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The Nio Firefly, a Chinese language rival for the Renault 5 and incoming Volkswagen ID 2, has been confirmed for Europe – and UK gross sales ought to quickly comply with.
The electrical supermini was launched in China in April, providing a spread of 260 miles (albeit on the lenient CLTC check cycle) and a single rear-mounted 141bhp motor for the equal of round £12,500.
Firefly was initially introduced as a brand new model, alongside Onvo, however the two had been repositioned as sub-brands of Nio shortly after launch.
Nio offered some 3680 examples of the Firefly in Might, its first full month on sale, and it performed a key function in boosting the model’s total gross sales for the month by 13.1% yr on yr.
Though it has solely been proven in left-hand-drive type to date, Nio president Qin Lihong mentioned on the Shanghai motor show that the model would launch a right-hand-drive variant for the UK by October.
Though Nio has but to announce particular plans for a UK launch, having final yr informed Autocar that it was “continuing its preparations for entry”, Lihong’s remark suggests one is imminent.
Nio is at present within the means of a dramatic growth throughout Europe, having pledged to enter 16 new international markets this yr alone. It has now confirmed that seven of these might be European nations: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg, Poland and Romania.
Along with the Firefly, Nio will launch the EL6 and EL8 SUVs, ET5 saloon and ET5 Touring estate in these markets.
It added that there might be “additional information” for Europe within the coming weeks, suggesting an announcement may very well be inbound.
Notably, Automotive Information Europe (ANE) reported in late 2024 that Nio was making ready to launch its Onvo L60, a coupé-like Tesla Mannequin Y rival, within the UK this yr.
Product planning boss Eric Yu informed ANE that the UK’s lack of import tariffs on Chinese EVs was a key motivator; Nio’s automobiles are at present topic to a 31% surcharge within the EU.