On April 1,ONVO announced its March sales figures of 4,820 units, falling short of its planned monthly target of 20,000 vehicles.
The underwhelming results immediately sparked widespread speculation: Would Alan Ai step down?
Just moments ago, Alan Ai posted on the ONVO app: “We meet at times; we part with the hope of meeting again. I bid everyone farewell,” formally announcing that he will step down as President of ONVO effective immediately.
Subsequently, NIO Inc. issued an internal memo announcing a new round of leadership changes at ONVO:
- Shen Fei was appointed President of ONVO, overseeing sales and regional company management, reporting to Qin Lihong;
- The marketing division will report directly to Qin Lihong;
- R&D, supply chain, and quality control will report directly to William Li (CEO of NIO).
Behind the concise official announcement lies NIO’s strategic shift toward deploying more vertically aligned management resources for ONVO—a significant departure from prior arrangements.
Appointment Announcement:
- Shen Fei is appointed President of ONVO, overseeing all sales operations and regional company management, reporting to Qin Lihong, President of the Company. The Head of User Operations and Services, Xia Qinghua, and General Managers of LeDao’s regional companies will report to Shen Fei.
- The following departments will report directly to William Li, CEO of the Company: -Product Experience Management (APE) -Project Management (APM) -Design (ADE) -Vehicle Engineering (AVE) -Digital Architecture Definition and Integration (ADA) -Supply Chain Development (ASC) -Quality Management (AQS)
- The following departments will report to Qin Lihong, President of the Company: -Strategy and Project Management (STR) -Vehicle Marketing Strategy (OVS) -User Relations (AUR) -Brand and Communications (OBC)
- Qu Yu is appointed interim Head of NIO Power, responsible for all NIO Power operations, reporting to William Li, CEO of the Company. Shen Fei will no longer serve as Head of NIO Power.
- Qi Haijun, Head of Roadside Service Center, will continue to report to Shen Fei.
Alan Ai’s departure and Shen Fei’s appointment mark a new chapter for ONVO. Whether it can reset its trajectory and fulfill NIO’s volume-driven objectives remains to be seen. How did ONVO navigate its tumultuous journey over the past year?
Cross-Border President
“Cross-Border” is the defining keyword of Alan Ai’s career.
Before joining NIO in 2021, Alan Ai held executive positions outside the automotive industry:
In 1998, he joined Procter & Gamble (P&G) as a management trainee and worked in brand management, where he became colleagues with Qin Lihong, NIO’s co-founder. Recalling their early collaboration, Qin Lihong noted that Alan Ai was not only his “mentor” but also had a significant influence on his brand management philosophy.
Later, in 2012, Alan Ai co-authored *Brand Empire: The Legend of P&G’s Business Warfare in China* with Qin Lihong, NIO’s president. The user-centric mindset developed during their collaboration may have also become one of the foundational elements of NIO’s user operations strategy.
Subsequently, Alan Ai held executive positions at InterContinental Hotels Group and served as Vice President of Marketing at Shanghai Disney Resort.
During his time at Disney, he led several family entertainment projects, which became a key factor in his leadership of ONVO. William Li, NIO’s CEO, noted in a user communication session that Alan Ai’s unique understanding of creating family joy aligns well with ONVO’s positioning as a family-focused vehicle brand.
In 2024, Alan Ai was appointed President of ONVO, becoming the key architect of NIO’s second brand. He also took on the critical role of leveraging affordable models to capture the mass market.
William Li often joked at press conferences, “This name is particularly auspicious—Alan Ai means ‘certain to succeed’,” and believed that Alan Ai’s name carried an excellent symbolic meaning for ONVO. Beyond the optimistic expectations, this reflected Li’s high hopes for the new team and his underlying concerns about driving market performance with the ONVO brand.
However, this high-stakes cross-industry gamble ultimately faced disappointing sales and public scrutiny,Alan Ai, ONVO, and NIO in a challenging position.
Military Oath
Positioned as Tesla Model Y’s primary challenger, the ONVO L60 has maintained viral buzz since its unveiling, with launch-day orders shattering expectations.
Alan Ai’s live-stream declaration – ‘Orders are exploding!’ – became an instant internet meme, endlessly repurposed across Chinese social platforms.
Yet even as celebratory confetti settled, ONVO faced an existential crisis: Its order-rich L60 couldn’t roll off production lines fast enough.
Twin Pressures:Production bottlenecks emerged at its NIO-shared Hefei plant, while Tesla’s Model Y and Xiaomi’s SU7 escalated the EV price war to unprecedented ferocity.
Within two months of launch, ONVO’s flagship model faced a perfect storm: production constraints meet cutthroat market competition.
At November’s Guangzhou Auto Show 2024, President Alan Ai issued a make-or-break pledge:
- 10,000 deliveries by December 2024
- 15,000 units in Jan-Feb 2025
- 20,000 milestone by March 2025
If these goals are not met, he pledged to “voluntarily step down”.
In March of this year, Alan Ai told Huxiu in an interview that during the 2024 Guangzhou Auto Show, there were still plenty of orders in hand. However, order losses began to concentrate after mid-December.
The main reasons were:
1. Insufficient preparation led to delayed deliveries.
2. This caused a “secondary impact,” eroding market confidence.
The buzz around the “sales gamble” brought ONVO back into the spotlight. This time, however, attention shifted from the car itself to speculation about Alan Ai’s future with the company.
As we enter April, it’s time to assess whether the “pledge of responsibility”was met. Here are the final results:
– In December 2025, sales reached 10,528 units, barely crossing the 10,000-unit delivery threshold.
– In January and February 2025, sales dropped to 5,912 and 4,049 units, respectively.
– In March, only 4,820 new vehicles were delivered—a significant gap from the targets.
New President, New Start
Alan Ai’s departure marks a fresh start for ONVO with a new management structure that better aligns with NIO’s system. Key changes include:
1. ONVO will report to William Li (CEO) on R&D and supply chain, and to Qin Lihong (President) on sales, marketing, and user operations.
2. NIO CFO Qu Yu will also head NIO Power, overseeing all related work and reporting to William Li. Shen Fei will no longer manage NIO Power.
Shen Fei, a familiar figure to NIO users and former Vice President of NIO Power, has been instrumental in developing NIO’s innovative “Battery as a Service” model and building over 3,000 battery swap stations nationwide. Holding a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Tsinghua University (2002), Shen has deep expertise in the power sector and was part of NIO’s core management since 2015.
The second quarter is a new beginning for ONVO. The L60, with its energy efficiency, spaciousness, and smart features, is highly competitive in its class. Whether ONVO can turn sales around remains to be seen, but answers will emerge soon.
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