AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)05/22 Report--

Yu Tao, head of OPPO's Yijia mobile phone marketing, will join Xiaopeng as vice president of marketing, responsible for marketing and public relations and communication, and report to Wang Fengying, president of Xiaopeng, according to Tencent News first Line. It is understood that after Xiaopeng former vice president of marketing Yi Han left in January this year, Xiaopeng has been looking for a replacement, while according to OPPO insiders, Yu Tao is still on the job, but has confirmed that he is about to leave.

Compared with easy cold, Yu Tao is not a professional in the auto circle. According to the data, Yu Tao was in charge of marketing at Huawei Glory and later joined OPPO in charge of marketing and public relations communication. Unlike the major senior management teams of the European plus Department, which are mostly trained internally for many years, Yu Tao's joining one plus more can be understood as "airborne", so it does not seem so surprising to leave suddenly.

The convergence of digital circle and car circle has become a trend, and the most obvious change is that the top executives of the mobile phone circle have begun to enter the automobile company, and the most symbolic figure is Yu Chengdong. Since Cyrus and Huawei jointly launched the AITO brand, Yu Chengdong has almost become the "spokesman" of the AITO brand. He has hosted almost all the launches of the new AITO brand, and with "far ahead" has become the iconic slogan of the auto circle, bringing continuous popularity and discussion to the AITO brand. In addition, Geely also through the acquisition of Meizu, the launch of the Flyme Auto car system installed in Lecker, polar krypton models, and Volvo, Polar Star and other brands to carry out more in-depth cooperation.

At the same time, the management of a number of mobile phone-related companies joined the car company, such as Song Ziwei, who joined vivo as an iQOO product manager from Huawei in 2019 and quickly entered the public eye because of her reputation as a good-looking product manager. Song Ziwei left vivo in September 2023 and confirmed her job as an ideal car in the same month.

As for Yu Tao to join Xiaopeng Motor, it is still unknown whether it will improve the marketing of Xiaopeng Automobile. According to the official website, Xiaopeng has launched a total of G3, P7, P5, G9, G6 and X9 models, of which G3 has been discontinued. Xiaopeng delivered a total of 21800 new cars in the first quarter of 2024, far lower than those of brands such as Mengjie and ideal, among which the highest delivery is X9, accounting for nearly 40%, while sales of P7, G6 and G9 have not improved.

In order to boost sales, Xiaopeng Motor has previously introduced preferential policies. All G6 models offer a cash discount of 20,000 yuan, while the starting price of P7i models is reduced by 15000 yuan. However, these price reduction measures have not effectively stimulated consumers' decision to buy cars in the price war that has lasted since last year, especially after the listing of Xiaomi SU7, the P7 model, which is a direct competitor, is under great pressure.

According to the financial report for the first quarter of 2024, Xiaopeng Motor achieved an operating income of 6.55 billion yuan, an increase of 62.3 percent over the same period last year, down 49.8 percent from the previous month. However, Xiaopeng is still unable to escape losses, with a net loss of 1.37 billion yuan in the first quarter, a year-on-year reduction of 41.5%, basically the same as in the fourth quarter of 2023. As of March 31, 2024, the company's cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, short-term investments and time deposits are RMB 41.4 billion.

It is worth mentioning that the first model of Xiaopeng's new brand MONA will be unveiled in June, which is seen as a differentiated competitive path to expand its own sales and market segments while maintaining the tonality of the original brand in the price war. He Xiaopeng, CEO of Xiaopeng Automobile, said at the earnings call that MONA's first product is a compact pure electric car, which will be unveiled in June and officially launched and delivered in the third quarter of this year.

Looking forward to the second quarter of this year, Xiaopeng expects car delivery to range from 29000 to 32000 vehicles, an annual increase of about 25.0% to 37.9%. Even if calculated according to the highest expected value, Xiaopeng can only achieve 20% of its annual sales target of 280000 vehicles in the first half of the year, which is still a long way from completing the challenge.

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