Chinese EV startup Xpeng said on Monday it had appointed Wang Fengying, the former vice chairman of Great Wall Motor, as the its president.

Wang will be in charge of Xpeng's product planning, product portfolio management, and sales operations, Xpeng said in a statement. She will report to the company's Chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng.

Wang joined Great Wall Motors in 1991 and served as the vice chairman and president of the company. According to the official website of Great Wall Motors, she led the company to shift its focus from marketing to globalization, digitalization, and diversification, and achieved excellent business performance.

"We look forward to working with Ms. Wang to further elevate our product portfolio, leveraging her distinguished experience and deep industry knowledge to accelerate the smart EV transition," said He. "We are committed to implementing our smart EV strategy, and are confident that an elite talent like Ms. Wang will be a valuable addition to our leadership and management teams as we strive towards our long-term goals."

Wang's hiring by Xpeng comes as competition in the EV market heats up and fears of a price war grow in the wake of Tesla's recent price cuts for the Model 3 and Model Y. Xpeng has followed Tesla's lead and reduced the prices of its most popular products.

In October, XPeng was reportedly conducted organizational restructuring by shifting to a business-unit based structure, which would improve operational efficiency over the previous, too-centralized structure.

According to electrek, Xpeng delivered 11,292 vehicles in December, down from 16,000 last year, for a total of 120,757 in 2022. By comparison, Li Auto delivered 133,246 vehicles in 2022, a year-on-year increase of more than 47%, and NIO delivered 122,486 vehicles in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 34%.