Chinese startupNio, Inc.NIO 5.98%has evolved as a premium maker of electric vehicles focusing on design and technology. It has now emerged that one of its senior talents has been poached by legacy automakerGeneral Motor CompanyGM 1.22%.
What Happened:GMannounced Tuesday that it has added four new executives to the leadership team of its BrightDrop brand. The company launched BrightDrop as a new business in January to focus on the manufacturing of electric delivery vehicles.
The new executives joining BrightDrop are: Anthony Armenta, who will join as chief technology officer; Rachad Youssef, chief product officer; Shaluinn Fullove, chief people officer; and Steve Hornyak, chief revenue officer.
Armenta, Youssef and Fullove will be based in BrightDrop's San Francisco Bay Area offices, and Hornyak in Atlanta, the company said.
Youssef was previously employed at Nio's advanced research and innovation center in Silicon Valley. His LinkedIn bio, which has yet to be updated with the new position, shows he has been with Nio since June 2016 as VP, software product management.
Before his tenure at Nio, Youssef was employed atAmazon, Inc.AMZN 0.2%-owned autonomous vehicle companyZooxfor about a year-and-a-half.
Why It's Important:GM's appointment of new talent at BrightDrop signals a serious intent to make headway into the ecosystem of electric first-to-last-mile products, software and services to empower delivery and logistics companies.
BrightDrop is scheduled to launch the EV600 van this year, and it has signedFedEx CorporationFDX 0.03%Express as its first customer.
Nio shares were up 5.16% at $46.45 at last check Wednesday, while GM was up 1.05% at $56.74.