Zhang Xue stakes her name, and XPeng drops "Automobile".
At the Portuguese round of the WSBK (World Superbike Championship), a racing motorcycle from a Chinese brand stood on the podium. The letters "ZX" were printed on the motorcycle's body, and a French rider raised the Five-starred Red Flag. This event has been monopolized by European, American, and Japanese motorcycle manufacturers for decades, and Chinese brands have never had a share in it. The person who built this motorcycle is a young man from a rural area in Hunan with only a junior high school education. The company uses his own name - Zhang Xue.
In the same week, another Chinese company named after its founder did something completely opposite. Since April 1st, "XPeng Motors" has officially changed its name to "XPeng Group". On the trading screen of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, "XPeng Motors – W" became "XPeng Group – W". The code 9868 remained unchanged, but the word "Motors" was removed from the name.
One is engraving its founder's name deeper into the product, while the other is removing the product category from the name. These two completely opposite actions point to the same thing: when a company changes its name, it's not just about the words; it's about the story it tells the capital market.
Three Names: Xiaopeng, Zhang Xue, and Lei Jun
The name "Xiaopeng" was actually an accident. The company was originally named "Orange Motors", but the trademark was already taken, so it couldn't be registered. "Xiaopeng" was chosen from the remaining options. He Xiaopeng himself has said that many friends have advised him to change the name over the past seven or eight years, saying that the sales volume would double if he did. Even an investor told him face-to-face: "With this name, consumers' first reaction is that it's a personal brand, not a technology company."
The essence of this controversy is not about whether the name is "tacky" or not. It's that Chinese consumers have a natural cultural resistance to brands named after founders. The same naming method works well for Ford, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, and Dyson, but in China, it will be questioned for having "a small vision" or "seeming like a self-employed business". He Xiaopeng responded to this on Zhihu, and his attitude is clear: product strength is the ultimate factor in determining a brand's level, and the name is just a symbol.
Zhang Xue's naming logic is completely different. In 2024, he left the Kaiyue Motorcycle he founded and started a new motorcycle business using his own name. When CCTV asked him why he used his own name, he said: "As long as my products are excellent enough to win all the championships, the name may become a top - level symbol." This is not narcissism; it's a calculated brand strategy.
When Zhang Xue left Kaiyue, there was a comment on the Internet that said: "I bought a Kaiyue because of Zhang Xue. Who would buy it after he left?"
When the person leaves, half of the brand's value collapses. This incident itself shows that the depth of the binding between the founder's name and the product is the core variable in naming a brand after the founder. Whether a name is valuable or not doesn't depend on the name itself, but on how many irreplaceable things are bound behind it.
However, there is also an opposite case. After years of positive and negative public opinion bombardment, there is almost no difference in consumers' minds between "Xiaomi Motors" and "Lei Jun's Motors". This is not something Lei Jun did deliberately. It's the result of him constantly standing under the spotlight at press conferences and constantly responding to every controversy on social media. The integration of a founder's name and the brand sometimes depends not on the naming strategy, but on time and enough exposure, including negative exposure. Zhang Xue is actively binding, while Lei Jun is passively integrating, but the final effect is the same: consumers are buying a person, not just a logo.
Why Is "Zhang Xue" Becoming More and More Valuable?
The reason why Zhang Xue's name has become a brand asset is that there is no intermediate layer between the founder and the product. He is a former rider, can repair and build motorcycles, and participates in races himself. He has done several things that are rare in the motorcycle industry: he prohibits novice riders with less than one - year driving experience from buying the flagship model 820RR. He would rather sell 10% less to avoid brand - damaging accidents caused by novices; he uses the company's legal team to help motorcycle owners defend their rights for free; when there is a problem with the product, he doesn't hide it but exposes it directly.
This zero - distance binding between personality and product is extremely rare in the consumer goods field. It solves the biggest cost problem for early - stage brands: trust.
It usually takes a new brand several years and a large amount of marketing investment to build consumer trust. However, if the founder is a top - level technician in the industry and is willing to completely link personal reputation with product quality, the cost of building trust will be significantly reduced. Consumers are trusting a person, not just a brand.
The capital market has noticed this. Zhang Xue Motorcycle received 90 million yuan in Series A financing, and the post - investment valuation is 1.09 billion yuan. For a motorcycle brand founded in 2024, this valuation is not cheap. Investors are not only buying the product line and sales data; to a large extent, they are buying the credit premium of the name "Zhang Xue". When a founder's name can directly translate into consumers' reasons for purchase and investors' valuation basis, the name itself is the most efficient financing lever.
Why Did XPeng Remove "Motors" from Its Name?
He Xiaopeng said in the name - change announcement: "Twelve years, a cycle, a brand - new starting point." It sounds like sentiment, but the real driving force behind the name change is not sentiment; it's the switch in the valuation logic.
A set of data will make it clear. In 2025, XPeng's R & D investment was about 9.5 billion yuan, of which flying cars, humanoid robots, and Robotaxi together accounted for 31.2%, nearly 3.8 billion yuan. When one - third of a company's R & D expenses are no longer spent on "motors", having the word "Motors" in the name is telling a story to the capital market that doesn't match what the company is actually doing. When investors see "XPeng Motors", their valuation model in their minds is based on the price - to - sales ratio of automobile companies; when they see "XPeng Group", the valuation model may switch to the framework of a technology company or even a platform company. For the same revenue, the latter's valuation multiple can be several times higher.
The reference for this logic is Tesla. The ceiling of Tesla's market value is no longer in selling cars, but in autonomous driving subscriptions, Robotaxi, energy, and robots. If the capital market only values Tesla as an automobile company, its market value would not be what it is now. The logic of XPeng's name change is exactly the same. Someone on Zhihu said: "As long as investors believe that XPeng is the Chinese Tesla, if Tesla has meat to eat, XPeng will have a share of the soup."
Similar operations are not isolated cases. Xiaomi changed its name from "Xiaomi Technology" to "Xiaomi Group" after its business scope expanded from mobile phones to IoT, automobiles, and finance. This is not a whim of a single company but a collective action of Chinese technology companies after entering the diversification stage. The name needs to create valuation space for new businesses, and old category labels will become a ceiling.
The Name Is a Ruler of the Company's Stage
When you look at Zhang Xue and XPeng together, you will find a clear pattern: at different stages of a company, the name serves completely different functions.
In the earliest stage, the founder's name is the lowest - cost trust anchor. Zhang Xue is currently at this stage. His name is directly equivalent to the brand, and personal credit is directly converted into product premium and financing leverage. The cost is also obvious. The company is deeply bound to the individual, and any risk to the founder is a risk to the company. If something happens to Zhang Xue, the value of the "Zhang Xue Motorcycle" brand will instantly become zero. However, in the early stage, the trust benefits brought by this binding far outweigh the risk cost.
In the growth stage, disputes over the name begin to appear. He Xiaopeng was advised by friends to change the name for seven or eight years. In essence, the scale of the brand has exceeded the cognitive radius that the founder can carry. He Xiaopeng's personal image cannot support all the imaginations of a car brand that sells hundreds of thousands of vehicles a year in terms of "high - end", "technology", and "internationalization". The name starts to change from an asset to a burden.
In the mature or transformation stage, depersonalization and decategorization become an inevitable choice. Changing from "Motors" to "Group" is not a negation of the accumulation of the past twelve years but creating valuation space for the business in the next twelve years. Without the word "Motors" in the name, flying cars, robots, and Robotaxi can be taken seriously by the capital market within the same valuation framework.
Changing the name is never a public relations act; it is a ruler of the company's development stage. When a company feels that its name is no longer sufficient, either it has really grown or it wants others to believe that it has grown. The difference between the two is what the primary market needs to judge.
Conclusion
Zhang Xue's 820RR racing motorcycle is still running on European tracks. The two letters "ZX" on the motorcycle's body become more valuable with each win. On the trading screen of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, "XPeng Motors – W" has become "XPeng Group – W". The code 9868 remains unchanged, but the story has changed.
One is adding weight to the name, while the other is reducing the burden on the name. The directions are different, but the logic is the same. The value of a name always depends on what is bound behind it.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Internet Compass" (ID: hlwzhibei), author: Linda. It is published by 36Kr with permission.