Tesla executives leave, future founders leave, why can't new energy car companies keep people?

Since July, "executive turnover" has become a word repeatedly mentioned by new energy car companies. First, Tesla II, chief technology officer J.B..Straubel left, and later Wei Lai co-founder Zheng Xiancong left. This phenomenon of senior executives leaving their jobs reflects, to some extent, senior leaders' worries about the company's direction or work practice.

As the saying goes, the wind and water turn. It is most appropriate to use this sentence to describe the talent situation of new energy automobile enterprises. At the beginning, when the new domestic car-making forces were just emerging, news broke out from time to time that executives of traditional car companies frequently jumped ship to build cars. For example, three executives of SAIC left their jobs to join the new forces of building cars. Former SAIC Vice President joined LeTV to establish Chinese Express, former SAIC Vice President Zhang Hailiang joined LeTV to establish electric coffee, and former SAIC CFO Fu Qiang founded Aizhi Yiwei. Now, why can't the original Xiang Bo New Energy Automobile Company keep people?

After research by Bernstein Inc, an analyst found that the turnover rate of Tesla executives is higher than that of major technology companies in Silicon Valley, and about 27% of executives are replaced every year. In July this year, the most striking departure event of Tesla executives so far was the departure of its second person and chief technology officer, Straubel. Analysts believe that it is not normal for Tesla to lose senior executives in key positions or for external recruiters to leave quickly. In addition, analysts also show that if the current resignation rate of senior executives is followed, Tesla's 65,438+050 senior management team is likely to leave in less than four years.

On August 14, an email written by Li Bin to Wei Lai was exposed. According to the email, Zheng Xiancong, the co-founder of Weilai, will retire from Weilai's daily business and continue to serve as a personal consultant. In fact, the senior term "retirement" is not out of date, and the consultant is just a virtual post. More interestingly, although Zheng Xiancong left Weilai Automobile, he will continue to fight for the automobile industry. It is reported that he intends to create a luxury electrical appliance enterprise, and has found overseas luxury brands.

Zheng Xiancong's retirement is a heavy stroke for many core executives of Weilai Automobile to leave one after another in the past year. In fact, since the resignation of Padmasree Warrior, CEO of Weilai North America, at the end of June last year165438+1October, Weilai began to encounter a series of resignations of senior executives, including Li Zhuang, vice president of software development of Weilai Automobile, and Angelica, managing director of Weilai Automobile UK. Angelica Sodian resigned and so on. The departure tide has also made the outside world question the management level of Weilai, and at the same time, it has had a considerable impact on Weilai Automobile, such as the stock decline and the pressure of public opinion.

In fact, whether it is Tesla, Weilai, or other new forces making cars, the retirement of high-level personnel originally belongs to the normal personnel changes of the company, but the frequent high-level changes like Tesla and Weilai are abnormal.

People in the industry generally believe that the high turnover rate of executives in new energy automobile companies reflects their unique and harsh culture, but in fact, this turnover rate will not only lead to the instability of the company, but also reflect the greater concern of senior leaders about the company's direction or work practice.

Because the change of management is no small matter, it means the change of the company's direction, and the most direct impact on the product side is the slowdown of product promotion. This has a fatal impact on both the old car companies like Tesla and the new car-making forces in the early stage of domestic entrepreneurship.

In particular, the new forces of building cars, even the "number one player" like Wei Lai, are only "primary school students" at best, and they still need to learn and evolve on the cusp of the century-old changes in the automobile industry, especially in the new energy automobile business where opportunities and challenges coexist. After crossing the delivery barrier, the road to building a car is still long and full of thorns, and brain drain is only one of the challenges.