- Firefly plans to complete its launch in 16 overseas countries and regions this year.
- The right-hand drive version of Firefly will be ready no later than October of this year.
Nio’s (NYSE: NIO) third brand Firefly has started deliveries in China as planned, after launching its first electric vehicle (EV) model 10 days ago.
Firefly shared several images of the vehicles being delivered to their first owners on its mobile app today.
Nio founder, chairman, and CEO William Li attended a delivery ceremony in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, and Firefly’s president Daniel Jin attended another in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.
Firefly’s first model, which shares its name with the brand, was officially launched in China on April 19 to take on the BMW Mini and Mercedes-Benz Smart.
Firefly starts at RMB 119,800 ($16,470) in China, including the battery pack.
Like Nio’s other models, Firefly supports battery swap, which means it can utilize a BaaS (battery as a service) battery rental purchase program to make the barrier to purchase lower.
The BaaS program won’t be available for Firefly until August 1, though.
Under the BaaS program, consumers will be able to purchase only the vehicle body and rent a battery pack, which is expected to lower the barrier to purchase by tens of thousands of yuan.
Nio originally planned to launch the Firefly in Europe first, but higher tariffs forced it to change its strategy.
In response to a question from CnEVPost at a media roundtable in Shanghai on April 22, Nio co-founder and president Qin Lihong said Firefly would choose the right time between June and August to launch its first model in Europe.
By the end of this year, Firefly would be in about 20 overseas markets, Qin said.
The right-hand drive version of Firefly will be ready no later than October this year and will first be available in markets including the UK and Southeast Asia, Qin said at the time.
On April 23, Li said on the first day of the 2025 Shanghai auto show that Firefly will complete its launch in 16 overseas countries and regions this year.
The model will have different sales strategies and pricing in different countries to suit the consumer demand and policy environment in different countries and regions, Li said at the time.
At the ongoing Shanghai auto show, Firefly cars are displayed in the same booth as the Nio brand, whose other sub-brand, Onvo, has a separate stand.
($1 = RMB 7.2732)
Nio management said orders for Firefly were in line with expectations, and as before avoided talking about specific numbers.
