Over the last week, Chinese premium EV startup Jiyue Auto has been on many a front page after CEO Joey Xia Yiping announced the company would be entering liquidation at an employee meeting on 10 December. Over the ensuing week, employees not only demanded compensation but also their unpaid social insurance. Meanwhile, Jiyue car owners, especially those who bought a car recently, were worried about the uncertainty of the aftersales service and the navigation and driving assistance systems in their vehicles.
On Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, Jiyue-related hashtags dominated the Hot Search list. Most recently, the topic “Jiyue CEO posts long apology article” (#极越CEO发长文道歉#) topped the Hot Search list on 16 December, amassing 65.58 million views within 12 hours. Xia denies the rumour of him running away and details the rationale behind the brand’s strategies. He also apologised for his mistakes, in particular, putting too much effort into marketing and thanking the staff.
Also on 16 December, Baidu and Geely, Jiyue’s two main shareholders, released a joint statement reassuring both employees and customers. The two investors sent funds for the unpaid social insurance and promised to look after the departing employees. Baidu pledged to keep Jiyue’s Apollo Self-Driving (ASD) system and navigation systems. Meanwhile, Geely, who manufactures Jiyue-branded vehicles, announced that it’d be taking on the responsibility of aftersales care for the cars.
After all the rumours and speculation, there’s finally some closure to the story. Jiyue began its life as Jidu in March 2021 and changed its name to Jiyue after unveiling its first model, Jiyue 01. It has been known for its smart features, such as the AI assistant SIMO. As Jiyue struggled with sales and Baidu moved its focus to the deal with Tesla on its Full Self-Driving (FSD) in China as well as the Apollo Go robotaxi service, Jiyue has become an unnecessary cost for Baidu. However, it is still unclear whether Baidu has given up on EV-making altogether.
