Firefly, the sub-brand launched by Chinese electric carmaker Nio to compete in the small-car segment, delivered its first vehicles to European customers on Thursday.
Although the company has yet to announce the start of deliveries, EV learned that the initial handovers in the Netherlands took place at the Nio Hub in Utrecht, about 52 km from Amsterdam.
In Norway — Nio‘s first overseas market in 2021 — customers received their vehicles at the company’s Stavanger and Oslo stores.
Prices start at NOK 279,900 ($27,371) in Norway and €29,900 ($34,800) in the Netherlands.
As the Scandinavian country is not a member of the European Union, Firefly avoids the 20% additional tariff imposed by the European Commission on Chinese-made EVs following its decision to take action against what it described as “unfair subsidisation” of the sector by Beijing.
The B-segment model is 4,003 mm long, 1,885 mm wide and 1,557 mm high, with a wheelbase of 2,615 mm. It accelerates from 0–100 km/h in 8.1 seconds and has a top speed of 150 km/h.
The number of units delivered on Thursday was not disclosed.
Data from EU-EVs show that Nio registered seven Firefly vehicles in both Norway and the Netherlands in the six weeks to mid-August.
In June, six units were registered in the Netherlands ahead of a July 7 start for customer test drives.
Last month, members of Firefly’s European product development team completed a 6,000-kilometre road trip across 11 cities, including Berlin, Milan, Paris and Amsterdam, as part of pre-launch activities.
The brand plans to expand to 12 additional European markets by the end of next year via local distributors, including Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Denmark, Austria, Hungary, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Romania and Poland.
Designed at Nio’s global design centre in Munich, Firefly was unveiled in December 2024 as the brand’s most affordable model, targeting rivals such as BMW’s Mini and Mercedes-Benz’s Smart.
The European version features handling, suspension and steering adjustments to suit local preferences.
Production takes place at one of Nio’s two plants in Hefei, Anhui province. Output was disrupted last month, resulting in a sequential drop in deliveries.
Firefly delivered 2,366 vehicles in China in July, down 39.8% from June, bringing cumulative deliveries since launch to 10,209 units.
While Nio has not confirmed any production issues, Firefly’s head of marketing said on July 22 that earlier ramp-up problems had been resolved and forecast a new monthly delivery record in August as Hefei output increases.
