Nio‘s sub-brand Onvo has resumed development of two new models in the 200,000-yuan ($28,900) price segment, as the Shanghai-based company aims to revive demand for its family-oriented marque.
Sources close to the project told Chinese media outlet LatePost on Friday that the brand is developing a sedan and an SUV, which will join the existing L60 and L90 SUVs in its lineup.
The new models will target small families while also catering to commercial use cases.
Both models had previously been planned but were shelved early last year when Nio introduced its Cell Business Unit (CBU) restructuring — aiming to shift Nio from a budget-driven model to a performance-oriented structure.
The sources now state that development resumed at the end of August.
The lineup expansion comes amid a wave of senior design departures earlier this year.
Raul Pires, Nio‘s Vice President of Design for the Onvo sub-brand, has recently left the company and joined Ford Motor Co. in China.
Pires had led design strategy for the L60, L90, and the upcoming L80, and previously spent twelve years at Bentley as Head of Exterior Design.
His exit came just days after Onvo‘s exterior design director Benwadih Adil departed the company — after nearly ten years in Nio‘s design team.
It remains unclear what roles they played in shaping the two newly reported models.
Kris Tomasson remains as Senior Vice President of Design for Nio Group, responsible for the main Nio brand and the Firefly sub-brand.
Brand Relation
Nio started last year rethinking how its three brands share infrastructure.
In the early days, the company placed greater emphasis on keeping Onvo separate from its premium marque.
During the marketing campaign for the L60 in 2024, the team deliberately played down features and technologies shared with Nio vehicles.
“There was concern that over-emphasising those capabilities would affect perceptions of the main brand,” a source told LatePost.
That approach began to change ahead of the L90’s launch.
Last May, 36Kr reported that Nio was reorganizing its structure, folding the Onvo and Firefly business units into its various operating clusters, with William Li (CEO) and Lihong Qin (President) taking direct responsibility for Onvo‘s R&D and sales, respectively.
The report came shortly after Onvo replaced former brand chief Alan Ai with Fei Shen — a Nio veteran who previously served as Senior VP of Nio’s energy segment — after the brand consecutively failed to meet sales targets.
While marketing the new L90 SUV, Nio resumed highlighting platform-level capabilities shared between the brands.
The new ES8 and the Onvo L90 share a rear electric drive unit — a level of cross-brand transparency that would have been avoided a year earlier.
Additionally, the company began showcasing Onvo’s L60 in its premium Nio Houses and Nio Spaces across China last year.
The Shanghai-based Group has opened its first multi-brand store — combining the Nio, Onvo, and Firefly brands — earlier this year as part of a broader push to increase demand for its sub-brands in lower-tier markets.
Sales Figures
The sales performance of the Onvo L90 after its July launch and the strong market response to the third-generation ES8 during its pre-sale period were the direct triggers for both projects being revived, according to LatePost‘s sources.
Despite having added a second model to its lineup last August, Nio‘s family-oriented sub-brand recorded its two worst monthly delivery figures since its deliveries commenced in September 2024.
The Onvo L90, available in both six- and seven-seat configurations, was launched in late July.
The company started deliveries of the model on August 1 across 44 Chinese cities.
After early signs of strong demand due to a lower-than-expected price, Onvo delivered over 10,000 monthly units of the model between August and October.
Deliveries peaked in October with 11,722 units. However, the figures were nearly halved in November and have been plunging since.
The L90 now represents less vehicles sold per month than the debut L60.
Throughout the past month, the brand has rolled out aggressive financial incentives to boost demand.
It also revived the previously limited-run ‘Black Knight’ edition of the L60.
First released in December — after a similar edition debuted for the L90 SUV in November — it will now be offered as a regular option.
The EV maker further expanded its subscription-based vehicle offer — previously only available for the Firefly EV — to the Onvo models.
Onvo L80
The L80 — first expected to be a separate model, and then revealed to be a five-seat version of the L90 SUV — is on track to be unveiled in mid-April.
Co-founder and President Qin Lihong outlined the updated timeline, stating that “sometime around April 20th, there will be a comprehensive product and technology launch event.”
The event will coincide with the Beijing Auto Show running from April 24 to May 3.
Deliveries are expected to begin in mid-May, around the anniversary of the brand’s launch, celebrated on May 15 (World Family Day).
At an offline event, Onvo‘s brand chief Shen Fei revealed that the L80 will be available in both pure-vision and LiDAR versions — unlike the L60, which would initially remain vision-only.
However, contrary to what the brand chief previously said, Onvo might be releasing a LiDAR version for the debut L60.
The model was featured in a catalogue from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology earlier last month.
