(Yicai) April 2 -- An Jin, the former chairman of Jianghuai Automobile Group, or JAC Motors, is under investigation for corruption, three years after retiring from the state-owned Chinese carmaker.

An, 67, is suspected of “serious violations of discipline and law,” the anti-graft watchdog in China’s Anhui province said on its website today.

An stepped down from JAC in 2021 after 46 years at the Hefei-based car and truck maker. He had been chairman from 2012, before which he was deputy general manager and institute director. 

During An’s tenure, JAC partnered with Nio to help the electric vehicle startup produce its early models, and it sold two plants to Shanghai-based Nio last year. In 2017, JAC set up an EV joint venture with Volkswagen, with the German partner hiking its stake in the JV to 75 percent in 2020.

JAC may have returned to the black last year. The company expects to report a net profit of CNY136 million (USD18.8 million) with sales of 592,500 units, an 18 percent increase on 2022. The firm exported 169,600 vehicles last year, a 48 percent jump.

In 2022, JAC lost CNY1.6 billion (USD221.2 million) after revenue slid 9 percent to CNY36.6 billion (USD5.1 billion). The golden earnings era appears to have been before 2016, as the firm grew net profit to CNY1.2 billion that year from CNY495 million in 2012. Revenues over those five years climbed to CNY52.5 billion from CNY29.1 billion.

Editor: Emmi Laine