Shanghai-based electric vehicle company WM Motor is said to close nearly half of its store in Shanghai

Cash-strapped electric vehicle company WM Motor Holdings has closed nearly half of its store in Shanghai as it is in serious financial difficulties.

The Shanghai-based company has downsized stores from 20 to 12 stores in the city, people with knowledge of the matter said, in what would be the largest job cuts in the company’s history.

That retrenchment came so suddenly that human resource did not receive talking points for employees until almost a week later, the source said.

The Shanghai-based carmaker, whose backer including Baidu, cut senior managers’ salaries by half and reduced the salaries of other employees by 30 per cent in October.

Two executives of WM’s supply-chain vendors attributed the company’s financial troubles to weak sales, highlighting that WM Motor was struggling to sustain its operations.

WM Motor sold less than 30,000 vehicles between January and October, and sold only 1117 units in October, public data shows,

In comparison, the domestic rivals including Nio, Xpeng, Li Auto, Leapmotor, have sold more than 90,000 vehicles between January and October.

Data from China Passenger Car Association showed that U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc sold 335,400 China-made vehicles in the country between January and October, up 53.5% year-over-year.

WM Motor booked consecutive and increasing net losses from 2019 to 2021, amounted 4.14 billion yuan, 5.08 billion yuan, 8.2 billion yuan respectively.

WM motor was founded by automotive veteran Freeman Shen in 2015, who held various senior management position at Volvo, Fiat and Geely in China.