According to Forbes, 45-year-old Xiaopeng’s founder, chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng’s fortune has shrunk by 75% from its peak in 2021 to $1.4 billion (currently about RMB 9.912 billion).
Despite his fortune shrinking to a quarter of his $5.5 billion net worth in 2021, He Xiaopeng is still the 2048th richest person in the world.
According to a regulatory filing made public in February, He Xiaopeng owns 20.5 percent of Xiaopeng Automotive’s Class A shares as of Dec. 31, 2022.
Xiaopeng reported disappointing first-quarter results last Wednesday, showing that the company’s revenue fell nearly 50% year-over-year to RMB 4.03 billion. The company’s net loss also widened to RMB 2.34 billion, up from RMB 1.7 billion a year ago. The revenue decline was mainly due to the poor sales performance of Xiaopeng’s vehicles in the first quarter. According to the data, XPeng Auto’s total vehicle deliveries in the first quarter of 2023 were 18,000 units, down 47.25% year-over-year.
Xiaopeng’s poor performance was mainly affected by the price war triggered by Tesla in the Chinese electric car market. Among the “Wei Xiaoli”, Xpeng is the most aggressive in following through with price cuts. Shortly after Tesla announced a price cut at the beginning of the year, Xpeng quickly launched a price cut of up to RMB 20,000-36,000, but it did not attract more buyers.
China is Tesla’s second-largest market after the United States and a very important one for the company. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is visiting China for the first time in three years this week, Reuters reported Monday.
To improve competitiveness, Xiaopeng Auto made changes to its marketing system in the first quarter of this year. It is reported that after the change, in the internal organization and management structure, the two channel teams of auto trade and UDS completed the merger; in the sales system, the sales regions of the two national channels were withdrawn and adjusted to the cell system.
In terms of new products, the G6, a new model of Xiaopeng Auto with SEPA2.0 technology architecture, will be officially launched in June 2023.
Shares of New York Stock Exchange-listed Xiaopeng Automotive closed up 2.4% at $8.20 on Friday. So far this year, the stock is down 18% and 64% from a year ago. Shares of Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed Xiaopeng rose 0.2% at noon Tuesday. So far this year, the stock is down 19%.
