- Shen Fei, head of Nio Power, replaces Ai as president of Onvo and reports to Nio co-founder and president Qin Lihong.
- Nio CFO Stanley Qu serves also as the head of Nio Power and is responsible for all work of the energy business.
Alan Ai has stepped down as president of Onvo, making good on a previous promise after the Nio (NYSE: NIO) sub-brand's first model failed to perform as expected after launch.
Ai announced today in a post on the Onvo App that he will no longer hold the position of Onvo president effective immediately.
He didn't mention who will take over as the new Onvo president, but an internal memo obtained by CnEVPost shows Nio Power head Shen Fei replacing Ai as Onvo president and reporting to Nio co-founder and president Qin Lihong.
Shen is not serving as head of Nio Power. Nio CFO Stanley Qu serves in parallel as the head of Nio Power and oversees all work of Nio Power and reports to William Li, founder, chairman, and CEO of Nio.
Qu had talked about Nio's signature battery swap business in a November 2024 forum. He said at the time:
From an enterprise value perspective, the business case for the battery swap service is clear: a battery swap station can break even with 60 to 70 services a day.
"Choosing to leave Onvo was a very difficult decision in my life, but one that had to be made," Ai wrote in his post.
In the post, he recalls building the Onvo brand from scratch and launching the first product, the Onvo L60, and is about to unveil the second model, the Onvo L90, at the Shanghai auto show later this month.
At the same time, Ai admits that his team has not been able to get the Onvo L60 to reach sales that match its competitiveness. "At the marketing level, there was a lot missing."
"I, as the team leader, have exposed a lot of shortcomings and failed to live up to expectations, and deeply apologize and must take responsibility for this," Ai said.
In its internal memo, Nio thanked Ai for his contribution to the Onvo business unit and wished him all the best.
Xia Qinghua, Onvo's head of user operations and services, and the general managers of Onvo's nationwide regional companies report to Shen.
Onvo's multiple teams including supply chain development, product experience management, design, vehicle engineering, and quality report directly to Nio CEO Li.
Onvo's strategic management, marketing strategy, user relations, branding and communications teams report to Nio president Qin.
Onvo launched the L60 on September 19, 2024, with deliveries of the five-seat mid-size SUV beginning on September 28.
The Onvo L60 has a starting price of RMB 206,900 ($28,460) including the battery pack, or RMB 149,900 under the BaaS (battery as a service) program.
The model is a Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) Model Y competitor, and was highly anticipated by Nio's management, but has not performed as well as expected.
Li said in a September 20, 2024 media communication that the Onvo L60 would reach a capacity of at least 16,000 units by January 2025 and 20,000 units by March.
On the first day of the 2024 Guangzhou auto show on November 15, Ai said in a media briefing that monthly deliveries of the Onvo L60 would exceed 20,000 units by March 2025, and that he would resign if it didn't.
Onvo delivered 4,820 vehicles in March, up 19.04 percent from 4,049 in February, data released by Nio yesterday showed.
Onvo's cumulative deliveries through the end of March were 35,542 vehicles.
The change in Onvo's president appears to be part of Nio's ongoing organizational restructuring, and Ai is the highest-ranking executive involved in the restructuring.
Nio initiated a new organizational restructuring earlier this year to focus on greater cost control, the core of which includes the implementation of a management mechanism called CBU (Cell Business Unit).
Li has mentioned the restructuring on several occasions and said that Nio needs to win back its dignity through changes in management.
($1 = RMB 7.2691)
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