GUANGZHOU, China (Reuters) – Nio unveiled a lower-cost brand called Firefly on Saturday to rival Mercedes' Smart and BMW's Mini in the Chinese electric vehicle maker's latest bid to expand its customer base and boost sales. .
CEO William Li announced the new brand at an annual company event in Guangzhou and said pre-sales would begin immediately with prices starting at 148,800 yuan ($20,394).
He displayed three Firefly cars in lavender, lemon and beige and said the car offered a tight turning radius of 4.7 meters and autonomous parking technology.
Customers can place orders on the Firefly app, which said the cars would be officially launched in April.
“We are building the Firefly car to be smarter than Mini and to be more Mini than smart cars,” said Li.
BMW's pure electric Mini also sells from 148,800 yuan in China while Mercedes' #1 Smart car is priced from 154,900 yuan.
Among the domestic brands that Firefly will be competing against are BYD's Seal and Xpeng's Mona.
Nio, one of China's biggest EV players by sales, has been fighting rising price competition in China by launching cheaper models this year, having unveiled another called “Onvo” earlier in May.
Nio, which has limited European sales in the hundreds of vehicles a year, originally planned the Firefly brand to boost its share in Europe, its executives previously said.
It would have taken on Renault, Stellantis' Fiat and Peugeot and BMW's Mini in a European small car segment with annual demand for 4 million cars.
But in October the European Commission imposed an additional tariff of more than 20% on Nio cars including Firefly EVs exported from China to the region for the next five years. Analysts said this will largely undermine the brand's price competitiveness.
Li did not give details about plans for selling Firefly during the event.
Nio has targets to double its sales in 2025 and break even in 2026 but said this month that its sales growth was two years behind.
Reuters reported in November that Nio plans to launch its first extended-range hybrid model under the Firefly brand in 2026 for sales in overseas markets only.
($1 = 7.2961 Chinese yuan renminbi)
($1 = 7.2961 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Zhang Yan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Jason Neely)