Xpeng CEO He Xiaopeng finds lessons in ping pong challenge for his upcoming battle with Tesla
- Sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs) bucked the overall trend with a year-on-year increase of 61.7 per cent in 2018
- Xpeng has received more than 10,000 purchase orders, a small step towards the initial sales target of 100,000
For a native of Huangshi – where China’s first national ping pong training centre was founded – and an enthusiastic player since primary school, thrashing me in a best of three match was easy: beating Tesla, even with the home advantage, will be a lot harder.
He Xiaopeng, 41, already owned three Tesla electric cars when he decided to go head to head with Elon Musk’s iconic Silicon Valley company.
Wealthy from selling his business UCWeb browser to Alibaba Group in 2014 for close to US$4 billion, He invested in a Guangzhou-based smart electric start-up Xpeng Motors but decided to go “all in” and join the company full time as CEO in 2017 – similar to Musk’s own trajectory from an investor to company chairman before stepping down in a settlement with the SEC.
Alibaba is the parent company of the South China Morning Post.
“The car-making business can make you really anxious. Instead of sharing the good news, you tend to talk about the problems, difficulties, unforeseen risks, and delays,” He said in an interview in his office on the fourth floor of the company’s Guangzhou headquarters.
“That’s why it’s important to relax and find happiness,” the 41-year-old said with a grin, perhaps thinking of his next fishing trip aboard his own yacht.