Electric car manufacturer Nio is said to be working on a third brand that will produce its most affordable EVs.
While Nio itself has been busy delivering cars to customers in recent years, it has already confirmed work on a second mass-market brand currently known as ALPS. This brand is looking to deliver EVs throughout China priced between 150,000 and 300,000 RMB (~$22,000 – $44,000) from mid-2024. Now, a report out of 36 Kyrpton claims that another brand is being developed.
This third brand is currently known as Project Firefly and will produce even more affordable EVs. In fact, its products are expected to cost between 100,000 RMB and 200,000 RMB, or approximately $15,000 to $30,000. It is claimed that like ALPS, Project Firefly will operate independently from Nio and have its own research and development teams.
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Limited details are known about the brand, including when it could launch and when its first models could start to hit the market.
This isn’t the only thing Nio is working on either. According to reports from a source on Weibo, Nio plans to venture into the world of smartphones with its own product. While we have become increasingly accustomed to seeing smartphone manufacturers such as Huawei and Xiaomi venturing into the automotive space, the reverse is unusual.
Reports claim that the Nio phone will be developed to perfectly complement the car manufacturer’s infotainment systems and will share its color palette with the cars. It is also understood that like many major phone manufacturers, Nio will release one flagship model each year and that the device will cost less than an equivalent iPhone.
This news comes shortly after Nio announced that it delivered 10,052 vehicles in July, prompting Morgan Stanley analyst Tim Hsiao to suggest the brand may deliver between 36,000 and 38,000 vehicles in Q3 2022.
