Daniel Jin, the chief of Nio Group‘s sub-brand Firefly, revealed that the brand is likely to launch a second generation of the model in 2027.
The executive was present at the Nio House in Oslo, along with the company’s founders William Li and Lihong Qin, who visited Europe last week.
Questioned about the YouTuber Bjørn Nyland about whether the brand was considering production of a Performance variant, the executive said that Firefly does not intend to do it for the current model.
“For this generation, we don’t have it on the agenda,” Jin stated, noting, however, that they’re “thinking about the next generation two years later.”
According to Firefly‘s boss, “rather than a mid-cycle enhancement, we’re thinking about putting a bigger motor into this vehicle.”
“So that we can have an ‘AMG’ version, kind of,” he said, referring to German automaker Mercedes-Benz’s high-performance brand.
At the same time, Firefly is not considering an All-Wheel Drive (AWD) version of its debut model, since the model is marketed towards urban roads.
“We don’t have it right now, and it’s not in our plan, because we think it’s a city car,” Daniel Jin said, adding that “the rear-wheel drive performance should be good enough for this small-sized vehicle.”
MIIT Catalogue
The latest auto catalogue by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) revealed this Monday that Firefly has filed for a new version of the debut model, with a higher peak power output.
While the standard model has a peak power of 105 kW, the upcoming version features 120 kW (161 horsepower).
The vehicle has a top speed of 150 km/h (93 mph) and will continue to use LFP batteries by Sunwoda.
No other performance details have been unveiled, as of yet.
AWD and a Longer-Range Battery
According to Ge, Firefly “can achieve a relatively competitive range with a 42 kWh battery,” of up to 330 km (205 miles).
Despite being one of the smallest within the Nio Group, the vehicle’s “electricity consumption is the best in the segment.”
While Firefly has not introduced a longer-range variant, it is currently studying the possibility to include one in Europe.
“We initiated a pre-study project to try to study whether we can package a bigger battery inside this,” Jin revealed.
The executive admitted that, during last week’s trip to Europe, he’s “heard a lot of voices from customers (…) asking for a longer-range battery.”
Earlier this month, Nio Group‘s founder and CEO William Li had already mentioned a “long-range” variant of the Firefly model — with a larger battery capable of delivering around 500 to 600 km (310 to 372 miles).
Firefly Brand
The Firefly model starts from 119,800 yuan ($16,830) in its domestic market.
The most recent Nio sub-brand was unveiled last December during the ‘Nio Day’ event, and launched in April.
The model has since been exported to international markets, with European deliveries starting in Norway and the Netherlands last August.
The model is priced from €29,990 ($34,670) in the Netherlands and Austria, while in Norway it begins at NOK 279,900 — equivalent to €23,900.
Last week, as a batch of Firefly units was shipped to European markets, the brand teased on Weibo that it is expanding to North America for the first time.
No specific countries or a timeline have been provided.
