Shanghai Freeman Shen, Chairman and CEO of WM Motor, would additionally be the head of the startup's sales company, effective September 1, 2019, he said in a recent internal e-mail.
According to the “words from household”—that is what Shen called this e-mail, the executive structure of WM Motor's sales company and the strategic planning center would be adjusted in the meantime.
(Photo source: WM Motor's WeChat account)
The company's Co-founder and Senior Vice President Lu Bin has been named Chief Mobility Officer, and Qi Liren, will serve as Chief Retail Officer. Besides, a new post “Chief Growth Officer” has been added and the responsible person will come to the place over the next few weeks. All of three Officers will directly report to Freeman Shen.
The Chief Growth Officer is newly created to take charge of improving branding, exploring more targeted users and optimizing the user management in forms of reasonable product planning and innovative marketing modes.
WM Motor recently revealed the project of the “7-Series” medium sedan, which will probably be managed by the Chief Growth Officer as well.
The concept of the new sedan will be unveiled at the Auto China 2020 in Beijing and the mass-produced version is scheduled to hit the market in the first half of 2021, said the company.
The new “7-Series” sedan will feature a NEDC-rated range of over 700km or exceeding 600km based on WLTP standard, according to WM Motor. The vehicle can be charged to 80% of its battery capacity within 30 minutes using a fast-charging mode. The battery pack will be fitted with an advance thermal management system to ensure the good electric discharge efficiency and the battery safety.
(Photo source: WM Motor)
Naming Lu Bin the new Chief Mobility Officer is part of WM Motor's efforts to further expand businesses in mobility service area.
On January 30, 2019, the startup WM Motor forged a strategic partnership with Meituan Dache, a ride-hailing platform operated by the Chinese group buying service provider Meituan Dianping. The cooperation would allow Meituan Dache to use WM Motor's first mass-produced EV model, the EX5, for its ride-hailing service.
Additionally, Meituan's platform would make bridge among consumers, electric vehicles and new retail services, helping WM Motor's users experience the car much more frequently in travelling scenarios rather than in brick and mortar stores, so as to substantially break the boundary between car purchase and use.
(Photo source: GETnGO's WeChat account)
Two months later, the EV manufacturer launched its mobility service brand “GETnGO” and at the same time announced the ambition to deploy such innovative services as urban car rental, tourism vehicle rental, ride-hailing, smart shuttle, worry-free charging, and sharing of private charging piles countrywide.
(Photo source: WM Motor's WeChat account)
The low-key startup is trying more new businesses in addition to car-sharing service. About a half month ago, the company launched its pre-owned car brand, the last piece for a complete automobile ecosystem consisting of production, sale, usage and replacement.
For the first seven months of the year, WM Motor’s customers purchased the mandatory liability insurance for traffic accidents of motor vehicles (MLI) for a total of 9,149 EX5s, according to according to the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), only 65 units less than that of XPENG Motors.