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(Text/Zhang Jiadong Editor/Gao Xin)

On July 21, foreign automotive media motor.es disclosed a set of spy photos of the hatchback model of "Firefly", the third sub-brand of NIO.

Firefly new car European road test spy photos motor.es

According to NIO's plan, the Firefly brand will be positioned in the entry-level, younger market, similar to the BMW Group's "MINI Cooper" brand, and will mainly target the Chinese and European markets.

In January 2023, NIO President Qin Lihong revealed information about the third sub-brand Firefly for the first time at an offline event, saying that the brand will focus on the small car and micro car market with a price range of 100,000 to 200,000 yuan. At that time, Qin Lihong expected this affordable electric car to be launched in the European Union in the third quarter of 2024.

But in May this year, when NIO’s second sub-brand Ledao was launched, Qin Lihong changed his words and said that although the Firefly project was ready, its release time had been postponed to the second quarter of 2025.

motor.es

It is generally believed that NIO was focusing on increasing sales at the time, so its investment focus was more inclined towards the newly listed Ledao brand.

However, according to a report by the US automotive media electrek, in June this year, NIO changed its plan again and will speed up the initial launch of the Firefly brand in China.

It is reported that Firefly brand models are expected to be launched in China first at the end of this year, which will be earlier than their launch in the European Union in 2025.

In March this year, NIO CEO Li Bin said in a live video broadcast in China that Firefly is to NIO what MINI is to BMW. He said that although the Firefly brand focuses on small cars, it will be built according to European five-star safety standards and support battery swapping.

CnEVPost stated in a related report that the reason why NIO decided to launch the first Firefly model in China may be related to the fierce competition in China's electric vehicle market.

The report said that both Ledao and Firefly aim to help NIO relieve the pressure of the "price war" so that the NIO brand can focus more on the high-end market. Unlike the Ledao brand, which is priced at 200,000 yuan, Firefly's price positioning is just in the market where electric vehicles are the best-selling and most in demand in China.

Cui Dongshu Official Account

According to the "Passenger Car Market Model Trends in June" recently released by Cui Dongshu, Secretary-General of the China Passenger Car Association, on his personal social platform, micro-cars in China's auto market have once again shown a growth in sales since the beginning of this year. Due to the replacement of fuel vehicles by electric vehicles and the improvement of consumer awareness and demand, the demand for more sophisticated micro-electric vehicles is expanding.

The Firefly brand, which focuses on micro and small electric vehicles, is indeed expected to get a share of the domestic market in advance.

In addition, CnEVPost mentioned the impact of EU tariffs on the Firefly brand in another report. In the report, Li Bin said that even if the EU imposes additional tariffs, the new brand can still have a place in Europe. "We certainly don't want to impose so many additional tariffs in the end, but if the final decision is that, then for the Firefly brand, even with these additional tariffs, it will still be competitive in Europe."

In response to the current wave of Chinese automakers building factories in Europe, Li Bin said that if the production reaches about 100,000 vehicles, NIO may consider producing electric vehicles in Europe, but he also pointed out that "the initial production may not be enough to support (factory construction), which is not cost-effective."

According to data from market research firm Dataforce, NIO sold 2,404 vehicles in Europe last year. However, since NIO also has a "subscription-based" service in Europe, the actual number of vehicles operated by NIO in Europe may deviate from the statistical results of third parties.

Earlier this year, NIO told Observer.com that it has currently deployed 43 battery swap stations and 46 charging piles in Europe, connected to more than 500,000 third-party charging piles, and built the "Power Journeys｜Rhine Valley Line" charging scenic route between the cities of Rotterdam and Munich.

What can be confirmed at present is that the Firefly brand will still be able to adopt NIO’s battery swap “special service” to ensure the continuity of its brand influence, but its future sales model in Europe will be different from that of the current NIO brand.

Marius Hayler, former general manager of NIO's German market, said in an interview with Norwegian media: "Regarding Firefly, NIO's four European markets (Norway, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands) are free to choose their own distribution model."

This article is an exclusive article of Observer.com and may not be reproduced without authorization.