Xpeng shares fell round 5% on Wednesday after the corporate introduced its head of autonomous driving will depart the corporate at what’s seen as a important juncture for the Chinese language electrical automobile start-up.

Xinzhou Wu, vp of autonomous driving at Xpeng, tendered his resignation “for private and household causes,” Xpeng mentioned in a press release.

Liyun Li, senior director of Xpeng’s autonomous driving group, will takeover Wu’s position. Li has been main the undertaking group behind Xpeng’s superior driver-assistance system recognized a XNGP. Xpeng mentioned Li has been “ready for the transition for an extended interval.”

He Xiaopeng, CEO of Xpeng, praised Wu’s contribution to getting Xpeng right into a “main place in autonomous driving know-how.”

Wu’s departure comes at a time when Xpeng is seeking to get well misplaced floor to upstart rivals Nio and Li Auto in addition to attempting to tackle giants BYD and Tesla in China because the market will get more and more cut-throat.

Xpeng continues to get hit by losses however delivered 11,008 autos in July, up by 28% on the month. It was the sixth consecutive month of supply progress, highlighting indicators of restoration to Xpeng’s enterprise.

The Guangzhou-headquartered agency has tried to place itself as extra superior on autonomous driving and different applied sciences than its rivals. It is essential semi-autonomous driving product is XNGP which it has positioned as a rival to Tesla’s Autopilot.

Xpeng’s Xiaopeng sought to reassure traders that the corporate’s know-how improvement will proceed.

“Wanting ahead, we’ll stay absolutely dedicated to our clear roadmap for the full-stack in-house developed autonomous driving know-how and our strategic partnership with the Volkswagen Group,” Xiaopeng mentioned.

“I’ll proceed to personally lead our autonomous driving group and strengthen our management in Good EV applied sciences,” the CEO added.