Author: Su Qin
The vocabulary that anyone would avoid, such as plummeting market value, poor reputation, declining sales, and constant scandals, has all come to Xpeng’s head at once. Especially Xpeng is labeled as an intelligent vehicle, but unexpectedly, their pride has become the cause of frequent scandals.
“Theft” Disturbing the Door to Success
Recently, the four-year-long theft incident of Zhang Xiaolang, a former Apple autonomous driving car hardware engineer who joined Xpeng in 2018, has finally come to an end. He admitted to secretly downloading the engineering schematic and reference manuals for Apple’s autonomous driving car circuit board, and PDF documents describing Apple car prototypes and prototype requirements.
In the end, Zhang Xiaolang was sentenced by a US court to face a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Xpeng stated that they are not aware of the specific details of the case, have not participated in any follow-up investigations by US judicial authorities, and have no related disputes with Apple, nor are they related to the case. Xpeng is a leading company in China’s autonomous assisted driving and will continue to adhere to the full-stack self-research route.
Although Xpeng has “cleared” itself to be uninvolved with Zhang’s case, and Apple has only filed a lawsuit against Zhang Xiaolang, not Xpeng, Zhang Xiaolang still committed a crime during his transfer from Apple to Xpeng, leading to Xpeng being questioned, which is reasonable.
However, despite the repeated storms that Xpeng has weathered, they have developed a thick skin and strong spirit. After all, this isn’t the first time they’ve faced criticism.
In January 2019, after Zhang Xiaolang’s theft incident, another Apple car project hardware engineer, Chen Jizhong, was found to have stored more than 2,000 internal Apple files on his personal device, including confidential documents such as interior photos of the Apple building, autonomous driving design drawings, related manuals, and charts.
Although Chen Jizhong claimed that he took this action because he faced the risk of being laid off, in order to ensure his safety in the future, coincidentally, his job application list included Xpeng.
Regarding this incident, Xpeng stated that they did not receive an application from Chen Jizhong, nor did they have any contact with him regarding recruitment or business.
There are no coincidences, as another theft incident involving Xpeng came two months later, but this time the victim was Tesla.Tesla accuses its former autonomous driving team member, Cao Guangzhi, of stealing Tesla’s self-driving technology before joining XPeng Motors. It also demands that XPeng Motors publicly release its full self-driving source code to prove its innocence.
Forced to run naked, XPeng naturally refuses to give up and confronts Tesla head-on.
In a public statement, XPeng asserts that it has no knowledge of this and that Tesla’s move is an unjust suppression of innovation and talent. Although Tesla and XPeng eventually reach an out-of-court settlement, the two companies have since been at odds.
In fact, disputes between companies over talent poaching are common, as evidenced by not only the conflict with Tesla but also the prior dispute with Apple. It is difficult to determine whether or not there was any trade secret theft involved. However, where there is smoke, there is fire. XPeng Motors has been embroiled in several incidents related to alleged theft of trade secrets. We cannot speculate on the degree of collusion, and only time will tell whether or not XPeng is innocent.
At present, XPeng Motors’ several “secrets theft” incidents are inextricably linked to their initial imitation of Tesla. People have reason to believe that a later entrant may copy the leader and that a start-up may resort to unconventional means to overcome adversity.
Even He XPeng himself was a Musk supporter before founding XPeng Motors.
The Story of XPeng
Three years before Steve Jobs released the first-generation iPhone, in 2004, when China had only 79.5 million internet users, He XPeng and his senior fellow student, Liang Jie, founded UC Youshi, a mobile browser company that rapidly captured the nascent mobile browser market with a free model.
After ten years of ups and downs, by 2014, UC had gone from the 2G era to the 4G era, expanded globally, and grew to 500 million users. That year, Alibaba acquired UC for $4 billion, and He XPeng became the President of Alibaba’s Mobile Business Group. At the time, He XPeng was only 37 years old and had achieved financial freedom.
In that same year, Tesla delivered the Model S to its first Chinese customers, and He XPeng was one of the first owners.
The Model S had a profound impact on He XPeng, redefining his perception of cars and showing him the future of electric cars, which were on the cusp of a major breakthrough. At the same time, he found himself in a period of prosperity but lacking direction and purpose, succumbing to a midlife crisis caused by excessive self-importance. He knew he couldn’t spend the rest of his life like this.In 2014, Musk decided to open up Tesla’s 228 patents. The gate of technology was opened by the guard, and the storm of electric vehicles began to surge.
In the same year, He XPeng invested in XPeng Auto as an angel investor. At that time, XPeng Auto was still called Xiangzi Auto. Three years later, He XPeng officially resigned from Alibaba and went ALL IN on XPeng Auto.
Since the birth of XPeng Auto, controversies surrounding XPeng have never stopped. The first issue was its unrefined name.
Regarding this, He XPeng stated that many foreign brands are named after their founders, which represents the founder’s responsibility and commitment to the brand. Daring to bet on the brand with personal reputation shows full devotion to the brand and no turning back.
Although XPeng grew from the soil, its aspirations are high.
XPeng’s Arrogance
In 2018, XPeng’s first mass-produced model, the G3, was officially released. As the first mass-market model, G3 was expected to be the first shot fired by XPeng Auto in the new energy market. However, it was ridiculed as a copycat of Tesla’s Model X as soon as it was unveiled due to many elements, such as the suspension-type headlights, diving front end, and front windshield extending to the top.
However, imitation and plagiarism were still secondary issues. The real harm was that after the G3 was delivered in the first half of 2019, XPeng Auto unexpectedly announced the G3 2020 with higher configuration and longer range but lower price.
This ridiculous move immediately caused a wave of anger among the first batch of G3 owners, who then united to launch a fierce rights protection campaign.
The rapid iteration of the Internet thinking made He XPeng unknowingly fall into a trap. He only realized the problem when users picked up bricks and started throwing them at XPeng’s sign.Therefore, an apology letter was issued, stating “I’m sorry for making everyone sad,” and it was specified that from now on, anyone who upgrades to any model of XPeng Motors within three years will not only enjoy all current promotional policy benefits, but also an additional 10,000 yuan exclusive subsidy.
At the end of the apology letter, He XPeng said, “I know this may not satisfy most of the XPeng friends, but XPeng Motors is really doing everything it can.”
Neither proposing a subsidy policy to satisfy users nor taking a frank poor performance approach has once again caused injured car owners to sigh.
What’s even more detrimental to XPeng is its money-minded and dismissive attitude towards the rights of young people.
In May of this year, XPeng Motors was exposed for unilaterally breaking contracts with more than 20 recent college graduates under the pretext of job adjustments and performance optimization, leaving them in a passive situation of unemployment upon graduation.
Ironically, at the time the incident was exposed, XPeng’s campus recruitment was still in full swing. In 2021, XPeng Motors also launched a mini-variety show called “Challenge, New XPeng Friends,” in which He XPeng personally communicated with college students, demonstrating not only tremendous tolerance and approachability, but also engendering hope for both XPeng and the future in the students.
Who would have thought that at the time of soaring success, everyone was a XPeng friend; but when times were tough, the company let go. It’s hard to see the dignity of a global enterprise and the social responsibility it should bear.
XPeng Motors once boasted of creating the first intelligent car for young people, but first resorted to harming young people with these cold-blooded measures. Such a chilling move is sure to damage XPeng’s reputation.
Perhaps XPeng Fly, the champion of the new forces, has flown too high, always looking up and thinking the air beneath its feet is a steady landing point. But history tells us that arrogance is not tolerated in the process of upward development.
At the darkest moment, from the Luosheng Gate of stolen secrets to arbitrary breaches of contract with recent graduates, XPeng Motors not only continues to experience product accidents, but also faces significant risks to its business credit and social responsibility.
In a June interview, He XPeng expressed regret for using his own name as the car name. He once confidently linked his brand with himself, but now he can’t bear the burden.
Under siege from reality and engulfed by capital, XPeng Motors has again come to its darkest hour after eight years of entrepreneurship.
On August 24, XPeng Motors announced its semi-annual report. The financial statement reveals a net loss of 4.4 billion yuan in the first half of the year alone. This amount is not too far from the 4.9 billion yuan loss for the entire year of 2021.#### Small decline in xpeng’s stock price in addition to rising loss
Not only that, xpeng’s stock price has also been continuously declining. As of the close of September 7, xpeng’s stock price had fallen to $15.97, a 79% decrease from its peak of $74.49, and is now approaching its initial public offering price of $15 per share.
As Ren Zhengfei said, Huawei needs to shift from pursuing scale to pursuing profits and cash flow. Faced with snowballing losses, xpeng urgently needs substantial profits and adequate cash flow.
But xpeng’s profit growth is still relying on the sales of single cars. Based on incomplete data, xpeng loses more than 49,000 yuan for every car sold and more than 4.6 million yuan for every new store opened.
The more they sell, the more they lose, and to break the infinite cycle, they have to pin their hopes on the latest product – G9.
Within 24 hours of the release of the xpeng G9, more than 20,000 orders had been placed. However, the opening of the G9 had a certain backlash on the sales of the P7 and P5.
In the August delivery volume ranking of new energy brands, GAC Aion, Neta, and Seres ranked in the top three, while xpeng followed up after NIO.
Emerging from the darkest hour, the pressure is now on the G9.
Finally
This article about xpeng’s car is not lacking in some pessimistic opinions, but we believe that only by constantly thinking about crisis and constantly exposing problems can we emerge from the quagmire of troubles and find a clear road to success.
Xpeng is no longer a copycat of Tesla. From the iconic family design style starting with the P7 to the self-developed NGP intelligent assisted driving system, Xpeng is indeed forging its own path.
However, this path should be clear and unobstructed. He XPeng should not only claim to be different from Musk, and pretend to be unconnected to Tesla, while secretly applauding for his own rolling financial source. This style of behavior coincides with the way Xpeng treats its users and young graduates, and it is inappropriate.
Recently, there has been news that the US government has demanded Nvidia and AMD to stop selling top-of-the-line AI chips to China. At this moment, when the domestic automotive industry should work together to strive for self-reliance, the public opinion in the industry was in an uproar. However, He XPeng announced on his WeChat Moments: “The good news is that we have already bought the demand for the next few years in advance.”
This seemingly clever move has also attracted mockery from Baidu’s Vice President, who bluntly stated that He XPeng’s “vision is too narrow”.
Under the dark clouds, the city is on the brink of collapse. He XPeng, don’t “diminish yourself” any further!
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.