XPeng has hired Christian Wiegand, the deputy general manager and marketing lead of Nio‘s German business, whose departure was decided in March as part of the restructuring that dismantled Nio’s European organization.
The Guangzhou-based carmaker announced the hiring on Friday, a day before the official starting date.
Wiegand stays in Munich, where he has been based throughout and where XPeng‘s German operation has its home. He will report to the country chief Kai Qian.
The move transfers one of the longest-serving figures in Nio‘s German operation to the Chinese rival in the same city.
Two weeks ago, at an event beside Munich’s Allianz Arena headlined by chairman He Xiaopeng, XPeng launched its Mona L03 for the German market at a starting price of €35,600.
On the other hand, Nio closed its first flagship European showroom in Hamburg and also a sales and service center near Frankfurt.
Two German Trajectories
XPeng registered 3,357 vehicles in Germany across the first half of 2026 — more than its 2,991 for the whole of 2025 — with every month at least double its year-earlier level and June reaching 922 units, up 284.2% and the brand’s strongest German month on record.
Nio registered 15 vehicles in Germany over the same six months, down 87.6%.
Four Years, Five Titles, One Collapse
Wiegand joined Nio in June 2022, four months before the company began selling cars in Germany, and was described by the company as one of the first employees of its German business.
He arrived as head of marketing and communications for Germany, added deputy general manager in June 2024, head of user relations for Germany in February 2025, head of European marketing and communications that June, and head of European user relations in August — five concurrent titles at the point of his exit.
Registrations traveled the other way.
Nio registered 1,263 vehicles in Germany in 2023, 398 in 2024 and 325 in 2025, and managed 15 across the first half of this year, down 87.6%.
“We built the entire German organization from the ground up,” Wiegand wrote in the LinkedIn post disclosing his departure, calling his four years among the most unpredictable of his career.
A person close to the matter told EV earlier this month that his exit was decided in March, amid the restructuring that broke up Nio’s European operations — four months before he made it public.
Nio never announced it through its own channels and does not intend to fill his post or any other country-chief role in Europe, as its European operations suffered a restructuring with Norway being the only exception.
A Pattern With Precedent
Wiegand is the second chief of Nio‘s German business to resurface at a competitor.
Marius Hayler, the country’s second general manager, left after eight months to join Polestar as director for the Nordics.
His successor David Sultzer was dismissed in February after the brand registered a single vehicle in January — days after publishing a warning that new EV brands fail in Germany by prioritizing premium positioning over service coverage and residual values.
The market that absorbed the largest share of the company’s early European investment — is run from Amsterdam with no country head at all.
The Brand He Joins Is Running the Other Direction
XPeng entered Germany in 2024 and has spent this month widening its map: the Munich launch of the Mona L03 put its cheapest model into Nio‘s home European segment at a price no Nio sold in Germany approaches.
The expansion continues.
As EV reported earlier on Friday, the company is simultaneously recruiting a country manager to build out its South Korean subsidiary as its global push accelerates.
