NIO’s third model “Firefly” has been questioned. Why is it adding battery swapping to its existing offerings? What’s the point?

Among all the mainstream new forces, NIO is a rare brand that is committed to battery swapping technology. Even though most car companies are now showing signs of switching to extended-range power, it still firmly stated: it will never do extended-range power.

There is nothing wrong with maintaining one's differentiated competitive advantages. However, when NIO's third brand, Firefly, stepped out of the micro-car route and started a new business, engaging in battery swapping, related doubts began to arise one after another.

In recent days, the Firefly brand logo, official Weibo, WeChat public account and mini program related to this car have been officially launched. Unlike the low-end "grocery shopping car" we usually know, this is a high-end small car brand, positioned as a smart electric high-end small car, similar to BMW's MINI and Mercedes-Benz's smart.

NIO CEO Li Bin used a pun to interpret the positioning relationship between NIO's main brand and Firefly. He said: More MINI than smart, and smarter than MINI.

At present, the first model has made its debut at NIO Day the day before yesterday. It is priced from 148,800 yuan, which is completely comparable to MINI. The delivery time is April 2025. Its exclusive battery swap station is similar to a container, with the advantages of lighter size and faster deployment.

Regarding the appearance of Firefly, a NIO stock investor and ES8 owner expressed his concerns. He tagged Li Bin and Qin Lihong and raised two questions of his own:

1. The domestic mini-car market is small and demand will not be very strong.

2. It is too costly to rebuild a battery swap station.

Li Bin responded to this. He said that when Firefly was launched, it was mainly aimed at the European market, and the European small car market is 4 million vehicles a year. From a global perspective, the small car market is very large. He also added that the sales and service network in the Chinese market will adopt efficient methods, and the cost of battery swap stations will be much lower than the current one, and will not become a financial burden.

Li Bin's meaning is obvious, this car is not mainly aimed at the Chinese market. As he mentioned before, in the Chinese market, Firefly will only launch one model, but it will continue to iterate and upgrade later.

However, NIO does not have high expectations for the sales of Firefly in the Chinese market. Li Bin said that a few thousand units a month is still acceptable, but there is no expectation of selling 10,000 units a month.

In overseas markets, Firefly will have different strategies in different regions. In overseas markets represented by Europe, there is a large market space for small cars priced between 20,000 and 30,000 euros, and the total scale of the small car market worldwide can reach more than 10 million vehicles.

Therefore, the problem of mini-car production in the domestic market that netizens are worried about is not within the scope of consideration of NIO at least for the time being. As for the issue of starting a new battery swap business that netizens are worried about, NIO has sufficient reasons.

Li Bin said: "The construction cost of the Firefly battery swap network is much cheaper. Its batteries are small and can be put into a container, which makes it very convenient to deploy. This was also one of the goals we designed at the time."

To put it simply, the compatibility engineering issues of the battery swap station itself are more complicated. Voltage, position, interface, wheelbase, RGV, bolts, vehicle width, etc. all need to be taken into consideration. It is better to cut off the issue and start a new game.

At the same time, Firefly will have other benefits if it starts from scratch. Now, NIO is developing multiple brands, and Ledao, which was before Firefly, is also taking the battery swap route. This means that some of NIO's battery swap stations will have to handle battery swaps for both NIO and Ledao at the same time. If Firefly is added, it will be difficult for NIO users to have a guaranteed battery swap service experience. Therefore, Firefly has its own battery swap mechanism.

At present, Firefly is just an attempt by NIO, and no one can say whether it can eventually become the main sales force. However, whether it is foreign or domestic users, when it comes to small cars, everyone is still concerned about the old issues such as battery life, energy replenishment, and energy consumption.

If Firefly's product strength is guaranteed, its price is also advantageous, and it is combined with NIO's unique battery swap stations, its appeal may not be low. However, will the future development really be as smooth and appropriate as Li Bin envisions? Once something unexpected happens, will NIO, which has lost 80 billion yuan, still have the capital to make a quick turn?

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.