We already knew that Nio will come with a cheap electric car. But now a Nio CEO has given us more information about the EV. We are very pleased with one detail, while another disappoints us.
Nicolas Vincelot, Nio’s boss in France, spoke at a conference about the brand’s upcoming affordable EV. He first told us a number of things we already knew: this electric car is being developed especially for Europe because there is more demand for compact and affordable EVs here than in China. And since Nio mainly wants to be premium, this ‘budget model’ comes on the market under a different brand name. For this purpose, the Chinese have come up with a sub-brand called ‘Firefly’.
Follow all car news closely with our free newsletter!
Firefly can swap
But we also learned new things. A very important detail in fact: the Firefly supports battery swapping. This gives Nio’s sub-brand a very important asset in the competition with European affordable EVs such as the Volkswagen ID.2, Citroën ë-C3 and the Renault 5. Why wait at a charging station if you can also swap?
That is easier said than done, because the battery swapping stations that Nio now has in the Netherlands are reportedly not suitable for the batteries of the Firefly. They are too small – the dimensions do not correspond to Nio’s large battery packs. The smart minds at Nio are working on a solution. Adjust the current exchange stations? Want to build completely new stations next to existing locations?
Tip
Nio Firefly price and introduction
Vincelot disappoints us a bit with the expected price of the Firefly. Where previously a base price of 25,000 euros was mentioned, the Nio CEO now speaks of a starting price of around 30,000 euros.
This makes the Firefly a lot more expensive than the Citroën ë-C3 (24,290 euros) and the Renault 5 (approx. 25,000 euros). Volkswagen also promised to keep the price of the ID.2 around 25,000 euros. The Firefly is planned for 2025, so Nio still has some time to calculate everything properly.
