When I visited Chinese electric car company Xpeng’s new headquarters in Guangzhou last week, what stood out wasn’t just how shiny it was compared to the building I’d visited last year, but the fluency of its global mindset, down to the small details like accurate English translations in signs and presentations. It went beyond the cursory “innovation” banners often seen in China.
Leaders of Xpeng’s autonomous driving, robotics and flying car units each delivered 40-minute presentations entirely in English — including their decks — without any translation device. In conversation with reporters, Xpeng founder and CEO He Xiaopeng even declared a ten-year goal to generate half of the company’s sales from outside China.
