On May 10, the Human Resources Department of AIWAYS Automobile issued the “Notice on the Delay of April Salary Payment”, which stated that in view of the current funding challenges, the company had to make a decision to delay the payment of April salary again.
Last month, the Human Resources Department of AIWAYS Automobile issued the “Notice on Delayed Salary Payment in March”, stating that due to objective reasons, the company had to make a decision to delay the payment of salary in March, but the social security and provident fund of employees in March will be normal. payment, but the notice did not specify the reasons for the delayed payment of wages or the length of the delay. In this regard, AIWAYS Automobile once stated to the media: “The payment of wages is delayed, and the company’s operations are normal.”
In addition to delaying the payment of wages, the employees of AIWAYS headquarters in Shanghai have already worked from home. The official notice stated that the reason for staying at home was “temporary maintenance of the system line of Shanghai headquarters”. An employee of AIWAYS revealed that in the past three months, the salary payment has not been normal. Work from home is not because of the maintenance of the system line, but because of the arrears of rent, property fees, water and electricity fees, etc., which is a last resort. However, AIWAYS has not responded to the question of whether the rent and utility bills are in arrears.
When it came to consumers, some users reported that the App of AIWAYS Automobile could not be opened, all the posts on the homepage were cleared, and the partner column showed that the network was not connected.
Different from other Chinese EV startup, AIWAYS has chosen to focus its development on international markets, hoping to open up opportunities in overseas markets. Its model AIWAYS U6 has officially landed in Germany, France, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, and Switzerland at the end of 2022. The starting price in the German market is 45,500 euros. In November 2022, AIWAYS announced that the 10,000th vehicle was officially rolled off the production line at the Shangrao factory in Jiangxi Province China. This data is far behind the top EV startups.
In addition to AIWAYS, Chinese EV startups such as WM Motor and ENOVATE have also encountered rumors of “closure” and “unable to pay wages” recently. On the other hand, Chinese EV startups such as LI Auto and NETA are flourishing. In the future, the competition in China’s auto market is bound to become more intense, we will continue to pay attention to the trends of these companies.
