Nio‘s founder and Chief Executive Officer William Li said on Saturday that the company will be expanding to Thailand with the Firefly sub-brand, through a dealership agreement.
The Shanghai-based group is shifting to a mixed business model — maintaining direct-to-consumer showrooms in its existing markets while relying only on local dealerships in the new markets.
Nio’s launch strategy differs by market.
In most European countries, it is entering with its main brand, which is already present in the region, as well as its Firefly sub-brand.
Meanwhile, in Armenia, and as exclusively reported by EV earlier this month, it is preparing to introduce the family-oriented Onvo, which is currently available only in China, along with the premium Nio brand.
The information was revealed during a Q&A session, in which Li also announced that Nio plans to unveil its new flagship model — the ES9 — in the second quarter of 2026.
Firefly‘s debut model will be introduced in Thailand, another right-hand drive country — as first reported by the local blog ChinaEVHome.
Recently, a right-hand drive configuration of Firefly’s debut model was spotted at the company’s UK engineering facilities — hinting at its entry into key markets like the UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.
Nio co-founder and president Qin Lihong said in April that Singapore would be among the first destinations for the company’s RHD vehicles.
“Right-hand drive is a sizeable market, and we will be ready to build cars for the market,” Qin said at a media briefing. “We will continue to go global with our Firefly and Onvo brands.”
Nio is expected to enter the Hong Kong market in the fourth quarter of this year, adopting the same distributor model used in Macau, according to a June report by local outlet Lanjinger.
At the same event over the weekend, Nio announced that Firefly‘s debut model will have a “long-range” variant — with a larger battery capable of delivering around 500 to 600 km (310 to 372 miles).
After unveiling the first details ahead of the Belgium launch late last month, the company has recently launched a local website in Austria for its mass-market sub-brand Firefly.
Both Nio and Firefly brands will be introduced in Austria, Portugal, Belgium and Hungary before year-end, followed by Romania, Armenia, Czechia, Poland and Luxembourg in 2026.
