A veteran from Huawei's mobile phone division joins Deepal as CEO.
From Fojiaosi Intelligent Vehicle Reference | WeChat Official Account AI4Auto. A veteran from Huawei's mobile phone division has joined Deepal Automobile as its CEO.
Jiang Hairong, a veteran who worked at Huawei and Honor for nearly 20 years, was involved in the mobile phone business even earlier than Yu Chengdong. He was previously the CMO of Honor China. Three days after Zhao Ming stepped down as the CEO of Honor at the beginning of this year, he officially announced his departure and has been out of the spotlight ever since.
Just now, he officially announced his joining of Deepal Automobile, which is currently going through a turbulent period.
This year, Deepal has strengthened its partnership with Huawei, resulting in a significant increase in sales and further efforts in overseas expansion. However, the brand has faced obstacles in moving upmarket. The launch event of its flagship product clashed with Xiaomi's, and it was heavily criticized for pushing in - car system ads to existing customers.
The sales achievements and some puzzling operations have frequently attracted attention. It seems that what Deepal needs is a leader who understands both technology and marketing.
After all, the former CEO of Deepal once said that he envied Xiaomi Auto for being on the hot search every day. Jiang Hairong, who has withstood the test in the mobile phone market, may have the ability to make Deepal more search - worthy.
A Veteran from Huawei's Mobile Phone Division Becomes the New CEO of Deepal
Jiang Hairong has just confirmed his joining of Deepal Automobile by posting a photo of his employee ID on social media. The employee number starts with "2025".
His IP location has also been changed to Chongqing, where Deepal's headquarters is located. Although his Weibo verification still shows "Tech Blogger", his latest move basically confirms the previous news that he will take over as the CEO of Deepal Automobile.
Jiang Hairong has been out of the limelight for more than half a year. He was previously well - known as the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of Honor China. In fact, he has a technical background.
In 2005, Jiang Hairong joined Huawei and worked as a chief engineer in the mobile phone business department, which was less than two years old at that time. Huawei's mobile phone business was not yet mature. It mainly developed "OEM" products through cooperation with operators for sales, with relatively low profit margins and frequent personnel changes. The leadership changed three times from 2005 to 2009.
In 2011, Huawei's mobile phone business took a turn. The man we all know well returned from Europe and took over the mobile phone business until now. That's Yu Chengdong.
Under Yu Chengdong's leadership, Huawei quickly launched a sub - brand, Honor. Honor started independent operations in December 2013. Jiang Hairong joined Honor's product department the following year and made his first public appearance in March 2018 at the launch event of Honor Play 7C to introduce the product. At that time, Jiang Hairong was already the head of Honor's product marketing department, helping Honor enter 74 countries.
Later, Jiang Hairong held various positions such as the head of Honor's overseas marketing department, the head of Honor's MKT department in Western Europe (concurrently), and the CMO of Honor China.
In November 2020, due to well - known external impacts, Honor had to be spun off from Huawei. Jiang Hairong left Huawei and stayed at Honor. During his tenure as the CMO of Honor China, he attended many product launch events for mobile phones and tablets. His last public appearance on behalf of Honor was in 2024.
On January 20, 2025, Honor internally announced Jiang Hairong's departure.
The outside world was not surprised by Jiang Hairong's departure because three days before that, there was a more significant personnel change at Honor:
Zhao Ming, the CEO of Honor, left.
On that day, Jiang Hairong reposted Zhao Ming's farewell letter on social media and commented:
Best wishes to Brother Ming and best wishes to Honor.
The second half of his comment at that time led the outside world to speculate that Jiang might also leave. Soon, the speculation came true, and his whereabouts were unknown. Until now, he has joined Deepal Automobile, transforming from a Huawei veteran to the second - in - command of a Huawei partner.
Looking back at Jiang Hairong's resume, his R & D background, marketing knowledge, and overseas experience are all capabilities that Deepal urgently needs at this time.
Deepal's Fluctuating Sales
Deepal is at the forefront of traditional automakers' transformation. In the past two months, its sales have even exceeded those of Aion, which was extremely popular in the past.
This is the result of Deepal's own foundation and Huawei's empowerment. On February 9, 2025, the second day after the Spring Festival holiday, Huawei's automotive BU and Deepal Automobile jointly announced the deepening of their cooperation. Deepal launched multiple new models equipped with high - speed NOA and Huawei's ADS SE.
After strengthening its partnership with Huawei, Deepal's overall sales have further improved. The cumulative sales from January to August were nearly 200,000 units, 1.6 times that of the same period last year. However, the monthly sales have fluctuated and stopped short of the monthly sales target of 30,000 units.
Among all the products, the sales of the brand's flagship S09 have attracted the most attention from the outside world. The S09 is a full - size SUV with a length of over 5.2 meters, priced at 239,900 - 309,900 yuan. It is equipped with Huawei's full - set of intelligent solutions, the same ADS 3.0 and in - car system as the Wenjie M9, but at only half the price of the M9. It was launched and delivered on May 22.
If you have a deep memory of this day, you might burst out laughing. Because this was the pre - launch event of Xiaomi's YU7, which was unveiled together with the Xuanjie O1.
The huge amount of traffic almost drowned out the news of the S09's launch, and the subsequent sales were self - evident. According to Dongchedi data, only 5,436 units of the Deepal S09 were delivered in the two full months after its launch. The monthly sales of the "half - priced M9" were less than half of those of the M9.
Perhaps anticipating the S09's sales performance, Deepal, at the instigation of then - brand CEO Deng Chenghao, pushed in - car system ads to existing Deepal customers.
The existing customers were extremely angry and lashed out at the customer service.
Deng Chenghao quickly stepped forward to apologize and took the blame. His words also hinted at the difficulty of working overtime on weekends.
Three months later, there was a leadership change at Deepal Automobile. Deng Chenghao was transferred to the position of chairman. Deng Chenghao also posted on Weibo to welcome Jiang Hairong's arrival and "copied" the message to Zhu Huarong, the chairman of Changan Group, Zhao Fei, the general manager, and Tan Benhong, the CHO (former CEO of Avita).
It is reported that Deng Chenghao will still host tonight's new product launch event, which will be live - streamed simultaneously in Chongqing and Munich.
This also means that Deepal is accelerating its overseas expansion and needs to strengthen its capabilities in this area.
Jiang Hairong's arrival should bring some changes to Deepal. At the very least, it won't push in - car system ads to users anymore... right?
Jiang Hairong is not the only one who left Honor to join the intelligent vehicle industry.
One More Thing
Before Jiang Hairong, other Honor executives who joined the automotive industry include Zou Liangjun, the former senior vice - president of Li Auto, and Guan Haitao, the CBO (Chief Business Officer) of Zeekr.
Zou Liangjun joined Huawei in 1999 and was long responsible for Honor's overseas and sales business. He left for Li Auto two years after Honor was spun off from Huawei, in charge of sales and service. Now he has become a consultant.
Guan Haitao joined Huawei relatively late, in 2018. He was Jiang Hairong's predecessor as the CMO of Honor China. After Honor's spin - off, he was in charge of the e - commerce department in China. He joined Zeekr in September 2023, first as the CMO and then as the CBO.
It's worth noting that not long ago, Zhao Ming, Yu Chengdong's right - hand man, was rumored to have joined Zhijie as the person - in - charge. Later, Zhao Ming himself denied the news.
However, with the surging trend of the intelligent vehicle industry, many former Honor employees are joining the fray. It may be difficult for Zhao Ming to find a better place.
No one is joking about "a car with four wheels is a mobile phone" anymore, but the intelligent vehicle field has already been fully occupied by people from the mobile phone industry.