This paper is devoted to the study of the relation between 'formal exponential maps,' the Atiyah class, and Kapranov L∞[1] algebras associated with dg manifolds in the C ∞ context. Given a dg manifold, we prove that a 'formal exponential map' exists if and only if the Atiyah class vanishes. Inspired by Kapranov's construction of a homotopy Lie algebra associated with the holomorphic tangent bundle of a complex manifold, we prove that the space of vector fields on a dg manifold admits an L∞[1] algebra structure, unique up to isomorphism, whose unary bracket is the Lie derivative w.r.t. the homological vector field, whose binary bracket is a 1-cocycle representative of the Atiyah class, and whose higher multibrackets can be computed by a recursive formula. For the dg manifold (T 0,1 X [1], ∂) arising from a complex manifold X, we prove that this L∞[1] algebra structure is quasi-isomorphic to the standard L∞[1] algebra structure on the Dolbeault complex Ω 0,• (T 1,0 X ).