Nio Group‘s exclusive distributor in Portugal is planning to open its first two showrooms dedicated to both Nio and Firefly brands in the country’s two largest cities.
Grupo JAP and Nio hosted the media launch event in Lisbon earlier this week, introducing both brands of the group to the Portuguese market.
Onvo, the third brand that was launched in China in May 2024, has not yet been announced for any European market.
Portugal Pricing
Nio revealed pricing for its models at the launch event held last Monday outside Lisbon.
Its ET5 sedan starts at €59,900 ($69,500) for the standard range version and €69,900 ($81,100) for the long-range variant. The station wagon ET5 Touring is priced from €62,500 for the standard range and €72,500 for the long-range model.
The five-seat SUV Nio EL6 starts at €66,900 for the standard range and €76,900 for the long-range version.
The hatchback Firefly city car will be priced at €29,900 ($34,700) for the Select trim and €31,490 for the Comfort trim until the year end.
Starting from January 1, the entry-level variant will start at €30,900 ($35,800) while the higher one will begin at €32.490. All prices include VAT.
The model will rival BYD’s Dolphin model, which starts at €31,968 with VAT also included and Renault 5, which is priced from €24,900.
First Stores
EV learned on Friday that both stores are planned to open in the second half of December.
Additionally, final preparations on the Porto showroom will take place in mid-December. The store will be located just west of Porto’s city center and close to BYD’s showroom.
European Expansion Momentum
The Portugal showroom openings are part of the European expansion push after the Shanghai-headquartered company first arrived on the Old Continent in 2021 via Norway.
In early November, Nio’s partner AutoWallis held its launch event in Vienna, officially marking the start of orders and test drives of the Nio ET5, ET5 Touring, EL6 and the new Firefly model in Austria.
In Denmark, the first car after the re-launch in the Nordic market has been delivered by local distributor Nic. Christiansen Group. Orders began and test drives started on October 12.
In Greece, partner Motodynamics held a launch event in early November, announcing the start of orders and test drives.
In Belgium, deliveries have also already started through the local distributor Hedin Automotive Car Import. In addition to the other four models, Belgium has also launched the EL8, a luxury six-seater model, as part of its commercial offering.
Nio and Firefly were formally introduced at the GoElectric event in Luxembourg City on October 10 by Hedin Automotive Car Import, establishing the brand’s presence in the country.
At the event, the EV maker started accepting orders and providing test drives of the Nio ET5, ET5 Touring, EL6 and the new Firefly model in the strategic market.
Battery Swapping Tech
None of the new European markets have announced the deployment of battery swap stations or the option of buying the vehicle while leasing the battery — as done in the first five markets Nio expanded to.
Earlier this year, the company’s founder and CEO William Li had stated that each distributor would be able to define if and how many stations they would deploy in their market.
Last week, Firefly‘s chief Daniel Jin mentioned in a media roundtable attended by EV in Shenzhen that the company is in talks with the Hong Kong distributor to build “three to five” stations, which would allow it to cover the whole area.
Jin continued by encouraging Singapore’s distributor to build the same number of stations across the country.
“The current power swap stations cannot support Firefly. Only the next generation power swap station, which will be available early next year (…) With that, Firefly will be supported in China,” the brand’s chief stated.
The pilots for the fifth generation battery swap stations are scheduled to begin in late December in China with mass production starting early next year.
