- Former Nio executive Alan Ai has joined H World as chief growth officer, having resigned as president of the Onvo brand last year.
- Ai previously stepped down after sales of the Onvo L60 failed to meet expectations.
Alan Ai, the former president of Nio Inc's (NYSE: NIO, HKG: 9866) Onvo sub-brand, has officially joined H World Group, according to a newly revealed internal appointment announcement.
Ai has been officially appointed as the chief growth officer (CGO) of the major Chinese hotel group, and his work will be reported directly to H World CEO Jin Hui, according to a screenshot of the announcement shared Tuesday by automotive blogger @德卤爱开车.
In his new executive role, Ai will oversee the long-term planning of H World's overall growth strategy and be responsible for driving its specific execution.
Prior to joining H World, Ai held management positions including senior vice president at Nio and president of Onvo.
On April 2, 2025, he publicly announced his resignation via an official app post after the sales of Onvo's first model, the L60 mid-size sport utility vehicle (SUV), failed to meet expectations.
In his farewell letter at the time, Ai admitted that the team had many shortcomings in marketing, failing to achieve sales that matched the model's product competitiveness.
The Onvo L60 had high expectations from Nio's management, as the mid-size SUV was originally designed to compete directly with Tesla's (NASDAQ: TSLA) best-selling Model Y.
Ai had publicly promised to voluntarily resign as president to take responsibility if the model's monthly deliveries failed to break the 20,000-unit mark in March 2025.
However, official data showed that the Onvo brand delivered only 4,820 vehicles to customers that month, a result that directly prompted him to fulfill his resignation promise.
Ai's departure subsequently triggered a series of senior management restructuring within Nio, with former Nio Power head Shen Fei succeeding him as Onvo president.
The Onvo brand experienced strong growth in the second half of last year, largely driven by its second model, the L90 large electric SUV.
However, since November last year, Onvo's deliveries have continued to decline as China's support policies for the new energy vehicle (NEV) industry scaled back.
Onvo's deliveries further slipped to 2,981 units in February 2026, marking the second-lowest level since deliveries began in September 2024, according to data compiled by CnEVPost.
H World is one of China's leading and well-known hotel management companies, operating multiple brands domestically including Ji Hotel, HanTing, and Crystal Orange.
