Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
After two and a half years of preparation, Nio founder and CEO William Li officially launched on Saturday the group’s third brand — Firefly. At Nio Day 2024, the company’s annual event, Firefly unveiled a fully electric hatchback with pre-sales starting immediately.
With a pre-sale price of 148,800 yuan—equivalent to $20,400— reservations for the compact model can be made at the brand’s app. Deliveries start in China in April 2025 while Europe will follow later in the year.
Firefly will focus on the high-end small car segment, competing with BMW’s Mini and Mercedes-Benz Smart brands, William Li said in a recent media briefing an repeated on Staurday.
“firefly leverages Nio’s decade-long expertise in premium and aims to exceed expectations in design, safety, space, intelligence, and energy efficiency,” the company said in a statement.
The EV maker says inspiration for its third brand “comes from fireflies” citing “small, agile and buzzing with energy, symbolising freedom to move and being different.” The logo, which was unveiled earlier this week, represents “a flying and glowing firefly illustrating the brand’s spirit: freedom to glow.”
Firefly is set to debut in China in the first half of next year, followed by a European launch later in the year, according to Nio President Daniel Jin. On Friday, a Nio spokesperson told EV that a report by Automotive News Europe claiming the launch of Nio’s first sub-brand, Onvo, in the UK market in early 2025 is false.
Unlike Nio’s other sub-brand, Onvo, which plans to offer a total of three models from the last quarter of next year, Firefly will focus on a single performance-oriented product, according to a recent report from the media outlet ITHome.
In early November, Nio’s Co-Founder and President, Lihong Qin, dismissed a report by the Chinese outlet Yicai that claimed Firefly would launch an extended-range electric vehicle (EREV) in 2026.
Nio aims to enter at least 25 global markets by the end of next year while doubling sales to over 440,000 units with Firefly planned to be one of the major contributors.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
