Last year, the president of NIO confirmed the ambitious plans to expand the brand’s production capacity with the opening of up to four new factories. One of them is especially important to us, since it will be in charge of assembling the models that will arrive in Europe under the new access brand intended to compete against the volume models of the old continent.
Until now known by the codename Firefly, the new firm will arrive in Europe at the hands of a range of smaller and cheaper electric cars than those of its parent company. Its expansion strategy will be opposite to that of NIO, betting on markets such as Spain, Italy or France.
NIO’s goal is snatch market share from groups like Stellantis or Volkswagenand to do so by launching a model located in the segment of the Volkswagen Polo or the Opel Corsa, which will arrive in Europe with a price less than 30,000 euros.
As reported Reuters, its production will take place in China, in a plant located in the town of Chuzhou, Anhui province. A new facility that will assemble vehicles exclusively for export to Europe, and which aims start work in the third quarter of 2024.
At the moment there are no details about the vehicle that NIO will send to Europe to fight in the volume segments, but they have indicated that it will count with autonomous driving systems less advanced than matrix, but they will be significantly above the proposals of Western manufacturers.
2025, the price war begins
This means that with production scheduled to start at the end of 2024, NIO’s new economic model will arrive in Europe in 2025. Just at the same time as the proposals of the European groups, such as the Volkswagen ID.2, which has set itself a target price of 25,000 euros and 400 km of autonomy.
We will also see the landing of other models, such as the FIAT Panda or the Renault R5, which want to appeal to the nostalgia of buyers to gain a foothold in the market. Three models that will have very similar dimensions, equivalent rates, less than 25,000 euros before aid For the cheapest versions, they will be front-wheel drive and will be named after some of the best sellers most remembered by the European public.
Some models that, as we see, will have more competition for a date in which if nothing goes wrong, the new Tesla Model 2 will also be in Europe, which will undoubtedly set the bar for performance and price as its older brothers are currently doing.
