- The Firefly project was set up with a view to the global markets rather than focusing on a single market.
- This is not just a consideration from the perspective of sales potential, but the times have changed, the president of Firefly said.
The head of Nio's (NYSE: NIO) third brand Firefly today officially announced the launch date of the brand's first model, emphasizing that the brand will target international markets.
Firefly's first model will be officially launched on April 19, the brand's president Daniel Jin said today on Weibo, repeating the timing he mentioned on the Firefly App last week.
Jin shared a video on Weibo in which he and two members of the team talked more about the brand.
Making small cars for users around the world is Firefly's original intention, said Jin, who is a veteran in the automotive industry and had worked at SAIC-GM for more than 10 years.
"When we first set up the project, we didn't just focus on a single market, but rather set our sights on the global markets," Jin said.
This is not just a consideration from the perspective of sales potential, but the times have changed, he said.
"It's the era of new energy-vehicles (NEVs) and intelligent electrification, which is refreshing every market segment, and it seems that the small car sector has not yet been covered," Jin said.
The team hopes that in the future, when people talk about small cars, Firefly will become a brand that users around the world will definitely talk about, Jin said.
Globally, 15 million small cars are sold each year, compared with about 20 million passenger cars sold each year in China, Tina Wang, head of product experience at Firefly, said in the video.
At the beginning of the Firefly project, the team researched more than 40 cities in 17 countries, including China, and spent more than two months in Europe, according to Wang.
The team found that poor materials and insufficient safety are the focus of complaints from small car users, according to Wang.
Firefly hopes to win the favor of users with better materials and higher safety, Wang said.
Firefly's first model comes standard with nine airbags, a safety feature only found on models like the BMW 7 Series and the Nio ET9, according to the team.
It is worth noting that in October 2024, the European Commission ended its anti-subsidy investigation against Chinese battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and decided to impose additional tariffs.
Nio faces an additional tariff of 20.7 percent, bringing its tariff rate in the EU to 30.7 percent.
In a user communication last June, Nio founder, chairman and CEO William Li said that Europe's move to raise tariffs was wrong, but even so, Firefly would still be competitive in Europe.
Nio officially launched the Firefly brand on Nio Day 2024 on December 21, 2024, to challenge the BMW Mini and Mercedes-Benz Smart, with an eye on the global markets.
The first model of Firefly, which is named after the sub-brand, is positioned as a high-end boutique car.
Pre-orders for the compact BEV model began in China on Nio Day 2024, with a pre-sales price of RMB 148,800 ($20,510), and it would be officially launched in April, Nio said at the time.
The model is equipped with a 42.1-kWh battery pack and has a CLTC range of 420 kilometers.
On March 18, Jin said on the Firefly App that the brand's first model would be officially launched on April 19 and will use Nio's battery swap stations instead of CATL's stations.
Earlier that day, Nio announced that it had reached an agreement with CATL to jointly create the world's largest battery swap service network.
In the early days of the launch of Firefly's first model, Nio would set up demonstration battery swap stations in cities with high user density, according to Jin.
In the future, the model will be connected to Nio's fifth-generation battery swap stations, thus integrating into Nio's battery swap system, Jin said last week.
($1 = RMB 7.2535)
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