Spy shots of the Nio Firefly prototype over the past few months have been largely about the front and rear, and now a new high-resolution spy shot shows its side for the first time.
CnEVPost has shared some spy shots of the first model of Nio’s (NYSE: NIO) third brand, the Firefly, over the past few months, but they’ve mainly been from the front and back.
Now, a new high-resolution spy photo shows the side of the model for the first time.
Car blogger @电动星球小新 shared the image on Weibo today, noting that there have been a lot of spy shots of the Firefly model recently, as it is set to make its official debut next month.
“Nio has previously invited some media outlets to see the car. The exterior is said to be bolder than current models on the market, with a very distinctive front and rear fascia, and the overall car size is somewhere between the Mini and (Volkswagen) ID.3.
“This reminds me of a great netizen comment: Mini is more than Smart, smarter than Mini,” the blogger added, suggesting that the first model Firefly will have a better level of intelligence than Mini cars.
Nio announced on November 20 that its third brand, internally codenamed Firefly, has been officially named Firefly and its first product will carry the same name as the sub-brand.
Nio said at the time that the Firefly brand would be officially launched on Nio Day 2024 on December 21, with its first model being delivered in the first half of 2025.
Firefly’s approach to naming its first model after a brand takes a page from BMW’s Mini sub-brand, as well as the Geely and Mercedes-Benz Smart joint venture, the latter of which named their first models after the two brands.
Nio will enter a new product cycle starting next year, with new deliveries under the Onvo and Firefly brands, and the company will enter a faster growth phase, company management said in an earnings call on November 20.
As for Nio’s efforts to expand into global markets, Onvo and Firefly will take on a larger role, according to its earnings call.
Onvo, previously codenamed Alps, is the second brand of Nio Inc. Its first model, L60, was launched on September 19 and deliveries began on September 28.
Another spy photo allegedly of the Firefly’s interior was circulated on Chinese social media yesterday. However, some bloggers said it was the interior of an early engineering prototype of the model.
Deutsche Bank expects the Nio brand to sell 223,000 cars in 2025, Onvo 219,000, and Firefly 8000.
