After dedicating over three decades to Great Wall Motor Company Limited without receiving equity, Wang Fengying has now become a shareholder at XPeng Inc. A recent filing disclosed by XPeng shows that President Wang Fengying has been officially added to the shareholder register. As of March 31, 2026, she holds 1.65 million Class A ordinary shares, representing 0.1% of XPeng's total issued Class A ordinary shares.
On May 8, XPeng's Hong Kong-listed shares closed at HKD 60.8 per share, while its U.S.-listed Class A ordinary shares were priced at USD 7.67 per share. Based on these prices, the 1.65 million shares are valued between approximately RMB 86.08 million and RMB 87.20 million.
This equity incentive was reportedly part of Wang's compensation package upon joining the company. Wang Fengying joined XPeng as President in January 2023, a time when the electric vehicle maker was facing its most challenging period since its founding eight years prior. The company's highly anticipated new model, the G9, had underperformed significantly after its launch. Overall vehicle deliveries had declined sharply, and the company's market capitalization had shrunk by about 80%.
Founder and CEO He Xiaopeng urgently needed a seasoned leader capable of navigating tough challenges. Within two months of Wang's arrival, the XPeng board approved an equity incentive plan for her, totaling 1.65 million shares. This grant comprised 1.05 million Class A ordinary shares and 120,000 unvested restricted stock units.
A critical condition was attached to this grant: a three-year service period. According to the incentive rules, the equity is subject to a three-year cliff vesting schedule, requiring Wang to remain continuously employed at XPeng for the full three years to receive the shares in full. This means the grant would be forfeited if she departed prematurely or underperformed.
With the service period concluding in March 2026, the equity has now fully vested, officially making Wang Fengying a shareholder of record at XPeng.
Her appointment was widely seen as a bold gamble by a new automaker on a veteran executive from the traditional auto industry. XPeng also underwent a significant internal management reshuffle, with 10 out of 12 senior executives being replaced. CEO He Xiaopeng explicitly stated that he wanted core executives to be "partners, not employees," aiming to drive organizational change and shared responsibility.
This bet has paid off. Known for her strong execution, the "Iron Lady" implemented strategies to control supply chain costs, revamped the sales channel with a "direct sales + dealership" model, and focused on creating hit products. Her efforts helped pull XPeng back from the brink and onto a growth trajectory.
In 2025, XPeng's annual deliveries reached 430,000 vehicles, a 258.3% increase from the 120,000 vehicles delivered in 2022. The company achieved its first quarterly profit in Q4 2025, with net income of RMB 380 million. Its quarterly gross margin exceeded 21.3%, and the full-year gross margin improved to 18.9% from 11.5% in 2022.
The capital market responded positively. XPeng's total market capitalization has roughly doubled from approximately HKD 60 billion at the end of 2022 to nearly HKD 120 billion. In essence, Wang Fengying's solid performance rescued XPeng from a critical situation and transformed the 1.65 million shares from a "paper figure" into substantial financial value.
In the traditional automotive industry, the compensation structure for professional managers typically involves a high annual salary with little to no equity. Wang Fengying's nearly 30-year tenure at Great Wall Motor without an equity grant is a prime example. In contrast, emerging EV makers almost universally use equity to create a "deep binding" with their top executives.
For instance, Li Auto employs a "low base salary + high equity" model. Its 2025 annual report shows that President Ma Donghui's total compensation was RMB 36.289 million, of which RMB 33.033 million was share-based payment expense. This means over 90% of his remuneration was not immediately payable cash.
In 2021, Li Auto approved an incentive plan for its founder and CEO, Li Xiang, granting him options for 108.6 million Class B ordinary shares. However, this massive option grant came with extremely stringent performance-based vesting conditions. The options would only vest in batches upon Li Auto achieving consecutive 12-month delivery milestones of 500,000, 1 million, 1.5 million, and up to 3 million vehicles. It was only after Li Auto completed its first annual delivery target of 500,000 vehicles in 2024 that the first tranche of these options vested, leading to widespread public discussion when reports surfaced of "Li Xiang's annual salary reaching 639 million."
Similarly, in March 2026, NIO granted its founder, William Li, 248 million restricted share units, divided into ten equal batches. These shares will only vest and be allocated to Li in batches upon NIO achieving certain predetermined performance targets.
Competition in the new energy vehicle market is exceptionally fierce, and the battle for talent has entered a new phase. Equity incentives have now largely replaced traditional fixed salaries as the primary tool for automakers to secure and retain core talent. In the future, the companies that can design the most comprehensive and effective incentive structures in this "war for talent" will be the ones to build a formidable talent moat and ultimately emerge victorious from the industry's brutal competition.
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