NIO is sinking, sub-brands Alpine and Firefly are about to be launched, focusing on increasing sales

Recently there have been reports that NIO's sub-brand "Alps" will release its first model in the second half of 2024. The new model will be a pure electric SUV with an estimated price of between 200,000 and 250,000 yuan. In terms of price, Alps' first model will directly compete with Tesla Model Y.

Brand sinking

Weilai has always been targeting the high-end pure electric vehicle market and has made high-tech configuration one of the biggest selling points of its vehicles. In December last year, Weilai showcased the ET9 executive flagship electric sedan, which was priced at 800,000 yuan.

However, NIO has always faced a problem: its products are too expensive to attract ordinary consumers. The company's current models such as ES6, ET5 and EC6 have a starting price of more than 300,000 yuan, and the starting price of ET7, ES7 and ES8 is more than 400,000 yuan. In the market, mid-range models priced at around 200,000 yuan are the most popular products among consumers.

Although the NIO brand can achieve a higher profit margin, the company has to solve the problem of insufficient market size. Therefore, in order to attract these consumers and increase the company's sales and profit margins, NIO decided to establish two sub-brands, Alpine and Firefly, hoping that they can lead NIO to sink into the mid-range market.

Hardware gap

As a sub-brand of NIO, Alpine will certainly not compete with its big brother NIO for the market, but will instead set its sights on the mid-range market. Therefore, Alpine will be inferior to NIO in terms of configuration and autonomous driving functions.

According to the report, in terms of intelligent driving assistance technology, Alps will adopt a "pure vision solution", that is, to cancel the more expensive LiDAR and rely entirely on cameras and related algorithms to achieve driving assistance functions. This approach coincides with Tesla's approach. The company also cancelled the LiDAR system last year to reduce vehicle costs.

In contrast, NIO's models are equipped with a laser radar to achieve more accurate detection. It can be seen that there is indeed a gap between Alps and NIO in terms of hardware level.

Brand Advantages

If NIO launches a car model priced around 200,000 yuan, then they will have their own advantages in this market.

Looking at the market, electric vehicles priced around 200,000 yuan are everywhere, including the Tesla Model Y mentioned earlier, BYD Han and Tang, Xiaopeng P7, etc.

Compared with these brands, NIO's biggest advantage is that they can provide a better user experience. Whether it is the intelligent cockpit or the self-built charging network, NIO is ahead of its competitors.

As early as 2021, NIO had already begun to lay out its charging network and designed a full-scenario charging network that is “rechargeable, replaceable and upgradeable” to solve the biggest pain points of electric car owners.

As the descendants of NIO, Alpine and Firefly, two sub-brands, will naturally be able to seamlessly connect to NIO's self-built charging network in the future. One of the benefits of building a self-built charging network is that car companies can manage the charging infrastructure themselves, check the status of charging piles at the first time, and repair faulty equipment immediately after it is found, thereby improving the user experience of car owners.

Full market coverage

91che believes that the two sub-brands will help NIO expand its product lineup and cover a larger market, thereby increasing NIO's market share. The main brand NIO is still positioned as a high-end model, covering a market of more than 300,000 yuan; Alps is positioned in the mid-range, focusing on the market of 200,000 to 300,000 yuan; Firefly will be oriented towards the low-end market, with product pricing below 100,000 yuan. Alps and Firefly will help NIO to "sink", reach more consumers, and allow NIO to gain a larger market share. At present, NIO's weekly sales fluctuate only in the hundreds of vehicles, and increasing terminal sales has become the primary problem that NIO must solve.

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.