The head of product for Europe at Firefly, the entry-level marque of Chinese EV maker Nio, has left the company, according to a post on LinkedIn on Friday.
Peter Seitz, who was based in Munich, said Friday was his final day at the company after about three years, writing that “today marks my last working day as a NIOer.”
Seitz did not disclose his next role, saying he was leaving with lasting relationships and looking ahead to what comes next.
“As I close this chapter after three incredible years, I look back with immense gratitude and pride. It has been a truly rewarding journey filled with exciting challenges, valuable lessons and countless unforgettable moments,” he wrote.
Seitz joined Nio in August 2023, tasked with product definition and product marketing for Firefly in Europe.
He arrived from Opel, the German brand owned by Stellantis, where he had spent more than a decade, latterly as head of product marketing for passenger cars.
Firefly is a brand designed at the company’s Munich studio and positioned against small premium models such as the MINI and Smart.
The marque was developed largely from scratch with Europe as its focus market.
Built for Europe, Blunted by Tariffs
The timing underscores the gap between Firefly‘s ambitions in Europe and its results there.
The European Commission imposed additional countervailing tariffs in October 2024 on battery electric vehicles imported from China.
For Nio, this raised the total import duty from the standard 10% to approximately 31% (10% base duty + ~21% additional duty), forcing the company to pass on much of the increased cost to European buyers.
That pushed Firefly‘s European price to about €30,000, close to double its Chinese starting point of 119,800 yuan.
June Registrations
Firefly registered just five vehicles in the Netherlands in June, accounting for five of Nio‘s six registrations in the market, extending a pattern of single-digit monthly demand that has defined 2026.
In Norway, which sits outside the European Union and levies no such tariff, the picture is stronger but still modest, with Firefly accounting for 27 of Nio’s 44 registrations in June, where the car is priced from 279,900 Norwegian kroner, or about $28,200.
Those figures sit against a broader European retreat, with Nio registering only 74 vehicles across Europe in May, as new-market launches masked a stalled core.
A Contrast With China
The European weakness stands in sharp relief against Firefly‘s home-market momentum.
The marque delivered 6,946 vehicles globally in June, its strongest month of the year, up 76.7% from a year earlier and 22.7% from May, with the bulk of that volume in China.
First-half deliveries reached 29,172, a 271.9% jump that made Firefly the fastest-growing of the group’s three brands over the period, though from the smallest base.
The near-quadrupling flatters a young nameplate, since Firefly began customer deliveries only in April 2025, leaving the year-earlier half with barely three months of sales.
To sustain interest around a single model, the brand has leaned on limited-run special editions, selling out a 333-unit special edition in under eight hours in China.
The divergence leaves Firefly thriving where it was not primarily designed to sell, and stalling in the region it was built for.
Group Under Its Own Guidance
Nio delivered 40,597 vehicles across its three brands in June, its best month of 2026, closing a second quarter of 107,658 units that came in 2,342 below the 110,000-to-115,000 range the company guided to in March.
The family-oriented Onvo sub-brand delivered 11,743 vehicles in June, up 83.5% from a year earlier, while the premium Nio marque carried the balance.
Chief Executive William Li outlined a long-term brand mix in late May under which Firefly would account for 10% of group sales, against 55% for Onvo and 35% for the main brand.
That framing casts Firefly as the group’s entry-level growth layer rather than a swing factor, adding incremental volume toward a full-year target of 456,000 to 489,000 vehicles, the range implied by 40% to 50% growth on 2025’s 326,028 units.
Europe Push
Firefly remains central to Nio‘s overseas plans as its most export-ready nameplate, with the brand holding to targets that include a presence in 20 to 30 countries and entries into Australia and New Zealand during 2026.
The company has also shifted its European approach, moving from direct sales toward national distributors outside Norway, and has publicly defended its commitment to the continent after reporting that it called unnuanced.
Firefly brand chief Daniel Jin has acknowledged that early-2026 sales fell short of expectations while maintaining the expansion targets.
