Chinese electric vehicle maker Zeekr has appointed Guan Haitao, the former Chief Marketing Officer at Huawei’s smartphone unit Honor, as the new head of marketing, confirmed Geely spokesman Victor Yang in a post on the Chinese Twitter-like platform Weibo on Monday. This move reflects a growing trend among Chinese car manufacturers to recruit talent from smartphone makers, as more consumers are shifting to software-defined EVs that are more like smartphones on four wheels. Guan has previously held positions at Chinese dairy producer Yili and gaming company Tencent, and most recently served as the CMO at Huawei’s budget-brand smartphone unit, Honor, since late 2018. Zeekr, a two-year-old EV brand established by Volvo’s parent company Geely, had previously hired Chen Qi, a former tech lead at Huawei’s self-driving department. Meanwhile, rival Li Auto announced in April that it had appointed Honor veteran Zou Liangjun as a senior vice president. It’s worth noting that Huawei sold its handset unit to a consortium of agents and dealers in late 2020 following US sanctions. [Victor Yang’s post, in Chinese]
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