Written by Cláudio Afonso | info@claudio-afonso.com | LinkedIn | Twitter
The Chinese EV maker NIO is planning to launch another sub-brand aiming at the low-cost segment with a price range between $14,800 and $29,608, local media 36kr reported on Monday.
According to rumors, the codename of the project is “Firefly” and when the CEO of NIO was asked to comment he said, “There is no news to say at this time.”
Just like “Alps” — the codename for NIO’s sub-brand already confirmed by the EV maker — the third brand will operate independently and is currently recruiting a core team, said the local media citing people familiar with the matter.
Last June — during the Q1 2022 Conference call — NIO said its plan is “to start the delivery of the products of the mass market brand starting from the second half of 2024” with a price range from $29,600 to $44,413.
“Of course, the mass market brand products will also support battery swapping and we are going to use our in-house development and manufacture the batteries for the mass market brand product,” NIO said.
At an event held last week with NIO users held in Fuzhou, China, the CEO William Li said the company is progressing with the NIO phone business aiming to launch a new phone every year like Apple while assuming the biggest challenge is to create a mobile phone easy to use.
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Last month, NIO delivered 12,961 units (up 60.3% year-over-year) including 1,684 ES8s, 5,100 ES6s, and 1,828 EC6s, and 4,349 ET7 sedans.
Last Friday, NIO signed an agreement with the Hungarian Government in order to set up its 10,000 square meters plant in the country, the first one outside China. The plant will serve as the “manufacturing, service and R&D center for the brand’s Power products and services in Europe with the main activities being production and after-sales service for battery switching stations, training of NIO employees and R&D in energy applications”, NIO said.
The factory will be located at Biatorbágy and is planned to produce 240 battery swap stations in this facility per year aiming to have 4,000 in operation worldwide by 2025, according to local media.
Earlier in the day, NIO’s senior vice president Zeng Shuxiang unveiled that the company rolled out the first electric drive system C sample for the upcoming ET5 model at NEO Park. NIO VP also stated that the EV maker “is one of the very few companies in the world with a full-stack self-developed and manufactured electric drive system and the only automaker with independent forward R&D capabilities”.
At an event with NIO users held recently in Fuzhou, China, the CEO William Li said the company is progressing with the NIO phone business. According to the blogger 德卤爱开车, Li said the company aims to launch a new phone every year like Apple while assuming the biggest challenge is to create a mobile phone easy to use.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | info@claudio-afonso.com | LinkedIn | Twitter