Personnel changes at NIO

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- A picture of an email about personnel adjustments at NIO Inc., a pioneer in China’s premium electric vehicle market, covering more than ten senior management posts, has been widely spread on the Internet on October 11.

It is said that Shen Feng, previously NIO’s vice president and chairman of quality management committee, will be promoted to executive vice-president (EVP), responsible for quality, procurement and logistics operation. Zhou Xin, vice president since April 2015 and chairman of product committee since 2017, will be appointed as EVP as well, taking charge of product and project management and assisting CEO to coordinate the product R&Dteam.

Another EVP promoted is Ganesh V.iyer. He will be in charge of the company’s global digital BD (business development) and the overall management of NIO North America. The three new EVPs all directly report to CEO Li Bin.               

It’s worth mentioning that Roger Malkusson, the previous director of complete vehicle engineering project, is going to retire. Heading the R&D and launch of over 30 models, he has been in SAAB as an automotive engineer for 14 years and ever worked for GM (General Motors). He was one of the main contributors to the mass production of the NIO ES8.       

(Photo source: NIO)

The so-called Chinese rival of Tesla is making great efforts to relieve its pressure of finance and investors in the key year for China’s automotive startups although the Q3 deliveries of 4,799 units surged 47% year on year. 

NIO issued $650 million of convertible bonds in January, 2019 and it plans to conduct more financing activities.      

Besides, the company decided to optimize its resources allocation and organization structure to improve the operation efficiency and lower the cost.    

In addition, it will develop new sales channels in the medium sized cities and the construction of NIO Space.

This significant personnel adjustment is one of NIO’s measures to survive the winter of the startups.