As the year draws to a close, Aima Technology has once again initiated a round of "staff reductions to slim down."
Recently, former employees of Aima Technology revealed to the BUG column that the brand has recently launched year-end adjustments, with significant personnel optimization occurring across multiple departments. Among them, the high-end brand "Lingji" and the International Business Unit have been the hardest hit, with staff reductions exceeding 50%. Departments such as after-sales have also seen varying degrees of employee departures.
According to employees, Aima conducts personnel optimization adjustments every year between October and December, but the adjustments for 2025 are described as "the largest in scale in recent years." Many employees reportedly received only one month's salary as compensation upon departure, failing to meet the standard N+1 severance package.
More notably, the scope of authority for Gao Hui, the former President of Aima's Domestic Business Unit who also served as General Manager of the International Business Unit, has been severely curtailed. After September 2025, Gao Hui only oversees international operations, which have become the primary focus of this optimization round.
Regarding this series of adjustments, Aima Group had not responded to inquiries as of the time of publication.
The high-end segment and the International Business Unit have become the hardest-hit areas in this optimization.
According to multiple former employees, this round of Aima's year-end layoffs affects the International Business Unit, Domestic Business Unit, after-sales, branding, e-commerce, and the high-end brand "Lingji," among other divisions, indicating a broad scope of cuts. The most severely impacted are reportedly Aima's International Business Unit and the high-end brand "Lingji."
Former employees disclosed that the International Business Unit plans to lay off 180 people in batches. Before the layoffs, the department had between 300 and 400 staff, meaning nearly half will be cut. Furthermore, Aima's high-end brand "Lingji," which was publicly launched for the first time in 2025, had a team of about 80 people at its peak. However, staff numbers have been declining throughout 2025, and currently only around 40 remain, with over half already "optimized" out.
In the view of the former employees, the primary reason for the layoffs in the International Business Unit is poor performance, necessitating optimization. The core reason for the "Lingji" layoffs is attributed to "relocating from Tianjin to Chongqing," with the change in office location leading to staff attrition. However, the company did not explicitly state these objective environmental changes nor provide corresponding compensation for the laid-off employees.
Additionally, the after-sales department is also one of the most severely affected departments in Aima's year-end "slimming" action.
Former employees revealed that due to adjustments in Aima's after-sales service system policies, after-sales services will be largely outsourced. Many campus recruits and recent graduates were reportedly given the option to either transfer to an outsourcing company or enter departure negotiation procedures. However, the severance compensation offered by the company did not adhere to the strict N+1 standard.
"The reasons given by HR for the layoffs included: violation of discipline or job misfit requiring departure; business relocation from Tianjin to Chongqing requiring workplace transfer but offering no subsidy; directly requiring employees to sign transfers to third-party outsourcing companies," according to multiple former employees who find these reasons unconvincing. Consequently, many employees have already applied for arbitration to protect their rights.
"Our demand is still for N+1 compensation. Regardless of their tenure, the company is only willing to give one month's salary as compensation to over half the employees, even in cases of forced termination. This is very unfair," expressed one dissatisfied employee.
Frequent strategic shifts, suspected failure of external procurement leading to a return to in-house development.
A former employee revealed that, in fact, Aima conducts regular personnel optimization every year between October and December, before the annual bonus distribution. However, compared to previous years' adjustments, the multi-department optimization in 2025 can be considered "the largest in scale in recent years."
What has caused this large-scale "slimming" at Aima?
An analysis of Aima's financial reports by the BUG column reveals that in the first half of 2024, Aima's international business revenue was approximately 120 million yuan, accounting for a relatively low proportion of the company's total revenue. By the first half of 2025, Aima's international business revenue further decreased to 90.3655 million yuan, showing a continued decline. At a time when competition in the domestic electric vehicle industry is intensifying, and all major two-wheeled electric vehicle companies are accelerating their overseas market expansion, the downturn in overseas business seemingly foreshadowed the inevitability of personnel adjustments in this business line.
Simultaneously, the lack of progress in new businesses like "Lingji" and the objective fact of office relocation became key reasons for the layoffs in Aima's high-end brand "Lingji."
In July 2025, Aima announced the launch of its high-end sub-brand "Lingji," claiming it would challenge the market position of high-end electric vehicle brands like Ninebot and Ji Ke. However, as Aima has long been positioned in the approximately 2,000 yuan electric bicycle market, with brand image, supply chain, and technical systems leaning towards the mid-to-low end, rapidly breaking into the high-end market was注定 (destined) to be challenging.
Taking the implementation of intelligent technology for Lingji brand vehicles as an example. A former employee disclosed that during initial internal planning, the intelligent technology for Lingji vehicles was originally intended to be achieved through external procurement. The core reason was that Aima's own intelligent technology was considered average; "if you want to make high-end and intelligent models, you definitely can't use your own." However, unfortunately, after about a year of external procurement efforts, Aima ultimately decided to switch back to an in-house R&D route "because the external procurement was not very successful."
This back-and-forth switching of technical routes直观反映 (visibly reflects) the strategic wavering and lack of resolve at the level of "Lingji" and even the entire Aima Group. According to the aforementioned employee, over the past two years, Aima has brought in multiple consulting firms, conducted intensive business restructuring, and divisional splits, almost "rebuilding the entire company's structure from scratch."
One of the most直观的变化 (visible changes) is that in 2025, Aima's electric vehicle business unit was split into Domestic and International business units. The Domestic Business Unit is currently managed concurrently by Li Yubao, Senior Vice President of Aima Technology Group. Meanwhile, Gao Hui, the former President of the Domestic Business Unit who also served as General Manager of the International Business Unit, now only oversees the International Business Unit. Additionally, the company internally elevated the "Lingji" brand to the status of a business unit parallel to the Domestic and International business units.
Ironically, however, in this year-end layoff round, these two departments—Lingji and the International Business Unit—which were emphasized and separated in recent adjustments, have become the hardest hit. "It feels like the leadership changes every month," lamented one former employee.
The BUG column notes that Gao Hui was once a pivotal figure within Aima Group. Among Aima's senior executives in 2024, Gao Hui had the second-highest compensation at 3.0483 million yuan, second only to Deputy General Manager Luo Qingyi, and higher than that of Aima's founder, Chairman Zhang Jian, and his wife, Duan Hua.
However, after assuming the role of President of the International Business Unit, his influence over business decisions within the company has明显减弱 (significantly diminished). Calculated based on Aima's total revenue proportion in 2024, domestic business revenue was 21.372 billion yuan, while international business revenue was only 235 million yuan, merely about 1% of the domestic business. In the first half of 2025, Aima Group's domestic business revenue was 129.40 billion yuan, while international business revenue was only 90.3655 million yuan, less than 0.7% of the domestic business. The Q3 2025 financial report did not distinguish between international and domestic revenue.
From initially overseeing both domestic and international operations for Aima to now managing only the international business, which accounts for less than 1% of revenue, and recently experiencing significant layoffs in his department, the变迁 (transformation) of Gao Hui's professional standing within Aima Group is substantial.
Under the new national standard, Aima may face "negative growth."
Public information shows that in the third quarter of 2025, Aima Technology's revenue increased by 20.78% year-on-year to 21.09 billion yuan, and net profit attributable to shareholders increased by 2.78% year-on-year to 1.907 billion yuan. This performance in revenue and net profit is better than the same period in 2024.
In the view of former employees and industry insiders, the fact that Aima achieved good revenue and profit growth in 2025 yet proceeded with large-scale optimization can be analyzed from both external and internal factors.
Regarding the external environment, the implementation of the new national standard for electric vehicles has further raised the entry barrier for electric bicycles—increasing vehicle material costs for safety reasons while limiting the maximum speed to 25 km/h. Aima's mainstay, mid-to-low-end electric bicycles priced around 2,000 yuan, fall precisely into the category most affected by this standard. This will undoubtedly increase procurement costs for users or dealers, leading to decreased purchase willingness or negative growth, implying that its business growth in 2025 or this year might slow down or even turn negative. Therefore, the simplest method for开源节流 (increasing revenue and reducing expenditure) is裁员 (layoffs).
"Aima's rapid business growth in the last two years was primarily because it bet correctly on electric bicycles, while other brands gambled on the rapid growth of electric mopeds and light electric motorcycles," an industry insider stated bluntly.
On the internal front, employees pointed out that the频繁变动 (frequently changing) organizational restructuring over the past two years, coupled with organizational rigidity, means that "capable people who create value can't stay," while "those who rise quickly are often those good at making presentations and包装价值 (packaging value)." The emergence of these typical large-company ailments has also become a key factor constraining the company's development, ultimately leading to frequent layoffs.
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