Chinese media outlet AutoReport, affiliated with Yiche.com — one of the country’s largest automotive information websites — was ordered this week to pay record defamation damages to Xiaomi in the largest such award in China’s auto media industry.
Nio‘s founder and CEO William Li founded Yiche.com in 2000, fourteen years before establishing the Shanghai-headquartered EV maker in November 2014.
The premium brand has denied that its founder and CEO retains any connection to the auto media company, which was ordered this week to pay Xiaomi 5 million yuan ($731,000), after rumors linking the two began circulating online.
The company’s assistant vice president for branding and communications, Ma Lin, told Yicai on Thursday that Li sold his entire stake in the company operating the self-media account AutoReport in 2020 and “has no connection with the entity behind the account.”
The denial came after a Chinese court ruled in favor of Xiaomi in a defamation lawsuit against AutoReport, finding that the outlet had disseminated content that “lacked sufficient factual verification, contained misattributed facts, and was clearly derogatory.”
The court ordered AutoReport to delete the infringing content, issue a public apology, and pay 5 million yuan in compensation.
Xiaomi said in a statement following the verdict that it “welcomes criticism, suggestions, and supervision from all sectors of society,” but would “use legal weapons to resolutely defend” its rights against “misleading false information, insults, and slanders.”
The specific articles that triggered the lawsuit have not been disclosed, though AutoReport has published multiple pieces discussing Xiaomi‘s automotive business.
The case adds another layer to the complex web of relationships among China’s EV industry leaders.
Xiaomi co-founder and CEO Lei Jun was one of the early investors in Nio.
Organized Campaigns
Several automakers in China have taken legal action over the past few years against social media users, claiming they are spreading fabricated content to damage the brand.
Between 2022 and 2024, a wide range of Chinese carmakers have opened Legal dedicated social media accounts to update the community on each court case.
Brands such as Nio, XPeng, BYD, Li Auto, Zeekr, Deepal, and Avatr, have offered bounties of up to 5 million yuan for evidence identifying those responsible for coordinated disinformation campaigns on social media.
In January, BYD‘s General Manager of the Brand and Public Relations Division Li Yunfei said the company has “consistently been the biggest victims of malicious PR and paid trolls.”
Speaking at the 2025 China Auto Chongqing Forum, the executive commented on Nio‘s founder and CEO William Li about facing organised campaigns.
“The attacks and smears we endure are many times what Nio faces,” Li stated.
