Nio Inc.‘s founder and CEO William Li expects Onvo to become the group’s majority seller, targeting the sub-brand to eventually account for 55% of total vehicle sales under a long-term 35-55-10 brand mix.
The comments were made in a media briefing, less than 48 hours after the company reported its first-quarter earnings call.
During the session, Li stressed that the breakdown refers only to volume structure and does not represent revenue or profit distribution across the group.
Focusing on Firefly, the founder highlighted that the sub-brand should remain “small and distinctive” rather than chase the high-volume territory typical of low-cost compact cars.
The company is not aiming for the 30,000-to-40,000-monthly-unit range typical of mainstream low-cost compact cars, he said.
Lifting deliveries from the current 5,000–6,000 units per month to around 8,000–9,000 — equivalent to roughly 100,000 vehicles annually — would already be considered a strong result.
The 100,000-unit figure echoes a target previously laid out by Firefly brand chief Daniel Jin, aligning the CEO’s positioning with the operational goalpost the brand has already been working toward.
Refresh Already in Deliveries
During the earnings call itself, Li framed Firefly‘s near-term roadmap around the recently launched refresh of the hatchback — which added new ADAS features and a power upgrade over the original iteration.
“For the Firefly brand, the refreshed model has already started the deliveries in Q2, bringing comprehensive upgrades in powertrain performance and smart experiences,” Li told analysts.
The refreshed Firefly now delivers 120 kW of peak motor power — up from 105 kW — trimming its 0-100 km/h sprint to 7.9 seconds.
According to the group’s chief executive, “going forward, Firefly will continue to introduce limited additional models to further strengthen its distinctive brand identity.”
The reference to “limited” additional models is consistent with the restraint Li described in the media briefing, and points to a product cadence closer to that of a boutique brand than a mass-market compact-car maker.
He had stated earlier this month that Nio does not have any upcoming models planned for the sub-brand besides its debut Firefly EV.
Market Share
Li also used the earnings call to defend Firefly‘s pricing strategy, which positions the hatchback well above the bulk of the Chinese A0-segment EV field.
Firefly “has achieved two-thirds of the market share in the high-end small car market,” he revealed, adding that “its average selling price is around 50% higher than other small car competitors.”
“But in terms of its design, safety and also build quality, it is providing our users with sufficient value and also creating sufficient user value for them,” he noted.
The framing echoes Li’s earlier comparison of Firefly‘s appeal to that of Apple’s iPhone in a bid for broader reach, where he argued that premium positioning in a high-volume segment can support sustainable margins without chasing scale.
The premium pricing approach is also what Firefly‘s overseas push has carried into Europe, where the hatchback starts at €29,900 — nearly double its Chinese price after the EU’s additional 21% tariff on Chinese-made EVs imposed in October 2024.
Domestic Momentum
Firefly announced over the weekend that it has delivered its 60,000th vehicle worldwide.
Considering monthly figures provided by the group, the milestone suggests the brand delivered 4,023 in the first 23 days of May, a pace consistent with the 5,000–6,000 monthly run rate Li cited.
Still, the figures run way below the 100,000-unit annual target.
For deliveries to grow sequentially, Firefly needs to deliver nearly 1,000 vehicles in the final eight days of May — an increase of over 20% from the current daily run rate.
Through the first four months of 2026, Firefly has handed over 16,563 vehicles domestically, and the implied May total — even if it surpasses April — would leave the brand short of the monthly run rate needed to close the gap.
Firefly brand chief Daniel Jin acknowledged in March that domestic sales had fallen “considerably” in early 2026, while maintaining the brand’s 2026 expansion goals of operating in 20 to 30 countries by year-end.
The brand also recently gained access to Nio’s battery swap network through a software update, connecting Firefly owners to the more than 3,800 swap stations operated across China — an integration the company had promised at the hatchback’s launch.
Volume Distribution
Through the first four months of 2026, the Shanghai-based EV maker delivered 112,821 vehicles globally across its three brands — a 71% increase year-over-year and equivalent to between 23.1%–24.7% of the company’s full-year target of 456,000 to 489,000 units.
The brand split over the January-to-April period sits well above Li’s long-term 3:6:1 ratio for the Nio main brand.
It accounted for 77,567 deliveries, or roughly 68.8% of group volume — nearly double its eventual 35% target share.
Onvo contributed 18,691 units, or about 16.6%, far short of the 55% slice Li described as the brand’s long-term destination.
The family-oriented sub-brand celebrated its second anniversary earlir this month and has recently unveiled its third model, a five seat SUV named L80.
Firefly delivered 16,563 vehicles, or 14.7% of the total — already above the 10% share assigned to it in the long-term mix.
The current distribution reflects the maturity gap between the three brands.
The Nio main brand has been on sale since 2018 and is anchored by the third-generation ES8, which alone accounted for 44.4% of group deliveries in April.
Onvo began deliveries in September 2024 and is still in the middle of its product ramp, with the L80 set to enter the market alongside the ES9 to lift second-half volumes.
The group’s CEO reaffirmed last week that Onvo has a brand awareness problem.
Firefly only started deliveries on April 29, 2025, making the January-to-April 2026 period its first full four-month stretch on sale.
Earlier this year, Nio opened its first multi-brand store in China as part of a brand awareness push for both its sub-brands Onvo and Firefly.
