Chinese EV start-up WM Motor reportedly cuts salary of management and employees to cope with financial pressure

By Li Panpan

Chinese EV start-up WM Motor’s CEO Shen Hui issued an internal letter, saying the company will cut 50% salary of M4-level and above managers and 30% salary of employees and cancel year-end bonuses and other bonuses, and suspend car purchase subsidies, to cope with financial pressure, learned JW Insights from different media sources.

In October and December 2021, WM Motor received $652 million in D1 and D2 financing. In this year's pre-IPO round of financing, it gained another $600 million. Public statistics show that it has completed funding of more than RMB35 billion ($4.9 billion) since it was founded in 2015.

However, it is still suffering from huge losses.

From 2020 to 2021, WM Motor lost RMB13.29 billion ($1.86 billion). The total salary of its CEO in 2021 was RMB1.26 billion ($176.49 million), accounting for nearly 30% of its annual income.