XPeng Inc. (NYSE:XPEV) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Tim Hsiao: So my second question is about the sales network. Could you please help to update us XPeng’s channel strategy this year? While Tier 1, 2 cities that we’ll see that’s strategically critical, the growth in the lower-tier cities in China was on outpace than higher-tier cities and be kind of a key growth driver. So quite a few EV makers are targeting to pantry into the lower-tier cities. So how is XPeng going to grow its presence in the lower-tier cities? And in the meantime, we had the company change its hybrid business model, consisting of the direct sales and the dealership. Will be there any material changes in upcoming quarters? That’s my second question.

He Xiaopeng: Our newly recruited senior management member, Ms. Wang Fengying actually is way more experienced than me in terms of channel distribution. And since one month after her enrollment, she’s already had numerous discussions regarding our distribution channel and our network development. So for this year, we have several strategies in place already. First of all, we will maintain our current model of having directly run franchise stores in order to promote our sales and distribution. However, the mix from franchise stores will increase. And the second point is that we have and will continue to flatten out our management structure so as to improve the overall service quality as well as to improve the profitability and efficiency of our distribution channels.

And the third point is that we will actually expand the functionality of those kind of channels to not only sales purposes or functionality but also to increase force function as well, so as to provide a more comprehensive set of services to our customers. Now one of our upcoming next steps, which I can review right now is that we don’t believe that it would be very effective to have a large number of small distributors or small channels. Rather, we prefer to prioritize the development of quality channels to improve our overall service and distribution efficiency. Regarding the second part of your question, which is the channel network in Tier 3, Tier 4 cities. First of all, we will work with our partners to expand the channel and network. In addition to that, we also design and curate appropriate products suitable for Tier 3, tier 4 cities and we do have some facelifted products upcoming to be expected.

Operator: The next question comes from Paul Gong of UBS.

Paul Gong: My first question is regarding the — on the arrival of Ms. Wang Fengying in new role as President, what has been her biggest criticism on the XPeng Motor for the current situation and what is her plan to change it?

He Xiaopeng: Now, this is a very interesting question. Ms. Wang has been with us — has arrived for more than 1.5 months. Her biggest criticism for the company is twofold. First one is on the planning side and the other is on sales and marketing. I mean, this is definitely a very positive time because it is better to see the problems and have solutions rather than being fully complacent without seeing the root cause of the problems. And so right now, we are in full force to correct some of the mistakes that we previously had. And personally, I feel a lot of pressure from Ms. Wang because she is working seven days a week. And right now, we are all following this trend of being very, very diligent at work. So that is a lot of pressure on me.