Premium manufacturer Nio announces new e-car brand
ET7 is coming in 2022 – so far, Nio has been active in the premium segment. (Image: Nio)
The Chinese premium manufacturer Nio wants to enter the business with cheaper electric cars and thus compete with VW or Toyota. Of course, Tesla also has Nio in its sights.
Things have gone well for Nio in the past few months. The Chinese electric car manufacturer doubled its sales in China to just under 44,000 e-cars in 2020. In the second quarter of 2021, around 22,000 electric vehicles were sold, after a good 10,000 in the same quarter of the previous year. Nio, which wants to start its European expansion in Norway in autumn, currently has three electric SUVs on offer. The ET7 electric sedan is to follow in 2022. Now Nio has announced the entry into the market for cheaper electric cars.
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Cheaper e-cars: Nio is building a new brand
Nio CEO William Li said that a new mass market-oriented brand is to be launched that is positioned similarly to Volkswagen (VW) and Toyota. As a first step in the relevant strategic initiative, Nio has installed a core team to deal with building the new brand. What the brand should be called and in what price range Nio wants to offer the planned cheaper electric cars, Li left it open as to how Reuters reports.
All that is clear is that the new Nio brand does not want to compete with the Chinese micro-electric car Wuling Hongguang Mini EV. Because of its low price of only around 3,700 euros, this is the best seller in China’s e-car market. At the top, Tesla’s Chinese e-car fleet seems to define the price framework. According to Li, Nio wants to offer “better products and services at lower prices than Tesla” with his new brand.
Nios Norway start: Type approval for E-SUV ES8
It remains to be seen whether Nio will tackle the European market with its new, cheaper e-car brand or limit its range to China. In any case, there won’t be any new Nio cars by the end of the year. Three vehicles are planned for 2022, including the ET7 electric sedan mentioned above. In Norway, Nio will initially be launching the ES8 electric SUV, for which the company launched the European type approval obtained Has.
