A picture is worth a thousand words. ![]()
He Xiaopeng, William Li and Li Xiang (from L to R)This photo posted on social media on June 6 by He Xiaopeng, chairman & CEO of Xpeng Motors, along with William Li, founder, chairman & CEO of NIO and Li Xiang, founder & CEO of Leading Ideal went viral within industry circles. It marked the first time ever that the men at the helm of China's top three smart EV startups had appeared together in one photo. Call them the "big three" of China's "Big Three" smart EV startups. William Li, elder of the three at 46 years old, had his hands wrapped around He and Li Xiang, who were three and seven years younger, respectively. All three men showed signs of aging with bulging bellies, receding hairlines and wrinkles on their foreheads and around their eyes. One photo, three men, with trials and tribulations of starting, managing and growing three different smart EV startups written all over their faces. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words."Three hard working men reminiscing their hardships and thinking about changing the future," quipped He on his WeChat post. Li Xiang posted something similar on WeChat but with a twist, saying, "Three hard working men competing to see who gets older first."![]()
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On LinkedIn, He posted the same picture. "A happy moment with my two buddies, William Li, CEO of NIO 蔚来 and Li Xiang, CEO of Lixiang, the China EV Startup Trio, veterans of years of hard struggle," said He. "Here we are again, looking at tomorrow's challenges, and what we can do together to address them."
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The happy moment took place after Bitauto ("Yiche" in Chinese, which literally means "easy auto"), a vertical automotive portal founded by William Li, celebrated its 20th anniversary on June 6. Li founded the provider of internet content, marketing and transaction services for China's automotive industry on June 6, 2000 and took it public on the New York Stock Exchange 10 years later. Eight years after that, Li took another company public on the NYSE: NIO.At roughly the same time that William Li founded Bitauto, Li Xiang founded PCPOP.com, an IT vertical portal, two years after he started building websites while still in high school. In 2005, the younger Li founded autohome.com, a competitor of Bitauto, and took it public on NYSE in December 2013. Less than two years later, he founded Leading Ideal, then known as CHJ Automotive (Chehejia, meaning "car and home"). Li himself is an early investor in NIO and one of the owners of NIO's EP9 super car.He, on the other hand, co-founded UC Technology Co., Ltd., a mobile internet software technology and application services provider known for its UC mobile browser, in 2004. Ten years later, He sold the company to Alibaba Group in what was then the biggest acquisition in China's internet space, and UC became the Mobile Business Group of Alibaba. The acquisition took place in June, just as Xpeng Motors was about to be founded and less than half a year before NIO was founded. He was one of the early investors of Xpeng Motors and officially joined the smart EV startup in August 2017 as chairman & CEO. Later that year, Alibaba invested into Xpeng Motors as one of the investors in its A+ series financing round.All three men essentially followed an eerily similar path to where they are today: serial entrepreneurs that started well-known IT companies before moving into the smart EV space. While they compete with each other, their relationship transcends competition. They often praise and encourage each other when a major milestone involving any one of their companies takes place, such as the 20th anniversary of Bitauto. They are "buddies," as He puts it. They even work together. NIO and Xpeng Motors, for example, began allowing their respective owners to charge their vehicles at charging stations operated by either company at the end of last year. They are truly "frenemies." What if they took it a step further by merging into one company? Let's call it "LINX Motors," or "NIOLIX Motors," or maybe just "Future Motors." It's not inconceivable that it could happen. The combined entity would be valued at about $13 billion (NIO's valuation at end of trading on June 5 was around $6 billion, while Xpeng Motors and Leading Ideal are estimated to be valued at $4 billion and $3 billion, respectively). None of their products would overlap: NIO currently offers large, luxury ES6 and ES8 electric SUVs priced at around ¥400,000, while Leading Ideal offers the large ONE extended range electric SUV priced at around ¥300,000 and Xpeng Motors offers the G3 small electric SUV in the ¥150,000-¥200,000 price range and the recently launched P7 electric sedan priced at around ¥300,000. OK. Maybe it's not that easy, and "LINX Motors" may never happen. But don't be surprised if some sort of alliance comes to fruition, because the fate of the three men and their companies seem to have been intertwined from the very beginning, years before they thought about making cars. Now, they might be connected more than ever. Is something brewing? Never say never.For now, the priority is still to survive. Check out more of our reporting and commentaries below on NIO, Xpeng Motors and Leading Ideal:![]()