Firefly, the entry-level brand of Chinese EV maker Nio, on Friday teased a new, design-led version of its only model, badged “halo,” which it will unveil on July 20, a day after the brand passed 70,000 cumulative deliveries.
The new edition will go on show at 7 p.m. local time at the Shanghai Greenhouse Garden, in what Firefly called its first product series built around design as the core driver.
In a teaser image, the company showed a vehicle in a greyish-green finish with black multi-spoke wheels, promising a body surface that shifts with the light, a softly glowing logo and light-and-dark detailing on the wheels.
A Design-First Pitch
Firefly is framing the launch less as a product reveal than as a design statement.
The brand said the series distils observations of urban life and the mood of the times into a distinctive design language, and that it is centred on a 2026 theme it calls “inner glow.”
That design-led approach is a departure for a brand that has so far competed mainly on packaging and price in a crowded small-car segment.
Firefly said Kris Tomasson, Nio‘s Senior VP of Design, would speak at the event about the thinking behind the series.
The brand’s debut model, whose front and rear lamps are formed from three overlapping rings, or halos, that lend the new series its name.
From a Single Hatchback
The reveal keeps Firefly a one-car brand for now, dressing up the model it already sells rather than adding a second.
Launched at Nio‘s annual event in December 2024 as the group’s third brand, after Nio and Onvo, Firefly began deliveries of its namesake subcompact hatchback in late April 2025.
The hatchback can be bought outright or with Nio‘s battery-as-a-service rental, which lowers the purchase price in exchange for a monthly fee.
Firefly refreshed the model in China in April, lifting motor output to 120 kilowatts and updating its software and trim while holding prices at 119,800 to 125,800 yuan.
The brand, led by president Daniel Jin, is pitched as a boutique, premium take on the small model, a cheaper sibling to Nio‘s core models.
A 70,000-Delivery Milestone
The teaser landed a day after Firefly said it had handed over its 70,000th vehicle, in Lishui in China’s Zhejiang province, about 15 months after deliveries began.
The brand passed 50,000 deliveries in March and 60,000 in May, and had handed over 68,586 vehicles through the first half.
Firefly delivered 6,946 vehicles in June, up 76.7% from a year earlier and 22.7% from May, its second-strongest month on record.
The recovery followed a rocky start, with China deliveries tumbling 39.8% month-on-month in mid-2025 before output stabilised at Nio‘s Hefei plant.
Jin has said Firefly aims for 100,000 deliveries by the end of 2026, and the brand showed a rally-inspired concept car at the Guangzhou Auto Show last November.
