On February 18, the first working day after the Spring Festival holiday in the the Year of the Loong, He Xiaopeng, CEO of Xiaopeng Automobile, and Gan Jiayue, CEO of Geely Automobile Group, respectively issued the letter of commencement for all employees.
Both He Xiaopeng and Gan Jiayue believe that there will be more intense competition in the automotive market this year. He Xiaopeng stated that this year is the first year for Chinese automotive brands to enter the "sea of blood" competition, which is also the first year of the knockout stage; Gan Jiayue pointed out in the commencement letter that 2024 will be the "most rolling" year in terms of roll prices, roll products, roll services, and roll traffic.
"In 2023, Xiaopeng Automobile has made significant adjustments in organization, planning, business, operation, and efficiency, experiencing a lot of pain and also achieving huge gains." He Xiaopeng mentioned in the start of work letter that this year, Xiaopeng Automobile's target performance has doubled, filling the gaps in the organization.
He Xiaopeng stated that in 2024, Xiaopeng Motors will release its first car on platforms with a rating of 300000+and 150000+. Among them, models priced above 300000 yuan are the MPV model Xiaopeng X9 launched in January this year, which is based on the Xiaopeng H platform. In the first month of its launch, the sales of Xiaopeng X reached 2478 units in September.
The 150000 yuan level model is the A-level electric vehicle MONA jointly launched by Xiaopeng Automobile and Didi. Didi will be responsible for the sales and operation of this car, while Xiaopeng Motors will lead the subsequent research and development, production and manufacturing. Gu Hongdi, Co President of Xiaopeng Motors, previously stated that MONA will also sell to ordinary consumers.
MONA will be the cheapest model currently available for Xiaopeng Motors, and it is also an important step for this unprofitable car company to achieve large-scale sales. According to the gambling agreement between the two parties, MONA's conservative sales target is a minimum of 100000 vehicles per year.
Scale is a term frequently mentioned by He Xiaopeng in the past year. In his view, an annual sales volume of 3 million vehicles is just a ticket for car companies to enter. To this end, Xiaopeng Motors will plan about 30 new products or facelifts within 3 years, and will recruit about 4000 new employees and invest over 40% of its R&D budget year-on-year in 2024.
This year, Xiaopeng Motors will also launch a mid to large-sized sedan with the code name F57. An insider from Xiaopeng Motors told Interface News that this model will remove the LiDAR and become Xiaopeng Motors' first model equipped with a pure visual route advanced intelligent driving solution.
According to Interface News, in order to differentiate from the P5 and P7i sedan products currently on sale by Xiaopeng Motors, the F57 will focus on the large space and household markets. Later Auto reported that Xiaopeng Motors has an internal target monthly sales of over 5000 units for this new model.
The overseas market will also be a new source of sales for Xiaopeng Motors. In his letter of commencement, He Xiaopeng stated that this year, Xiaopeng Motors will expand its core markets in Europe, ASEAN, the Middle East, Latin America, Oceania and other regions, deepen its product intelligence advantages, and strengthen its localization and adaptation.
Insiders revealed to Interface News that Wang Fengying, the President of Xiaopeng Motors, has taken over the international business center and is fully leading Xiaopeng Motors' overseas sales. It is reported that Wang Fengying will adjust the overseas business team after her arrival, add the Middle East as the key market layout direction, and invest more resources in operation. An internal employee of Xiaopeng Motors commented that Wang Fengying has helped Xiaopeng Motors' overseas sales business get on track.
Intelligence will still be the strategic focus of Xiaopeng Motors, and the R&D investment in "AI technology with intelligent driving as the core" is expected to reach 3.5 billion yuan in 2024. Xiaopeng Motors hopes to achieve point-to-point intelligent driving nationwide this year, allowing the intelligent driving function to operate in extreme scenarios such as alleys, parking lots, and internal roads.
In addition, the design and marketing of Xiaopeng Motors will also be strategically upgraded, and Xiaopeng Motors also wants to build this into its own strengths. The leaders of these two centers are He Xiaopeng and Wang Fengying, respectively.
In order to improve the overall operational efficiency of the company, He Xiaopeng stated that starting from February, Xiaopeng Motors will improve product development efficiency based on the new Xiaopeng Product Development System (XPD), which is a product development management system with Xiaopeng's unique features throughout the entire lifecycle of the vehicle model.
In the first three quarters of 2023, Xiaopeng Motors still failed to turn losses into profits, with a net loss of 3.89 billion yuan and a gross profit margin of -6.1%, ranking last among the three leading new forces of "Weixiaoli".
He Xiaopeng said that in 2024, Xiaopeng Motors will save money that should not be spent, spend more valuable money on people, research and development, and strategy, and have better profits in business. As expected, Xiaopeng Motors will achieve a positive cycle in the fourth quarter of this year or earlier.
Gan Jiayue stated in the commencement letter that in 2024, Geely Automobile will adhere to the principles of "electric drive", "intelligence" and "internationalization", and promote the application of a complete set of three electric technologies such as integrated body batteries in the group's mainstream products. The Lynk&Co brand will also apply a comprehensive 800V architecture and integrate technologies such as CDC electromagnetic suspension and dual cavity air suspension.
Recently, Geely Group announced a sales target of 1.9 million vehicles for 2024, an increase of 12.66%. In 2023, Geely Automobile was one of the few car companies to achieve its annual sales target, with a cumulative sales volume of 1.6865 million vehicles.