Loss Widens At Alibaba-Backed EV Maker XPeng; Co-Founder Exits Board

China EV maker XPeng continued to struggle financially in the latest financial quarter, reporting today that its loss widened to 2.38 billion yuan, or about $334 million, in the three months to Sept. 30 from 1.49 billion yuan a year earlier. Revenue rose by 19% during the period to 6.8 billion yuan. (See details here.)

XPeng also said today co-founder Heng Xia had resigned as an executive director. He left “due to the company’s recent organizational restructuring and Mr. Xia’s personal reasons,” the announcement said (link here). Xia will remain president.

XPeng shares have lost more than 85% of their value in the past year amid tough competition from larger, more integrated rivals such as BYD and Tesla, along with slower growth and Covid disruptions in China.

XPeng went public at the New York Stock Exchange at $15 per ADR in 2020, raising about $1.5 billion. At yesterday’s U.S. close of $7.34 they were worth less than half of their IPO price.

CEO and co-founder He Xiaopeng is still worth $1.3 billion on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List today.

Prior to co-founding XPeng, Xia, 38, worked at Guangzhou Automobile Group, a state-controlled automotive manufacturing company from 2008 to 2014, where he developed control systems for EVs and smart vehicles.

Alibaba owns about 11% of the company, according to an April filing.

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