Chinese smart electric-vehicle (EV) start-up Xpeng has appointed former Great Wall Motor executive Wang Fengying as its president, as the Guangzhou-based premium carmaker sets its sights on China’s mass market amid a rising preference for cheaper cars. Wang, 53, was behind Great Wall’s rise as mainland China’s largest sport-utility vehicle (SUV) maker. She resigned as general manager from the Hebei province-based carmaker in July last year. Wang started out as a front-line sales employee at the age of 21 before advancing to various leadership positions, including vice chairwoman, in a career that spanned more than 30 years. During her tenure, Great Wall became the first Chinese brand to export China-made vehicles, with a 200-unit shipment of its SUVs to Belgium in 2005, two years after she became CEO. At Xpeng, she will be responsible for product planning, product portfolio management and sales operations, the carmaker said in a statement on Monday. She will report to He Xiaopeng, the EV maker’s co-founder and CEO. “Ms Wang brings to us over 30 years of experience in the automotive industry, spanning roles in sales, strategy and senior management,” He said in the statement. “We look forward to working with Ms Wang to further elevate our product portfolio, leveraging her distinguished experience and deep industry knowledge to accelerate the smart EV transition.” Great Wall and Geely are two of the best-known Chinese automotive brands in the international market, with sales and after-sales centres in Europe and Southeast Asia. Wang’s appointment underscores Xpeng’s plans to expand beyond China, following the first shipment of its P7 flagship EV to Norway in 2021 . Her appointment also reflects Xpeng’s efforts to develop affordable intelligent battery-powered vehicles for China’s middle-class consumers. The carmaker, which is backed by Alibaba Group Holding – this newspaper’s parent – and smartphone maker Xiaomi, is viewed as China’s best response to Tesla along with Shanghai headquartered-Nio and Beijing-based Li Auto. Tesla rival Xpeng sparks all-out price war in China’s cutthroat EV sector These carmakers are, however, lagging behind US-based Tesla, whose Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai delivered 439,770 Model 3s and Model Ys to mainland buyers in 2022, up 37.1 per cent from a year earlier. Xpeng, on the other hand, delivered 120,757 cars last year, up 23 per cent year on year. Moreover, Tesla has triggered a price war on the mainland after slashing the prices of its made-in-China vehicles twice since late October, to their lowest levels since its Shanghai production line started operations in December 2019. Chinese consumers have been opting for cheaper EV models sold by domestic carmakers such as BYD since late last year amid concerns about shrinking wages and poor job prospects across the country. Xpeng and Aito, an EV brand backed by telecommunications equipment maker Huawei Technologies, have had to follow this up with price cuts of their own. On January 17, Xpeng offered discounts of up to 13 per cent on some of its models to make its cars more accessible for Chinese drivers. Xpeng intends to launch three vehicles this year as it ramps up the development of new models to make up the ground lost to Covid-19 lockdowns in 2022. “Xpeng can tap Wang’s experience and vision to help it effectively develop new models, to lure its targeted customers in China,” said Eric Han, a senior manager at Suolei, an advisory firm in Shanghai. “She knows the automotive industry well and understands what Chinese drivers want. But Xpeng needs to improve sales as it tries to catch up with Tesla.”