On February 7, 2024, HiPhi held an employee meeting and announced that the company would not be able to pay January wages on time, cancel the 2023 year-end bonus, and suggested that employees find their own way out. HiPhi responded that the company is taking measures such as reducing executive salaries and delaying salary payments to cope with internal and external challenges. On February 18, 2024, the first working day after the
Spring Festival holiday, HiPhi mobile held another internal meeting and announced that it would suspend production for 6 months from now on. The media quoted internal employee reports as saying that employees' wages before February 18 will be paid as usual. Employees who remained at HiPhi mobile before March 15 will only be paid 70% of their wages. After March 15, only the local
Minimum wage Standard payment will be paid; Employees cannot use their cards to enter the headquarters in Shanghai
Pujiang and the factory in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, A large number of outsourced workers were also laid off. HiPhi only briefly responded to media inquiries, saying that the suspension of work and salary cuts were not true; Caixin Media reported that some local government shareholders asked HiPhi not to disclose the suspension information to the outside world for the time being. On February 22, 2024, HiPhi's Chairman Ding Lei appeared at the Shanghai headquarters to communicate with some of the remaining employees. He apologized to the employees for the strategic misjudgment that led to the company's suspension of work and production, and said that he would strive for restructuring and cooperation to "revive" the company. HiPhi issued a statement on the same day, admitting that the company has made major adjustments to its daily operations and is currently taking all possible measures to alleviate its difficulties. HiPhi said it will prioritize and strive to ensure user service operations, vehicle after-sales maintenance, and other work, and will work with Yueda Group's subsidiaries to provide vehicle after-sales services; at the same time, it will coordinate resources to maintain HiPhi vehicle after-sales services, maintenance of vehicle networking related functions, and the use of HiPhi App's vehicle control functions and community sections. However, charging-related services and surrounding shopping malls will be temporarily suspended. After HiPhi announced the suspension of work and production, a large number of its directly-operated stores were closed. Although some dealer franchise stores were open, they were limited to selling inventory vehicles; HiPhi's video account was also changed to
Livestreaming with goods. To raise funds needed to maintain after-sales service Some prospective car owners who ordered cars before the Spring Festival were unable to receive cars due to the factory shutdown, but HiPhi was unable to refund the deposits for the cars; some employees also said they had not received their wages for January and February. According to media reports, HiPhi received $1 billion in financing from i Group Inc on May 16, 2024, and its parent company Human Horizons also signed a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement with i. HiPhi is expected to resume work and production in the near future. According to public information, the actual controller of i is Yang Rong, Chairman of
Hyper-Path Group and founder of
Brilliance Group. In May 2024, HiPhi's parent company Human Horizons Holdings (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. was listed as a "dishonest person subject to enforcement", and Ding Lei was repeatedly restricted from high consumption; several affiliated companies of Human Horizons were also included in the list of abnormal operations. On August 8 of the same year, the People's Court of Yancheng Economic Development Zone accepted the bankruptcy pre-reorganization application filed by
Human Horizons (Jiangsu) Technology Co., Ltd. On August 19, 2024, six months after the previous suspension of work and production, HiPhi announced that it would gradually resume the supply of spare parts to after-sales service centers and cooperative outlets, and authorized Yueda's subsidiaries to purchase HiPhi auto parts to support after-sales service. == Sales ==