He Xiaopeng made the right bet by keeping Wang Fengying with 86 million yuan, and they sold 760,000 vehicles in three years.

The always low - key "Iron Lady" Wang Fengying has once again become the center of public attention. This time, it's because three years after joining XPeng Group, the equity incentives allocated to her have officially vested, with a converted market value of approximately 86 million yuan.

Recently, a document disclosed by the US NASDAQ Stock Exchange showed that Wang Fengying, the President of XPeng Group, first appeared in the shareholder register. It's worth noting that as of March 31, 2026, Wang Fengying holds 1.65 million Class A common shares, accounting for 0.1% of the total Class A common shares of XPeng Group.

Calculated based on the price of XPeng's Class A common shares at $7.67 per share on May 8, the date of the news disclosure, the value of Wang Fengying's 1.65 million shares is approximately 86.08 million yuan.

Image source: XPeng Group's 2025 Annual Report

He Xiaopeng, the Chairman and CEO of XPeng Group, spent this money very worthily. The sky - high incentives have brought about a turnaround in sales in three years. After Wang Fengying joined XPeng Group for three years, she has completely rewritten the fate of this new - force car manufacturer.

The "Iron Lady" Takes on the Task in a Crisis

On January 30, 2023, Wang Fengying officially joined XPeng Group as President, reporting directly to He Xiaopeng and being responsible for product planning, product matrix, and the sales system. At that time, XPeng was in the darkest period since its establishment. In 2022, it only delivered 120,800 vehicles throughout the year, and problems such as chaotic product positioning and pricing mistakes were also exposed. Especially, the listing strategy of the flagship model G9 in September of that year was a serious failure, which brought a huge blow to the entire XPeng Motors company.

To overcome the G9 storm, He Xiaopeng described it as "a warrior cutting off his own head". Therefore, he was determined to find a "person who understands cars better". He once revealed that before Wang Fengying was about to join XPeng Motors, she discovered that there was a problem with the steel purchased by XPeng Motors.

Subsequently, He Xiaopeng himself spent 9 months to figure out this problem. "That is, the people below have been lying to you, and you can't see the tricks," He Xiaopeng recalled.

This also shows that when a car is placed in front of Wang Fengying, her eyes are like a ruler. This sharp intuition of an insider comes from more than 30 years of experience in Great Wall Motors.

Before joining XPeng Group, Wang Fengying was more widely known as the President of Great Wall Motors and the partner of the company's founder, Wei Jianjun. Wang Fengying joined Great Wall Motors in 1991. Due to her excellent work ability, she was promoted from a grass - roots employee in the sales department to the sales general manager in two years. In 2003, Great Wall Motors successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and Wang Fengying became the company's president.

During her more than 30 - year tenure at Great Wall Motors, Wang Fengying led the establishment of the sales system and the formulation of market strategies of Great Wall Motors, and promoted the implementation of Great Wall's SUV - focused strategy. In particular, the market success of the "national god car" Haval H6 is inseparable from her precise layout in marketing.

It was also during the 30 years when Great Wall Motors grew from a local small factory to a representative of Chinese private - owned automobile companies that Wang Fengying got the title of "Iron Lady" because of her decisive and efficient work style.

Therefore, even before officially joining, Wang Fengying could immediately see that there were serious problems in XPeng Motors' procurement and supply chain at that time.

Obviously, Wang Fengying is the "person who understands cars better" that He Xiaopeng has been looking for.

From XPeng Group's latest document, it can be seen that the company granted Wang Fengying 1.65 million shares of equity incentives more than a month after her joining, that is, in March 2023. It can be seen that He Xiaopeng showed great sincerity to invite Wang Fengying, a great general. By March 2026, when Wang Fengying's three - year term was up, this incentive officially vested, and at the same time, Wang Fengying officially became a registered shareholder of XPeng Group.

XPeng Motors Rewrites Its Fate in Three Years

Compared with the difficult year of 2023, in three years, although it can't be said that XPeng Motors in 2026 has got the ticket to the final stage of the elimination round, it is a consensus that its current performance ranks among the first camp.

In the view of "Node AI", the three years since Wang Fengying joined XPeng Group are the three years when XPeng rewrote its fate, mainly reflected in the following three aspects:

First, sales have stabilized. From 2023 to the end of 2025, the cumulative sales volume reached 761,400 vehicles. These three years have seen a sharp increase in XPeng Motors' sales. From the official delivery of XPeng Motors in 2018 to the end of 2022, the cumulative delivery volume in about five years was less than 300,000 vehicles.

Second, it has mastered the methodology for creating hit products. The core reason for the continuous increase in sales in the past three years is that Wang Fengying led the streamlining of the product line, cut models with low sales, and focused resources on creating hit products. For example, XPeng Motors has established the methodology for creating hit cars through XPeng MONA M03 and XPeng P7 +, continuously driving the growth of overall sales.

In these three years, XPeng Motors' business has also entered a mature and systematic product - definition stage from the stage of building cars where each product line fought independently and blindly. The product line includes sedans, coupés, SUVs, and MPVs, and the power forms range from pure - electric to extended - range. The AI ability that He Xiaopeng values most also ranks among the first echelon, which is also the key to Volkswagen's cooperation with it.

Third, the channels and supply chain have been reshuffled. Compared with the sales volume and new hit models in the spotlight, the behind - the - scenes channel reform and supply - chain relationship are even more decisive for the survival of car manufacturers, and they also require a "knowledgeable" person to carry out bold reforms.

In September 2023, eight months after Wang Fengying joined, XPeng Group launched the "Jupiter Plan" for channel reform, reducing the 24 sales regions across the country to 12, solving the "internal strife" problem in the sales department. It is also gradually phasing out inefficient direct - operated stores, expanding the scale of agent - dealer stores to improve operational efficiency and reduce operating costs.

Wang Fengying's discovery of "problems with the steel" before joining was just an epitome of the supply - chain problems of XPeng Motors at that time.

After that, XPeng Group focused on rectifying corruption problems in the supply chain, streamlining the supply - chain system, and controlling supply - chain costs. With more than 30 years of experience in the traditional automobile industry, Wang Fengying strictly reviewed the cost rationality of core components such as seats. For example, when designing the new - style XPeng G9, Wang Fengying found that the cost of seats was a bit high and thought that some functions were unnecessary. Eventually, only the seat cost was reduced by more than a thousand yuan. Finally, through systematic measures such as domestic substitution and supplier integration, XPeng Group promoted an overall reduction in the total cost per vehicle.

Finally

In April 2026, XPeng Group had delivered more than 30,000 new vehicles in total; the cumulative delivery volume from January to April had reached 94,000 vehicles. "Node AI" believes that with the successive launches of the 2026 XPeng MONA M03 and the new flagship SUV XPeng GX, XPeng Motors will still rank among the first camp in terms of market sales.

In addition, three models, XPeng P7 +, XPeng G6/G9, have been successfully put into production at the Graz plant in Austria, which means that XPeng Motors' overseas market localization layout also ranks among the first camp of new - force car manufacturers, laying a solid foundation for stable overseas deliveries in the future.

In the view of "Node AI", if we use one word to describe XPeng Group's current performance, that word must be: stable. The market is stable, and the strategy is stable. This also conforms to He Xiaopeng's consistent steady temperament.

And this sense of stability comes from He Xiaopeng's decision to recruit Wang Fengying under his command three years ago.

Three years ago, He Xiaopeng spent 1.65 million shares of equity incentives to tie down Wang Fengying, who "understands cars better". The latter also fulfilled her mission and "put out the fire" successfully. With her 30 - year professional experience and practical spirit, she pulled XPeng Motors out of the trough of sales and operational difficulties, promoted qualitative changes in XPeng's product line, channels, and supply chain, and completely rewritten the fate of this new - force car manufacturer.

It can be said that He Xiaopeng's investment is more than worth it.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Node Finance", author: Yang Xuejian. Republished by 36Kr with permission.