Nio has been trying to acquire customers from BMW, Mercedes and Audi in Europe for a year now, but that hasn't really gone smoothly yet. While Nio sold 223 cars in the Netherlands until November of this year, BMW sold almost 3,000 copies of the i4, Audi sold 1,348 units of the Q8 e-tron and 634 new Mercedes EQEs found an owner. To boost the numbers, Nio is launching a sub-brand.
In order not to tarnish Nio's 'premium' name, two cheap EV brands are being founded. Nio does not want to name the final names yet, but for now the unborn brands will be called Firefly and Alps. In a world with brand names like 'Build Your Dreams', it's not so bad. With these two brands, Nio also wants to help people with a smaller wallet get an electric car.
Nio chairman Lihong Qin talk to some journalists about the upcoming brands. “Firefly is going to give us smaller cars, but with advanced technology,” says Qin. According to him, Firefly is 'designed and developed for Europe'. The competitors? Volkswagen, BYD and Renault. Firefly specifically targets the electric hatchbacks costing 25,000 euros: the Volkswagen ID.2, Renault Twingo and BYD Dolphin.
The other cheap EV brand is targeting Tesla
Nio wants to go in a different direction with Alps. In terms of positioning, the brand will be positioned between Nio and Firefly. Qin says that Alps will build two models that are direct rivals to the Tesla Model Y and Model 3. According to Electrek the first cars should cost between 25,500 euros and 38,500 euros in China. Alps should start sales in Europe in the third quarter of 2024.
What should give Nio's cheap EV brands an extra push in the right direction are Nio's switching stations. The Chinese brand is working on a new version of the stations. Smaller batteries can also be exchanged. This way, Volvos, Polestar and soon also cars from Firefly and Alps can exchange their batteries.
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