(Yicai) March 13 -- Xia Heng and He Tao have followed the other co-founder of Xpeng Motors in withdrawing from the Chinese new energy vehicle startup’s core management team.

Xia and He are no longer listed under Xpeng’s core management team list, as they are now ‘honorary lifetime members’ only, according to the Guangzhou-based company’s official website.

The members of Xpeng’s core management team are co-founder and Chief Executive Officer He Xiaopeng, President Wang Fengying, and Vice Chairman and Co-President Gu Hongdi, the website also showed. Xia and He Tao were not only co-founders but also co-president and senior vice president, respectively.

Xpeng was founded in 2014 by Xia, He Tao, and Yang Chunlei, who left the company in 2017. All three of them were former employees of Chinese carmaker GAC Group. He Xiaopeng was an angel investor in Xpeng who joined the firm after leaving Alibaba Group Holding in 2017.

Last year, Xpeng carried out international adjustments after underperforming. In February last year, almost all of the company’s core businesses, such as the automobile technology, manufacturing engineering, supply chain, and user development centers, were handed to senior managers, including He Xiaopeng and Wang, who had joined the company the month before, 36Kr reported.

He Xiaopeng said in an open letter last month that this year marks the second year of Xpeng’s restructuring and that he will focus on enhancing the management capabilities of basic- and middle-level managers and the efficiency of all of the company’s businesses.

Sales of Xpeng plunged again last month, as the firm delivered 4,545 vehicles in February, down 24 percent from a year earlier and 45 percent from January.

Editor: Futura Costaglione