The automotive industry has witnessed a wave of executive changes recently, with companies including NIO, XPeng, Li Auto, ZEEKR, Changan, and SAIC announcing significant leadership reshuffles. These high-frequency, high-level personnel changes are no longer limited to single departments like sales or production. NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto are restructuring their autonomous driving divisions to accelerate L3 development, while traditional automakers including Geely, Changan, and SAIC are seeking strategic transformation amid sales pressure through multiple executive adjustments. A more brutal "second half" elimination race concerning survival and future has begun.

**NIO, XPeng, Li Auto Restructure Smart Driving Departments, All Targeting L3 Acceleration**

In August this year, Li Auto's smart driving team production leader Wang Jiajia departed. Previously, end-to-end model leader Xia Zhongpu and world model leader Jia Peng had also left successively. This was followed by team restructuring, with Li Auto's autonomous driving team now divided into 11 secondary departments.

Regarding this adjustment, Li Auto Senior Vice President Lang Xianpeng stated it aims to achieve technological breakthroughs and product deployment with faster speed and higher quality, enabling the autonomous driving organization to continuously evolve toward an AI organization.

Li Auto's self-developed smart driving chip will be deployed on flagship models and delivered to users next year. This year's autonomous driving department adjustments are largely to support the acceleration of smart driving chips and L3 autonomous driving. Li Auto CEO Li Xiang has also publicly discussed VLA (Vision Language Action models) multiple times, viewing VLA as a clear path to L3, L4, and even L5 autonomous driving, predicting it will be 10 to 100 times stronger than human driving.

Recently, personnel changes in XPeng and NIO's autonomous driving departments have also attracted widespread attention. At XPeng, Li Liyun stepped down as head of the autonomous driving center, with world foundation model leader Liu Xianming taking over. XPeng stated that Liu Xianming will lead the team to accelerate the comprehensive application of XPeng's physical world foundation large model in AI automotive applications, expanding the generational leading advantage in intelligent driving.

At NIO, several executives have departed including AI platform leader Bai Yuli, world model leader Ma Ningning, smart driving project management leader Zheng Ke, smart driving edge deployment AI engine leader Wu Zhao, and smart driving product leader Huang Xin. This is reported as a proactive adjustment more conducive to NIO's full sprint toward developing and delivering world model 2.0.

World models are viewed as core technology for achieving L3+ autonomous driving, reshaping the R&D model and market rhythm of the smart driving industry. Similarly, organizational structures need to change elastically like "containers" to adapt to rapid technological transitions.

In April, XPeng announced it was developing a massive 72-billion-parameter autonomous driving large model, the "XPeng World Foundation Model." Recent reports suggest XPeng will announce major breakthroughs in physical AI and key progress in world modeling capabilities at its AI Technology Day.

The core of current automotive industry competition has shifted to intelligence, especially the iterative experience of intelligent driving and intelligent cockpits. A company's core competitiveness is no longer defined solely by traditional "big three components" engineers, but greatly depends on leaders in software algorithms, data products, and user experience. This is the core reason for Li Auto, XPeng, and NIO's autonomous driving department adjustments this year.

**ZEEKR, Changan Personnel Changes: Strategic Transformation Urgent**

Compared to the autonomous driving department adjustments at NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto, the executive changes at companies like ZEEKR (returning to Geely Auto), Changan, and SAIC are more strategically focused.

With ZEEKR's merger with Lynk & Co and subsequent privatization return to Geely Auto, ZEEKR has experienced personnel changes. Recently, ZEEKR Technology Group Chief Business Officer (CBO) Guan Haitao confirmed his upcoming departure. In August, ZEEKR Technology Group Vice President and Lynk & Co brand product group leader Zhu Ling confirmed he would no longer serve as Lynk & Co product group leader due to job changes, officially taking on the role of Volvo Cars Asia Pacific Operations Director on September 1st.

In May, ZEEKR Technology Group Vice President and Lynk & Co Sales Company General Manager Lin Jie took charge of ZEEKR brand domestic marketing, sales, and service operations, directly managing brand marketing centers, user growth centers, and user delivery centers. ZEEKR Technology Group Vice President Lin Jinwen will directly manage user service centers, user network centers, user digitalization, operations and processes, assisting Lin Jie in managing ZEEKR brand domestic marketing services.

In April, Geely announced the establishment of Jiyao Battery Industry Group, with ZEEKR Technology Group CEO An Conghui concurrently serving as Jiyao Battery's chairman.

These executive changes at ZEEKR can be seen as subsequent optimization in organizational structure and personnel arrangements following major strategic reorganization. Meanwhile, ZEEKR brand's cumulative sales from January to September 2025 reached 143,600 units, up only 727 units year-over-year, far from the annual target of 320,000 units. Against this backdrop, adjusting executives in marketing and business systems reflects Geely Auto's desire to seek breakthroughs and boost market performance.

From Geely Holding Group's perspective, since Li Shufu released the "Taizhou Declaration" in September 2024, whether it's the surge in Geely Galaxy sales or integrating smart driving teams into Qianli Technology, these mark that Geely's strategic transformation has achieved certain positive results.

At Changan Automobile, after upgrading to an independent central enterprise, Wang Xiaoyu leads Changan Ford, Yang Dayong oversees Qiyuan and Yinli, Wang Hui manages Avatr, Deng Chenghao was promoted to Deepal Automobile chairman, and former Honor phone CMO Jiang Hairong became Deepal Automobile CEO.

Changan Automobile has "3311" annual targets for 2025: total sales of 3 million units, revenue of 300 billion yuan, 1 million new energy vehicles, and 1 million overseas units. According to production and sales reports, Changan's cumulative sales from January to September 2025 reached 2.066 million units, completing only 69% of the target.

Changan's personnel adjustments relate partly to new central enterprise reorganization and partly to sprinting toward annual sales targets. Additionally, 7 of Changan's 12 vice presidents are now post-80s generation, marking youth as a major trend in automotive executive adjustments.

Regarding youth trends, Chen Cui, who became MG brand general manager in June, achieved an "opening success" with MG4, with over 10,000 deliveries within 24 days of launch.

Traditional automakers' urgency for new energy transformation, whether from sales pressure or overall strategic coordination, has accelerated internal personnel changes. For companies, this represents necessary "painful bone healing" and "blood renewal," signaling the industry will soon face deeper reshuffling and structural reconstruction.

NIO, XPeng, Li Auto and other new energy vehicle companies are updating organizational structures and talent strategies to seize technological high ground. Today, a top smart driving leader may have far greater strategic value than a traditional powertrain leader. Traditional automakers like Geely, Changan, and SAIC, after experiencing the first half of electrification, are also "catching up" through strategic integration upgrades, continuously updating their external image. This shows automotive companies are adapting organizationally to profound transformation from "manufacturing" to "smart manufacturing," from "products" to "ecosystems."