Firefly is positioned in the boutique compact car market and leverages existing sales channels to drive growth, Nio said in a statement.
Nio (NYSE: NIO) officially unveiled its third brand, Firefly, saying in a statement that the first product will share the sub-brand's name.
Firefly is positioned in the boutique compact car market and is designed to further expand Nio's portfolio and leverage existing sales channels to effectively drive growth, the statement said.
The Firefly is to Nio a symbol of innovation and sophistication in a smaller package, the electric vehicle (EV) maker said.
With Nio's decade-long expertise in the premium EV market, Firefly will exceed customer expectations in terms of design, safety, space, intelligence and energy efficiency, ushering in a new era of smart EVs for the global compact car market, Nio said.
The Firefly brand will be officially launched at Nio Day 2024 on December 21 and its first model is set for delivery in the first half of 2025, the company said.
Earlier today, Nio's management said during the company's third quarter earnings call that Nio's third brand is officially named under the internal codename Firefly, with the first model having the same name as the brand, which is also Firefly.
The naming of Firefly's first model after the brand takes a page from BMW's sub-brand Mini, as well as Geely and Mercedes-Benz joint venture Smart, both of which named their first models with the brand name.
Starting next year Nio will enter a new product cycle with new product deliveries under the Onvo and Firefly brands and the company will enter a faster growth phase, Nio's management said.
For Nio Inc's efforts to expand into global markets, Onvo and Firefly will take on a larger role, according to Nio's earnings call.
In an interview with local media earlier this year in May, Nio co-founder and president Qin Lihong said Firefly's products were ready, but the launch of the new brand's model had been delayed until the second quarter of 2025, given the overall brand sequence.
On November 1, a local media report said that the Firefly would feature an extended-range hybrid powertrain and the product is expected to be launched in 2026, the company said. However this was subsequently denied by Nio.
Later the same day, Reuters reported that Nio would develop extended-range hybrids under the Firefly sub-brand, but would only sell them to overseas markets.
This stemmed from suggestions by Abu Dhabi-based investment firm CYVN Holdings, a major investor in Nio, that the move could boost sales in the Middle East market, where infrastructure is not yet ready for large-scale adoption of EVs, according to Reuters.
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