NIO launches high-end executive car ET9, third-party brand Firefly, Li Bin says' it's too expensive to be a CEO now '
Reporter Qiu Dekun from China Fund News
On the evening of December 21st, NIO Chairman and CEO Li Bin announced the intelligent electric executive flagship model ET9 and the third brand Firefly at NIO Day 2024.
The above actions of NIO highlight its comprehensive implementation of multi brand strategy, as well as its ambition to enter higher end markets and seize lower tier markets.
To showcase the performance of the ET9, Li Bin played a video of himself driving the ET9 to complete a high-speed tire blowout test at a speed of up to 160km/h. Li Bin said, "It's too expensive for CEOs to make cars now
NIO intends to enter the higher end market
The reporter noticed that Li Bin has high hopes for ET9. The entire press conference lasted nearly 3 hours, but nearly 2 hours were dedicated to introducing ET9.
Li Bin said, "ET9 is the culmination of NIO's decade long technological innovation, representing the latest breakthrough in global intelligent electric vehicle innovation
To this end, Li Bin introduced the advantages of ET9 in nine major fields, including design, space, comfort, audio, intelligent systems, intelligent driving, safety, three electric, driving and riding, etc.
Among them, ET9 applies Cedar in the intelligent system, which is NIO's new flagship intelligent system. The construction of this system is based on the world's leading advanced digital architecture, the most powerful intelligent hardware, and the vehicle wide operating system SkyOS · Tianshu.
According to Li Bin, Cedar's intelligent architecture has super strong vehicle computing performance, supports 6-domain fusion and cross domain connectivity, and can bring users a new intelligent application experience.
NIO stated that the ET9 starts at 788000 yuan and can be purchased through BaaS battery rental for 660000 yuan. Delivery will begin in March 2025.
launches third brand Firefly
Compare "MINI" multiple times
NIO released its third brand Firefly, which became the biggest highlight of this press conference.
Li Bin said, "Firefly focuses on the high-end smart electric car market, and its products are more MINI than Smart and more Smart than MINI
Currently, NIO has developed a multi brand strategy and established three brands. Specifically, NIO is positioned in the high-end market, Ledao targets mainstream home market users, and Firefly is positioned as a boutique small car.
It is reported that small cars originated in Europe and have been popular worldwide for over 70 years. At present, the global small car market has a market space of nearly 10 million vehicles, and in the first half of 2024, for every 5 new cars sold worldwide, there will be 1 small car.
With the rapid increase in the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the Chinese automobile market, automobile consumption is gradually maturing, showing a new trend of shifting from "blindly pursuing big things" to "paying more attention to self enjoyment experience".
High end small cars may be the next blue ocean market opened up by intelligent electric technology. NIO claims that Firefly will enable small cars to achieve comprehensive high-end products, services, and communities for the first time, ushering in the era of high-end small cars in China.
It is reported that Firefly will share resources with NIO's main brand in terms of software and hardware resources, charging infrastructure, etc. The first car will be exhibited and sold in NIO stores.
In addition, Firefly will be sold in the global market, but there is only one product in the Chinese market, and there may be multiple models in overseas markets.
It will become the main force for NIO to compete in the global market and accelerate NIO's globalization process, "said Li Bin. Firefly will develop products in overseas markets according to the needs of different regions.
According to NIO, Firefly's first product has started pre-sales simultaneously, with a pre-sale price of 148800 yuan in the Chinese market, and will be officially launched in April 2025.
Regarding the delivery performance forecast for 2024, Li Bin previously stated that NIO's annual sales for 2024 are expected to be 220000 vehicles. With the introduction of the Ledao and Firefly brands, NIO's overall goal for 2025 is to double its sales to 440000 vehicles.
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