Chery Intelligentization Center Head Xie Baojun Reportedly Departs, Smart Driving Integration Faces Uncertainty

Competition in the smart driving sector has reached a fever pitch, and the flow of core talent often serves as a window into the stability of an automaker's technology roadmap. Leiphone's New Smart Driving has exclusively learned that Xie Baojun, Vice President of Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. and head of the Intelligentization Center, has reportedly departed, with his internal Feishu status showing as suspended. As of press time, Chery Automobile has not responded to the matter.

Key Information Emerges

According to Leiphone's New Smart Driving, the signal of Xie Baojun's reported departure comes from a change in his internal Feishu account status. The account currently shows as "suspended," a status that typically corresponds to an employee having completed departure procedures or being in the process of handover within a company. The report also notes that Chery has remained silent on the matter and has yet to provide an official statement.

If this personnel change is ultimately confirmed, it would be one of the most significant executive adjustments in Chery's intelligentization business in recent years. Xie Baojun's current position is Vice President of Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. and head of the Intelligentization Center, directly overseeing core business segments including smart cockpit, intelligent assisted driving, and digital architecture.

From Integration to Unification: Xie Baojun's Two Years at Chery

Xie Baojun's tenure at Chery has not been long. According to source materials, he joined the Chery system in October 2024, initially working at its subsidiary Dazhuo Intelligent, primarily responsible for smart driving-related R&D work.

The turning point came in May 2025. Chery integrated Xiongshi Technology, Dazhuo Intelligent, and related businesses from the R&D General Institute to establish the Chery Intelligentization Center. Xie Baojun became the center's de facto operational head, with his management scope expanding from单一的 smart driving R&D to full-stack intelligentization businesses including smart cockpit, intelligent assisted driving, and digital architecture.

Thereafter, Chery notably accelerated its smart driving technology efforts. The company advanced the unification of its Falcon Smart Driving technology solution, the convergence of partners, and the establishment of a full-stack self-development approach. At the 2026 AI Night, Chery released the Falcon 500, 700, and 900 smart driving product series, while also launching AI capabilities such as Lingxi Smart Cockpit and Xiaoqi Tongxue. During this period, Xie Baojun repeatedly represented Chery in introducing related technological progress externally, making him one of the core figures voicing Chery's intelligentization efforts.

Background on the Integration of Xiongshi Technology, Dazhuo Intelligent, and the R&D General Institute

Xiongshi Technology is an intelligent connected vehicle business entity incubated internally by Chery, which in its early days undertook independent R&D of software including connected vehicles and smart cockpits, serving as one of the starting points of Chery's intelligentization capabilities. Dazhuo Intelligent is an independent company established by Chery for smart driving, focusing on autonomous driving algorithms and mass production deployment. Related businesses of the R&D General Institute cover the underlying electronic and electrical architecture and vehicle integration. The three belonged to different legal entities and reporting lines, and long suffered from dispersed resources and unclear interfaces. The May 2025 integration was essentially about consolidating these capabilities into a single center to shorten decision-making chains and unify the technology stack. This kind of "platform-based integration" is not uncommon in traditional automakers' transformation, but the power distribution and personnel arrangements after integration often determine success or failure.

A Seasoned Technologist with Geely Roots

Xie Baojun's career bears a distinct "Geely system" imprint. According to source materials, he previously served in the Geely system for a long time, joining Volvo Cars around 2010, where he successively oversaw R&D in software, electronics, autonomous driving, vehicle electronic and electrical architecture, and intelligent connectivity. He held positions including Senior Director of Software and Electronics at Volvo's R&D Center and Senior Director of R&D at Volvo Cars Asia Pacific.

After leaving Volvo, Xie Baojun joined Zeekr as Vice President of Zeekr Intelligent Technology and head of the Software and Electronics Center, with core responsibility for electronic and electrical architecture and related hardware and software platforms. In October 2024, he left Zeekr to join Chery's Dazhuo Intelligent, and subsequently became the de facto leader after the establishment of Chery's Intelligentization Center.

From Volvo to Zeekr to Chery, Xie Baojun's career trajectory has revolved around electronic and electrical architecture and intelligentization R&D. This background also explains why Chery chose him to coordinate the integration work of the Intelligentization Center.

Why Electronic and Electrical Architecture Is the Underlying Pillar of Intelligentization

The electronic and electrical architecture (EEA) is the foundational skeleton of all electronic functions in a vehicle, determining the communication methods and computing power allocation among sensors, controllers, and software modules. Under traditional distributed architectures, each function is controlled by an independent ECU, making it difficult to support high-level smart driving and vehicle-wide OTA. Evolving toward central computing plus zone control is a core engineering challenge in automakers' intelligentization efforts today. Xie Baojun's long-term responsibility for this field at Volvo and Zeekr means he is familiar with the complete chain from hardware platforms to software stacks. Chery's choice of someone with an EEA background to coordinate the Intelligentization Center indicates that its integration logic is not merely at the algorithm level but emphasizes coordination between the underlying architecture and upper-layer applications.

Behind the Departure Rumors: Chery's Smart Driving Reaches a Critical Juncture

The timing of Xie Baojun's reported departure is noteworthy. Chery had just completed the release of its Falcon Smart Driving product series, the Intelligentization Center had been established for less than a year, and system integration was still in a period of adjustment. If the core leader exits at this point, it could impact the ongoing technology unification and full-stack self-development pace.

On the other hand, Chery's Intelligentization Center is itself the product of multiple business integrations—Xiongshi Technology, Dazhuo Intelligent, and related businesses of the R&D General Institute were compressed into a single center, with considerable internal coordination costs. As the de facto operational head, Xie Baojun was a key pillar of this integrated structure. If this pillar loosens, who takes over and whether the integration logic continues are focal points for the industry.

As of now, Chery has not made any official response to the matter. Information such as whether Xie Baojun has formally departed, the reasons for departure, and successor arrangements remains to be further confirmed.

The author of this article has long followed the people and events in autonomous driving and the automotive industry.

What Full-Stack Self-Development and Partner Convergence Mean

Full-stack self-development means an automaker independently develops key software and some hardware from perception and decision-making to the execution layer, rather than relying on packaged solutions from suppliers. Partner convergence means reducing the number of smart driving solution suppliers to avoid the cost and adaptation burden of running multiple systems in parallel. Chery's pursuit of these two things means it is trying to shift its intelligentization capabilities from "integrator" to "definer." But full-stack self-development requires heavy investment and long cycles, and is highly dependent on organizational stability and core talent. Once the leader changes, the technology roadmap may be reassessed, and supplier relationships may also change—this is precisely why these personnel rumors have drawn attention.