Firefly's mobile app has seen cumulative user registrations reach six figures 72 hours after it went live, with a significant increase in the percentage of new users from outside the Nio community.
Nio (NYSE: NIO) sub-brand Firefly is gaining widespread buzz in China, which is expected to pave the way for it to expand potential customer base.
Firefly's mobile app has reached six figures in cumulative user registrations 72 hours after going online, CnEVPost has learned exclusively from a person familiar with the matter.
Of those registrations, users of Nio and its other sub-brand Onvo, make up a significantly lower percentage than when the Firefly app first launched, the source said.
The source did not disclose further details. For reference, the Nio App has more than 13.5 million cumulative registered users and currently has more than 2.66 million monthly active users, William Li, the company's founder, chairman, and CEO, said at the December 21 Nio Day 2024 event.
The Firefly App became available on December 18 at around 9 am Beijing time. The information revealed by the source means that the Firefly App has already gained hundreds of thousands of registered users as of around 9 am Beijing time on December 21.
Nio Day 2024 began at 7 pm Beijing time on December 21, where Nio officially launched the Firefly brand and had the sub-brand's first model -- which shares the brand's name -- unveiled.
Firefly went on pre-sales at RMB 148,800 ($20,390) on Nio Day 2024, and Nio's executive flagship sedan, the ET9, was also officially launched at the event, with a starting price of RMB 788,000 yuan.
Chinese customers can reserve the Firefly model by paying a RMB 199 reservation deposit and receive a RMB 2,000 discount on the purchase of the car.
Nio has not announced pre-sales orders for the Firefly model, as it has previously done for not annoucing order intakes for all its other models.
The Firefly model sparked an unprecedented amount of buzz in the Chinese community after its debut not seen on any other Nio model, mainly because of its unique headlight design.
Firefly's trio of headlight design, unlike any other mainstream EV models, made it difficult for some to accept, while others loved the originality.
On mainstream Chinese social media platforms, Firefly has become a trending topic because of its headlight design. It's a controversy, but it's made people who weren't otherwise paying attention to the model start to learn about it.
Deutsche Bank analyst Wang Bin's team seems to be among those who dislike the design.
“We are relatively conservative on Firefly sales outlook due to its unique exterior design, and expect the product to sell 1,500 unit per month, below the company's forecast of monthly several thousand units,” the team said in a December 23 research note.
They expect monthly sales for the Nio ET9 also to be 1,500 units.
Nio to launch Firefly's 1st model in Europe in H1 2025, says William Li
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