Xia Heng ( zh, 夏珩; born 7 November 1983) or Henry Xia is a Chinese entrepreneur. He co-founded the Chinese battery-electric car company XPeng Motors.

Early years

Heng studied automobile engineering at

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (THU) is a public university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Constructio ...

and earned a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in 2008 after 6 years there. Prior to co-founding XPeng Motors, Henry served as the supervisor for the New Energy Vehicle Control Section, a research and development team, at

Guangzhou Automobile Group Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd. (GAC Group) is a Chinese State-owned enterprises of China, state-owned automobile manufacturer headquartered in Guangzhou, Guangdong. , it was the Automotive industry in China#List of Chinese automobile ma ...

. He received multiple awards in research, innovation and management during his time at

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

. Heng has worked as a resident engineer in multiple European countries, has published more than 10 research papers and patents about electric and smart vehicles, and has expertise in electric and smart vehicle controls, vehicle integration and project management.

XPeng Motors

In 2014, Heng co-founded XPeng Motors with a small group of vehicle and IT experts. Heng is tasked with the company's strategic planning and product architecture design. The company initially focused on

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...

for new core technologies for use in motors, batteries, electronic control systems and center-display touch screens. Heng recruited former employees from Guangzhou Automobile,

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

Lamborghini Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. ( , ), usually referred to as Lamborghini or colloquially Lambo, is an Italian manufacturer of luxury sports cars and SUVs based in Sant'Agata Bolognese. The company is owned by the Volkswagen Group through its su ...

, BYD,

ALi Ali ibn Abi Talib (; ) was the fourth Rashidun caliph who ruled from until his assassination in 661, as well as the first Shia Imam. He was the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Born to Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib an ...

Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. ( zh, s=腾讯, p=Téngxùn) is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimed ...

Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ("Huawei" sometimes stylized as "HUAWEI"; ; zh, c=华为, p= ) is a Chinese multinational corporationtechnology company in Longgang, Shenzhen, Longgang, Shenzhen, Guangdong. Its main product lines include teleco ...

, and

Samsung Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...

. Since 2015, the company has built and tested four test cars. XPeng has projected that it will start production of its own vehicle before the end of 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Xia, Heng 1983 births Living people 21st-century Chinese businesspeople Businesspeople from Hunan Chinese founders of automobile manufacturers Tsinghua University alumni XPeng people