The advance praise for Marius Hayler (55) could not have been greater. When the Norwegian was presented as the new governor of the Chinese electric car manufacturer Nio in Germany at the end of 2023, European boss Chen “Chris” Chen described Hayler as “one of the best people in our own ranks”
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Today, around six months later, Marius Hayler is giving up. On Monday, Nio announced the departure of the German boss. As is often said in such cases, he is leaving “for personal reasons”. It is not a decision “against Nio,” the manager is quoted as saying, “but a decision for my family and friends in Norway.” Hayler had moved to Munich for his job, his family stayed in Oslo. Now Hayler is returning home, in future he will lead Polestar’s business in Norway and become director for the entire Northern Europe region.
Whether voluntary or not – Hayler’s departure is the next setback for Nio in Germany. Launched in this country at the end of 2022, the brand’s premium electric cars have hardly found any buyers to date, despite predominantly positive test results. Last year, Nio put just 1,263 vehicles on the road in Germany. Things are going even worse in 2024: between January and May, the Federal Motor Transport Authority only registered 190 new Nios in this country. According to the European Commission’s announcement, things will be easier from July To impose punitive tariffs on imported electric cars from China, won’t be at first.
In their expansion, the Chinese are getting bogged down in several ways
. Nio does not have a dealer network, but instead relies on a few high-end establishments in Berlin, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and soon also Hamburg. They hardly seem to be suitable as sales outlets. Nio now wants to counteract this with “hubs” that are more similar to car dealerships, but this does not cover the area: only one location is open in Munich, others are planned for Cologne and Frankfurt.
Further expansion stopped
The brand also lacks a close-knit workshop network. In Nio’s own app, customers repeatedly complained about bad experiences when something was wrong with their car. Hayler wanted to address this; expanding the service landscape was one of his top priorities.
This also applied to the ramp-up of Nio’s own battery changing stations. In the “Power Swap Stations”, Nio drivers can have their batteries swapped within a few minutes, thereby saving themselves longer breaks at a charging station. Here too, Nio is far from widespread: there are currently 15 such stations in Germany and 43 in Europe.
Nio founder William Li (49) had already expressed his disappointment several times with developments in Europe. At the end of 2023, Lihong Qin, Nio’s number two, called off expansion into other European markets such as Austria, Belgium and Switzerland. The losses are too great: in 2023, Nio burned the equivalent of almost 3 billion euros in its operating business, and in the first quarter of 2024 it was around 667 million euros.
The bad mood repeatedly spilled over into Germany. Insiders from the Nio Germany headquarters in Munich reported to manager magazin about cultural differences between European and Chinese employees. Last year, this culminated in the departure of large parts of the German leadership around Ralph Kranz (51).
After Marius Hayler’s interlude, David Sultzer can now try his hand at it. After a few months as the person responsible for the Eastern Germany region at Nio Germany, he was promoted to boss. Sounds like a lightning career – or a task that one hardly envies the former Genesis manager for.