According to reports, former WeWork Greater China General Manager Ai Tiecheng has joined Nio. This friend of Qin Lihong is an expert in building brand image.
Ai Tiecheng’s position at Nio is Vice President of Strategic New Business, reporting directly to Li Bin. We can reasonably speculate that his role is to be responsible for developing the long-rumored Nio sub-brand.
Previously, when Nio was rumored to be considering developing its own chips, the inevitable question in the market was how Nio could run sufficient sales to dilute the research and development costs of the chip based on its current market positioning.
With regard to this issue, this personnel change implies that Nio is very likely to adopt a sub-brand model for low-priced sales volume. How the battery swapping program and Nio’s proud “idiotic good to customers” service will change in the sub-brand remains to be seen.
Regarding Ai Tiecheng’s qualifications, before WeWork, he served as Vice President of the Shanghai Disneyland Resort Marketing Department and witnessed Disney’s single status. Prior to Disney, Ai Tiecheng held management positions in the hotel and fast-moving consumer goods industries. As a management talent graduate of Tianjin University, Ai Tiecheng has written a book entitled “Brand Empire,” which elaborates on how to create a successful brand image in China.
Ai Tiecheng’s relationship with Nio is also very deep. As the owner of the 107th Nio ES8 founder’s edition, he appeared in his true colors in a Nio’s official interview program, the 20th episode of “Nio Said” in 2018. (Click to jump to the link).
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.