NIO, Onvo, and firefly will all be actively launching new products.
NIO will refresh its entire line-up and launch new models every quarter from Q2 this year, according to CEO Li Bin in a statement made on a live video stream on Douyin.
After a somewhat quiet 2024, the company’s three-strong brand line-up will power ahead in 2025 with a raft of new model launches as well as updates to existing models, including the long-requested shift to landscape format screens in place of the more square screens seen on current cars.
“From April through the end of the year, all three of our brands, Nio, Onvo and Firefly, will be intensively releasing new products,” Li Bin is quoted as saying by CNEVPost.
As well as mild exterior changes, all NIO’s will eventually adopt the self-developed Shenji NX9031 autonomous driving chip which is making its debut in the soon-to-launch ET9 flagship saloon.
The ET9, which made its official debut at December’s NIO Day 2024 ahead of expected March deliveries, was the first NIO model to adopt the horizontal screen after sub-brand Onvo took this approach with their debut model, the L60, last year.
By the end of 2026, the entire line-up of NIO models will have receive the upgrades, with the brand’s best-sellers, the ET5, ET5T, ES6, and EC6, likely to first priority.
The ET5 and ET5T are currently the oldest models in the line-up having debuted in 2022, and Li Bin teased that we should expect some reveals in the upcoming MIIT filings expected this week, though these generally don’t show the interior shots.
Mr Li added that price cuts are not on the cards for facelifted models, NIO instead believing that now is the best possible time for potential customers to get into a NIO car, a belief likely boosted by the brand’s increasing technological developments in recent months and a battery swap network boasting in excess of 3,000 stations across China.
In an earnings call last year, Mr Li set the expectation that NIO will double 2024’s full-year sales in 2025, owing to the expansion of the line-up to include three brands with several models in higher volume segments, including the firefly hatchback and two new Onvo SUVs.
NIO delivered 221,970 units last year from their NIO and Onvo brands, having targeted 230,000 units, but seem confident of hitting almost 450,000 units this year.
If that target is to be achieved, it’s likely that much of the necessary gain will come from the firefly and Onvo brands, Onvo having had a positive start to sales last year, albeit with stuttering deliveries, and firefly aiming for success in European markets.
NIO’s overall business continues to make losses but it’s NIO Power division, which operates the swap stations and charging network, looks on target to become profitable in Shanghai, as stated by the vice president of NIO’s power business, Shen Fei, in the same Douyin livestream.
