(Yicai) Nov. 20 -- Following insolvency rumors in the wake of Nio’s announcement of staff redundancies earlier this month, President Qin Lihong said there is no possibility of the Chinese new energy vehicle startup ever going bankrupt.

Nio has released and delivered five new NEV models and built a new plant with an annual production capacity of 300,000 units this year, Qin, who is also Nio’s co-founder, said at the Guangzhou Auto Show recently. Sales growth in the first 10 months of the year was close to 40 percent in some markets, he added.

Shanghai-based Nio has had a period of low sales this year. It delivered 31,041 NEVs in the first quarter, prompting Li Bin, Nio’s other co-founder, to joke that he and Qin would need to find new jobs if the company’s monthly sales remained at around 10,000.

Monthly deliveries fell below 7,000 in April and May. Sales rebounded in subsequent months thanks to price cuts. Nio notched up record monthly deliveries of 20,462 in July, but sales began to slide again thereafter, falling to 16,074 last month.

Following this, rumors began spreading online that Nio would go bankrupt. The layoff plan unveiled on Nov. 3 brought the rumors to a peak. In a letter sent to staff that day, Li said Nio would adjust its organizational structure and the direction of resource investment, letting go about 10 percent of its employees and completing specific changes by this month.

Editor: Futura Costaglione