In a latest interview with media in Europe, NIO co-founder and president Lihong Qin confirmed the Chinese language automaker intends to launch its family-friendly Firefly sub-brand out there in 2025. This newest replace follows almost two years of hypothesis concerning the Firefly model, along with a separate NIO sub-brand known as Alps, each of which ought to be a part of the EU markets.

It was mid-2021 when EV automaker NIO publicly shared its intentions to broaden to new markets exterior China, starting with Germany. Since then, we’ve seen the corporate begin promoting its EV fashions throughout the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark alongside proprietary battery swap stations to help its distinctive enterprise mannequin.

Round that very same time, NIO confirmed {that a} second, extra reasonably priced sub-brand was within the works to promote smaller EVs in China and Europe – its codename is “Alps,” and final we heard, was scheduled to launch in mid-2024.

Final October, NIO co-founder and President, Lihong Qin, shared extra particulars of the Alps sub-brand, relayiong that the automaker does actually intend to launch in Europe subsequent 12 months, starting in markets like Spain and France attributable to increased gross sales of smaller, mass-market automobiles.

Throughout this time, we puzzled if NIO’s rumored third model, codenamed “Himalaya” but in addition known as “Firefly,” would be a part of Alps in Europe. Following a latest interview in Europe, NIO’s president has confirmed as a lot… however we gained’t see the cost-friendly sub-brand throughout the pond till 2025.

NIO’s Firefly launches in 2025, will we see Alps in 2024?

In accordance with latest feedback from Lihong Qin to Reuters, NIO’s reasonably priced Firefly model will, actually, launch in Europe in 2025. Whereas Qin didn’t share anticipated EV pricing, he did share that Firefly EVs will probably be smaller and designed with households in thoughts.

Once we first reported NIO’s plans for the Firefly model, it was rumored to be concentrating on fashions within the RMB 100,000-200,000 value vary ($14k-$28k). The NIO President in contrast the tiered branding technique to Toyota/Lexus, Honda/Acura, protecting a number of segments and value factors.

With confirmed plans to launch in Europe, it seems Firefly will emerge as NIO’s base-level EV sub-brand, with Alps positioned between the 2. We’ve beforehand reported that NIO is concentrating on a value vary of RMB 200,000-300,000 ($28-$42k) for its Alps EVs, which seem like additional forward in improvement than Firefly.

For comparability, NIO model EVs are presently priced between 50,000 and 91,000 euros and are positioned in Europe’s premium section amongst manufacturers like BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

The automaker has beforehand acknowledged its NIO, Alps, and Firefly marques will all function independently with their very own R&D pipelines and core groups, presumedly based mostly out of China. Apparently, Qin’s latest conversations with the European media included no point out of the Alps sub-brand, simply Firefly.

Regardless, we must always see an Alps launch in Europe by Q3 2024, with Firefly to observe someday in 2025.