Alan Ai, the former president of Nio‘s family-oriented sub-brand Onvo, has joined Chinese hotel group Huazhu as its Chief Growth Officer, according to an internal appointment notice shared on Tuesday.
The role is Ai’s first public one since leaving Nio on April 2, 2025 — after having missed several sales targets in the first months of the year.
Nearly a year after Ai’s departure, the brand has had its weakest delivery figures since launching in September 2024.
Background
Ai joined Nio in February 2021 as Senior Vice President and was appointed president of Onvo in May 2024, when the brand was officially launched.
The executive set aggressive targets and staked his career on meeting them as the brand positioned its debut model against the Tesla Model Y.
At the Guangzhou Auto Show in November 2024 — six weeks after Onvo began deliveries of its debut model, the L60 — Ai pledged to deliver more than 10,000 units by December and exceed 20,000 by March 2025.
He told the audience he would resign if the targets were not met.
He also benchmarked Onvo against Xiaomi’s SU7 ramp-up, predicting the L60 would reach 20,000 units by its sixth month on sale, one month faster than Xiaomi had achieved.
The brand had already missed its October target of 5,000 units, delivering 4,319 instead.
Weekly insurance registration data in the weeks that followed showed sharp volatility, with Onvo recording as few as 820 units in a single week in early November.
From EVs to Hotels
At Huazhu, one of China’s largest hospitality companies, Ai will oversee membership growth, marketing, data-driven operations and new business development, reporting to CEO Jin Hui.
The role marks a return to the sector where he spent the early part of his career — he previously served as Greater China chief marketing officer and vice president at InterContinental Hotels Group from 2008 to 2013.
Prior to Nio, the executive worked at Procter & Gamble, Danaher, IHG, Shanghai Disney Resort — where he served as vice president of marketing and sat on the management committee — and WeWork, where he ran Greater China operations from late 2017 through early 2021.
Record Lows
Onvo did eventually scale — the brand peaked at 17,342 deliveries in October 2025, aided by the production ramp-up of its second model, the L90 three-row SUV.
However, the momentum proved short-lived.
Onvo delivered 2,981 vehicles in February 2026, a 26.4% decline from a year earlier and a new record low since deliveries began. January was slightly better at 3,482 units.
The two worst months in the brand’s history have come back to back, even after the addition of a second model to the lineup last August.
The L90, which had delivered more than 10,000 units per month between August and October 2025, saw its figures collapse in the final months of the year.
In January, Onvo‘s original model, the L60, outsold the L90 for the first time — a reversal that suggests the newer vehicle’s initial demand wave has faded.
What’s Next
The brand is preparing to unveil the L80, a five-seat SUV, in April, alongside the flagship Nio ES9.
The company is also expanding Onvo internationally — the first authorized showroom opened in Tashkent, Uzbekistan last month, with Costa Rica and European markets planned for 2027.
Onvo has twice missed its self-imposed target of deploying 8,000 battery packs across Nio‘s swap station network — a persistent issue for customers who purchased vehicles through the Battery as a Service program and rely on the network as their primary charging method.
Nio operates more than 3,750 battery swap stations in China and completed over 100 million swaps in early February
