CEO of Chinese EV Startups Cry for Their Children

By Li Yuan Yuan, Observer

“They filmed me crying that day.”

Inside a NIO showroom, Li Bin, the CEO of Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker NIO, told his wife. She replied, “It’s okay to cry for the child instead of something else.”

Li Bin was referring to the time when he was interviewed by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV’s prime-time program “Meeting Big Shots,” where he teared up when talking about having limited time with his children. He was on his way to Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, to attend a NIO owners’ event.

Less than two months later, in another episode of “Meeting Big Shots” on a vehicle with driving scenes again, the founder and CEO of another Chinese EV startup, XPeng Motors (XPeng), He XPeng, was caught on camera having a video call with his children he had not seen for a long time.

He XPeng did not cry, but his yearning for the children and exhaustion after a long day of work were apparent on his face.

The founders of two new Chinese EV startups lead an ordinary but luxurious family life.

“Meeting Big Shots” offered a glimpse into the lives of the two entrepreneurs outside their roles as the chief executives of their companies. They have different personalities and styles, which also help us understand the nature of NIO and XPeng.

Li Bin: Work-Life Balance is impossible

Li Bin is particularly good at communicating with people, especially with NIO users.

Everywhere he goes, he is like a superstar, surrounded by NIO users who ask for autographs, pictures, live-streaming invitations, or just a chat. Whether on or off stage, Li Bin gets along with his users as if he were one of them, without any airs of a corporate boss.

At a gathering of NIO car owners in Ningbo, Li Bin picked up one of the kids and gave him a peck on the cheek. The little boy was not at all shy and hugged Li Bin’s neck, giving him a kiss, which amused everyone present.

But at that time, Li Bin had not seen his own children for more than ten days.

In the “Meeting Big Shots” interview, he was either meeting with NIO owners or driving to see more car enthusiasts.

As he said himself, “Apart from doing R&D, I spend all my time with our users.” Especially in 2019, the hardest year for NIO, Li Bin spent five months of weekends with NIO users.

After the Ningbo event, Li Bin drove to Yiwu to attend another local gathering of NIO car owners.

While talking to a journalist about his family on the way, Li Bin mentioned that both he and his wife were entrepreneurs, and his work required frequent travel across the country. Even when he returned to his home in Beijing, he often failed to see his two children due to the difference in their schedules.One day, because he had to leave early for errands, Li Bin saw his eldest son, who was in kindergarten at the time, eating breakfast alone. The child said, “Daddy, you’ve been very busy lately.” Li Bin replied, “Yes, I am very busy, there’s no way around it…” After talking about his son’s matters for a few moments, his eyes became moist, and he couldn’t continue speaking.

This is the opening of the article, depicting a rare scene in which Li Bin choked up in front of the camera.

Li Bin said that achieving a balance between family and career is actually impossible. If one spends time on work, it’s natural to be unfair to one’s family, and everyone is using time to vote.

On a business trip, he eagerly showed the journalists pictures of his children pulling carrots from the garden on weekends from his phone. The wrinkles on his face relaxed, and he smiled more happily than he did during the time when NIO went public or any other work-related event.

We also saw the same rare and completely unrestrained smile on He XPeng’s face.

He XPeng: Lonely House, One Man’s Life

On a Sunday in 2021, after He XPeng had finished up in his office in Guangzhou, it was already dark. It was only at this time that he had a chance to talk to the doctor who was treating his father.

When the company was at its busiest, his father became seriously ill and was admitted to the ICU. Due to the pandemic, He XPeng couldn’t be by his father’s side and could only learn about his father’s condition through phone calls with the doctor. When it rains, it pours; his mother was also hospitalized due to illness. She relied on relatives to take care of her during the day and He XPeng went to see her at night.

After leaving the hospital and getting into the car that would take him home, He XPeng received a video call from his wife. Seeing his children, whom he hadn’t seen in a long time, on the screen, he asked his son if he was wearing new sleepwear. He even deliberately raised his voice and complimented his son on being very handsome, and his children appeared to be in good spirits.

His wife replied, “The sleepwear is old, because you haven’t seen it before. Two of our three children are sick; they have a fever and are coughing and vomiting, but you just didn’t see how hard it’s been.”

After the brief video call with his family, He XPeng continued to respond to work messages on his phone. He said he didn’t know how much he spoke every day, continuously talking from 8 in the morning until 1 in the morning.

Although he couldn’t always see his wife’s hard work, He XPeng could empathize with her. At the launch ceremony for XPeng Motors in 2020, he specifically invited his wife on stage and praised her as a “heroic mother.” He even shouted, “Long live the leader,” as if he wasn’t the engineer-minded He XPeng who wasn’t good with words.

However, during his conversation with the journalists, He XPeng didn’t bring up his family anymore, perhaps because he was too exhausted, or perhaps because to this engineering-minded man, talking about family matters seemed meaningless – just as in his work, he was interested in finding solutions rather than simply stating the problem. In his view, only discussing the problem without discussing the solution is “a correct waste of words.”In September 2020, XPeng Motors reached an agreement with Guangzhou Development Zone Management Committee’s fully-funded enterprise Guangzhou Kaide Investment Holding Co., Ltd. Kaide will provide 4 billion Chinese yuan in financing to support XPeng’s construction of a new factory in Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone. XPeng plans to put the factory into production and delivery in just over a year, with great engineering pressure.

During this time, two XPeng vice presidents had a disagreement over a cost of 40 million yuan and came to discuss with He XPeng. After hearing both sides’ statements, He XPeng immediately decided, “We are efficiency-oriented. We don’t need to waste time on endless discussions. The 40 million yuan will come from the 4 billion yuan (financing) immediately,” without any hesitation.

Not only demanding excellence from employees, He XPeng was also tough on challenges from competitors.

At the Guangzhou Auto Show in November 2020, XPeng released a new version of P7 and a new generation of autonomous driving system. At this time, Tesla CEO Elon Musk accused XPeng of plagiarizing Tesla’s driving system.

XPeng’s PR team hoped to resolve the matter with a more moderate attitude, but He XPeng disagreed. He said to his colleagues, “Why be polite when someone insults you?” He then posted on social media, “Rumor is no way to beat the competition. Be ready for next year’s autonomous driving competition in China. You won’t stand a chance against us.”

“I have a hot temper, and when I’m unhappy, I must speak out,” said He XPeng.

After the interview, when He XPeng returned to his home in Guangzhou, it was already late at night. Opening the door and turning on the lights, the empty house seemed a bit lonely.

It turned out that He XPeng’s wife was attending school with their three children in Hong Kong. Every time he returned to his home in Guangzhou, he was alone. He XPeng didn’t say much about this way of life. After resting at home for a few hours, he would start another busy day at 7 AM the next morning.

Not just He XPeng, but also Li Bin in Shanghai is living alone. Li moved out of the luxury hotel where he usually stayed and into a small apartment with a monthly rent of over 10,000 yuan. Other than a few pieces of necessary furniture and a space heater, there is almost no decoration in the house. Li picked up a book from the bedside table and told reporters that he’s reading a non-fiction book by Wang Shuzeng called “The Long March”. He said that compared to the hardships of the Red Army during the Long March, his situation is nothing.

Before leaving, Li Bin took several tissues and wiped his already-worn leather shoes while laughing, “I’m not very good at shining shoes.”

User Enterprise vs. Product Enterprise

For Li Bin and He XPeng, whether it’s their temporary homes in Guangzhou or their apartments in Shanghai, it is like another office or a place to rest. When they leave their homes, they are faced with countless documents to sign, employees seeking answers, and a growing number of users. Communicating with car enthusiasts across the country has also become an important part of their work.Different from Li Bin, who is a natural speaker and can easily talk to anyone on stage or at car owners’ meetings, He XPeng is more comfortable talking about the product features of XPeng Motors when compared to communicating with customers.

According to He XPeng, communicating with customers is a challenge for him, so his colleagues often push him to do it. He even jokes that they “kick him” to go out and communicate with customers. He is not only uncomfortable communicating with customers but also dislikes dealing with the media and other companies.

He believes that in the internet industry, you only need to focus on producing a good product and people will naturally come to you. However, the automotive industry is different because the supply chain is complicated, and there are more people to deal with, making it necessary to seek out those relationships.

Li Bin and He XPeng have different approaches to dealing with people – one actively seeks out relationships while the other is more passive. This reflects the different business positioning of NIO and XPeng Motors.

In March 2021, Li Bin published an article titled “Thoughts and practices on innovative service areas” in Car Expert Review magazine. He believes that the popularity of electric vehicles, or intelligent electric vehicles, lies in providing a better user experience than fossil fuel cars. The user experience needs to extend beyond the car itself and include services such as charging and maintenance.

This explains why NIO is investing heavily in charging and battery swap stations, including areas where it is difficult to build infrastructure, such as Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, and Xinjiang. NIO also offers maintenance and repair services without the goal of making a profit and has recently launched a second-hand car service.

In Li Bin’s view, the failure of battery swap pioneer Better Place was due, in part, to its focus on commercializing battery swap instead of considering user experience.

If NIO is a typical user-centric company, XPeng Motors is a product-centric company, focusing on capturing market demands and rapidly iterating products. XPeng’s core competitiveness lies in this.

The second mass-produced car, the P7, is the first one that XPeng Motors’ founder He XPeng truly considers his own.

In April 2020, XPeng P7 was launched, which immediately secured two high points: the largest range in China, surpassing the Model 3, and the closest to Level 3 autonomous driving system, based on the “strongest mass-produced autonomous driving hardware architecture.” Although a newcomer, XPeng P7 grabbed the smart label and attracted a group of tech-savvy users, making it the flagship model of XPeng Motors.

The hallmark of a product-driven company is not only rapid product launches but also fast iterations. Soon after, media noticed that XPeng was testing P5, which might be the first intelligent electric car equipped with a Lidar.

P7 launched the Peng Wing edition, which began deliveries in March, and the P7 with LFP batteries began deliveries in May.

For the first model G3, which did not have great reviews, XPeng is also iterating. In April, the LFP version of G3 was released. By the end of the third quarter, XPeng will start delivering the mid-term facelift G3.

In the era of software-defined cars, XPeng Motors also has a software iteration speed that other competitors lack. Based on the successful development of XPILOT 3.0 autonomous driving system, XPeng Motors will speed up the development of XPILOT 3.5 and 4.0, with XPILOT 3.5 being installed on mass-produced cars in 2022. XPILOT 4.0 may also be released in 2022, with actual installation in 2023.

In addition to the autonomous driving assistance system, XPeng Motors’ intelligent operating system Xmart OS is also continuing to iterate.

XPeng Motors may have had a rough start with its products, but its speed of product iteration is very fast.

At this time, He XPeng is full of confidence in XPeng Motors’ future and is not at all discouraged as he was more than a year ago.

In 2019, China’s new energy vehicle industry suffered an unprecedented severe winter, and NIO and XPeng Motors had also been on the verge of collapse due to financial pressures.

Reminiscing about the situation at the time, He XPeng self-deprecatingly said, “Li Bin does high-end, I do mid-to-high-end. He is in the ICU and I am preparing to enter the ICU. At that time, I had only 3 billion in cash, but both of us couldn’t be saved without 20 billion.”

So, he suggested to Li Bin, “What if NIO and XPeng merged?” This was a joking remark, but at that time, both new car manufacturers were in a life-or-death situation.Fortunately, with the concept of “customer first” and “product first,” they all survived in the cruelest winter and even thrived. The financial reports of both companies showed that in 2020, NIO achieved both gross profit and gross profit margin turning positive, and XPeng also achieved gross profit turning positive.

Entering 2021, the sales momentum of NIO and XPeng continues to improve, making significant progress on China’s new energy passenger vehicle sales ranking. In the first two months of this year, XPeng even surpassed Li Auto, becoming the second place among new car-making companies during the same period, second only to NIO.

Looking back on their journey, Li Bin and He XPeng, the leaders of the two new forces with different styles but a mutual understanding, finally led their companies to survive and thrive together. They believe that the route and direction they have chosen will not be wrong.

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.