Former NIO executive joins China’s EV startup Aiways as CEO

Beijing (Gasgoo)- China's EV startup, Aiways, has completed its latest investment round worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The investor has then orchestrated a personnel change inside the company hierarchy.

U5; photo credit: Aiways

The sole investor of this financing round is Chen Xuanlin and his Shanghai Dongbai Industrial Group Co., Ltd., one of Aiways' existing shareholders for years.

Chen Xuanlin possesses rich investment and operational experience in the auto industry, therefore trusted by Aiways’ shareholders and founding team. Moreover, along with the money, Aiways’ management team was too realigned.

The founder and chairman of Aiways, Fu Qiang, will continue as the company's president, with Chen Xuanlin taking over as chairman. In addition, Zhang Yang, a former executive of NIO, has joined Aiways, assuming the CEO position.   

Founded in February 2017, Aiways used to be deemed the "most reliable auto startup" in China for its Shanghai headquarters, Germany subsidiary, and its technology lab in Detroit.

However, in reality, the performance of the startup did not live up to expectations. In 2020, the company sold 2,600 vehicles during the entire year. For the first eleven months of 2021, Aiways sold 2,992 vehicles in total, with a monthly average less than 300 vehicles.

Currently, the company only has one model on the market, the Aiways U5, priced at RMB166,900- 249,900 after subsidies. Notably, the company failed to debut its second model in September 2021, a coupe model dubbed U6, due to financial challenges. However, according to sources close to Aiways, if all goes smoothly, the model can be ready to deliver in the first quarter of 2022.

Moreover, there are also rumors saying that the shareholders might have Fu Qiang demoted to the head of Aiways’ manufacturing business.