On June 30, Hu Chengchen, NIO’s Chief Expert of Technology Planning and Assistant Vice President, announced his resignation in a Weibo post. Hu wrote: “Graduated. Thank you for the farewell video and ceremony. 1,351 days—thank you for this unique journey. I’ll take a break, see you again someday.”
Born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, in August 1981, Hu earned his bachelor’s degree in automation from Northwestern Polytechnical University in July 2003. That same year, he was admitted directly into Tsinghua University’s Computer Science Department for doctoral studies, where he received his PhD in July 2008.
Hu joined NIO in 2021 and served as Head of Technology Planning, Chief Expert, and Assistant Vice President. He spearheaded NIO’s in-house autonomous driving chip strategy, leading the team that successfully mass-produced the 5nm automotive-grade intelligent driving chip “Shenji NX9031,” reducing NIO’s intelligent driving iteration cycle from yearly to quarterly. He also chaired NIO’s General Artificial Intelligence (AGI) Committee, promoting AI applications in smart cockpits and vehicle-road collaboration. Before NIO, Hu held positions as Director of Xilinx Asia-Pacific Lab, Chief Engineer, and member of Xilinx Asia-Pacific CTO Office. He also served as Chair Professor and Doctoral Advisor at Xi’an Jiaotong University’s Computer Science Department and co-founded two tech companies.
Hu’s departure follows a series of personnel changes at NIO this year. In early April, Ai Tiecheng stepped down as President of Onvo (Le Dao) and NIO Senior Vice President, succeeded by Shen Fei, former head of the energy business. Later in April, core autonomous driving algorithm lead Fan Haoyang left the company. In early May, two regional general managers—Gu Yue (Tianjin) and Gong Dequan (Dalian)—also resigned.
Personnel reshuffles are common in the auto industry, often seen as strategic moves to strengthen competitiveness by introducing new leadership and fresh ideas. Whether NIO can leverage these changes to boost sales remains to be seen.
As of now, NIO has established three brands—NIO, Onvo, and Firefly. Financial reports show Q1 2025 revenue of RMB 12.034 billion, up 21.5% year-on-year, with vehicle sales revenue at RMB 9.939 billion, up 18.6%. Despite revenue growth, NIO still posted a net loss of RMB 6.891 billion, widening 30.19% from last year’s RMB 5.185 billion loss. Q1 deliveries reached 42,100 units, up 40.1% year-on-year, achieving 10% of its annual sales target of 440,000 units.
In June 2025, NIO delivered 24,925 vehicles, a 17.5% increase year-on-year. Total Q2 deliveries reached 72,056 units, up 25.6%, in line with the company’s forecast of 72,000–75,000 units, marking year-on-year growth of around 25.5%–30.7%.
