng and he tao were revealed to have withdrawn from the core management team of xpeng motors. xia heng and he tao are no longer on the core management team of xpeng's official website, and xia heng and he tao have been changed from "core management team" to "lifetime honorary". in response to this, xpeng's official response was "co-founders xia heng and he tao will continue to support the company's development as xpeng motors' lifelong honorary consultants."

he xiaopeng is also optimistic about future sales in the interim report. he believes that after the launch of mona m03, xiaopeng will enter a strong product cycle and a period of rapid development. from now until the end of 2026, xiaopeng will launch a number of competitive new products and models. the planning of ai technology and category innovation is very beneficial to xiaopeng. at the same time, the results are remarkable after the technology cost reduction. in the later stage, its powerful marketing system will gradually exert its strength in the chinese and global markets, and the sales of xiaopeng motors will rise sharply in the future.

in fact, xpeng's performance in the first half of this year was quite outstanding. the financial report shows that xpeng's revenue in the first half of the year was 14.66 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 61.2%; net profit attributable to the parent was -2.65 billion yuan, compared with -5.14 billion yuan in the same period last year, a year-on-year increase of 48.41%. it is worth affirming that xpeng's gross profit margin has increased significantly. during the reporting period, xpeng's gross profit margin was 13.5%, compared with -1.4% in the same period last year. in particular, in the second quarter of this year, xpeng's gross profit margin reached 14%, a historical high. the net profit margin also dropped from -56.53% in the same period last year to -18.09%, and the net profit margin has been on an upward trend for five consecutive reporting periods.ideal and nio have not yet released their interim reports. as the first new car-making force to disclose its interim report, xpeng's performance is worthy of recognition even if it has failed to turn losses into profits. after all, xpeng has been moving towards profitability, and the average loss per car sold has dropped significantly.

which "small" in wei xiaoli's sentence is it?

the business world is like a battlefield. he xiaopeng was as close to li xiang and li bin as brothers. after ideal's profit exceeded 10 billion in 2023, the relationship between he xiaopeng, li bin and li xiang may have subtle changes. for example, after ideal insisted on publishing the weekly rankings, he xiaopeng supported li bin.

according to a report by jiemian news on july 31, he xiaopeng said at the xiaopeng motors ai intelligent driving technology conference on the evening of july 30: "american venture capital companies are investing in large models, chips and other fields. they are thinking about how to make end-to-end autonomous driving assistance technology better and how to do better than humans (driving). however, after returning to china, i found that people were arguing on the internet. everyone was working on the 'weekly sales list'. what are our technology companies doing?" he xiaopeng made his statement after ma lin, assistant vice president of brand and communications at nio, posted on social media that he "rejected the weekly sales list released by ideal."

he xiaopeng did not publicly name ideal at the press conference. ideal was the only company that released the weekly sales ranking in china at that time. in july 2023, huang honglin, general manager of product marketing at xpeng, posted two ranking pictures on wechat moments and wrote, "please pay attention to official information. lubianshe is indeed not very reliable." the picture was ideal's weekly ranking.

xiaopeng and ideal are both new energy vehicle companies, so direct or indirect competition is inevitable. it is not easy to balance the relationship between business and personal feelings. the current situation is even more subtle. xiaomi has also become a new energy vehicle manufacturer, and lei jun joined the game at the persuasion of he xiaopeng.

public data shows that xiaomi su7 has sold over 10,000 units for two consecutive months. the paper reported that xiaomi sold 7,058 units in april, 8,630 units in may, 14,296 units in june, and 13,120 units in july. during the same period, xpeng sold 9,393 units in april, 10,146 units in may, 10,668 units in june, and 11,145 units in july. in the past four months, xiaomi su7 has sold 43,104 units, while xpeng sold 41,452 units in the same period. xiaomi auto has surpassed xpeng in sales.

the price range of xpeng p7 is from 193,900 yuan to 274,900 yuan, and the price range of xiaomi su7 is from 215,900 yuan to 299,900 yuan. there is an overlap in the price ranges of the two.with the rise of xiaomi, who exactly is the "xiao" in "li wei xiao"? this leaves the market with endless speculation.

looking back at xiaomi, although xiaomi now loses about 60,000 yuan for each car sold, car manufacturing has brought a lot of traffic to xiaomi, which has directly driven the development of xiaomi's other businesses. in the first half of 2024, xiaomi's revenue was 164.4 billion yuan, an increase of 29.62% year-on-year from 126.8 billion yuan in the same period last year. previously, xiaomi's revenue had negative growth for 7 quarters, and its revenue in the same period last year increased by -11.63% year-on-year. however, with the preheating of xiaomi automobile to the sale of xiaomi, the revenue has been increasing. the growth rates in the past four quarters were -7.60%, -3.24%, 26.95% and 29.62% respectively. in 2024, xiaomi's revenue growth will be close to 30%.

as the orders for xiaomi su7 increase, xiaomi's delivery volume also shows a clear upward trend. as a result, the survival space of new car-making forces will be affected to some extent. but to be fair, xiaomi auto, nio, ideal, and xpeng are all excellent companies in china's new energy vehicle industry. i sincerely hope that these car companies can go to the world closely and become the domestic light that can achieve great things with "smallness".

author|meng xiao