Nio Budget BEV Brand to Rival ICE Products

Nio’s budget sub-brand Onvo promises to launch one new battery-electric vehicle model every year and pitch them to match the price of equivalent internal-combustion-engine vehicles in China.

Company executives make the pledges a day after the launch of the Onvo L60 SUV with a sticker price starting from 219,900 yuan ($30,476), 12% below the price of Tesla's Model Y which starts at 249,900 yuan ($34,623) in China, Reuters reports.

Executives say a second Onvo model, tailored for larger families, is the next to appear on the market and they expect the brand to boost company profits with sales targeting 20,000 units a month. The brand's urban-focused product under development, dubbed Project Firefly, is targeting sales in Europe, although France could be about to impose its own tariffs on products made in China.

The Onvo L60 is built on a 900V architecture, with the higher voltage promising improved energy efficiency. It claims a Chinese regulator energy efficiency of 92.3% and has the lowest wind resistance of any production SUV in the world at 0.229 Cd, giving it an energy consumption of just 12.1 kWh per 62 miles.

Auto experts believe the model appears to be the first production vehicle of Nio's next-generation vehicle platform, NT 3.0, although this has yet to be confirmed.

Nio’s Chief Executive William Li is bullish about the potential success of the new brand in the increasingly competitive BEV scene, saying: “China has 110 auto brands...and it's now already consolidated to 20-30 active players. The consolidation will continue but will not be very severe.”