Nio’s sub-25,000 euro electric car, which will be sold under the Firefly brand, was supposed to be compatible with the Chinese manufacturer’s battery swap stations present in Europe. This will be the case, but with a small subtlety that should make the “recharge” in less than three minutes more complicated than expected.
The Chinese electric car manufacturer, Nio, is already present in Europe, with flagship models, such as the ET7 that we were able to test. Its particularity is to be able to announce a theoretical autonomy of 1,055 km with an XXL battery, while being able to “recharge” in less than three minutes. How? Thanks to battery exchange stations, present almost everywhere in China and in some corners of Northern Europe.
In the coming months, we will also be entitled to a new, more affordable brand, belonging to Nio: Onvo electric cars, including the L60 which was just unveiled a few weeks ago in China. Planned to be sold for less than 50,000 euros, they will be partly compatible with battery exchange stations. The v3 stations (found in Europe since 2022) will however require some small adjustments to be compatible with Onvo cars. The v4 stations (found in Europe since 2024) are fully functional with Onvo electric cars.
The €25,000 electric car will have to do things differently
On the other hand, it’s a different story for the electric cars of Nio’s third brand, the Firefly. These cars, slated to sell for under 25,000 euros in China, will not be fully compatible with Nio’s charging stations. The brand’s CEO, William Li, was recorded announcing that the Firefly cars will not be compatible with Nio’s battery swap stations, but will use special swap stations, the size of a container. Their structure is said to be simpler (and therefore probably less expensive) and it will be possible to buy a coffee while “charging”.
The words, relayed by a video on Weibo in Chinese, were translated by Car News China. The latter specifies that the incompatibility would find its cause in the wheelbase of the Firefly cars, planned to be much smaller than Nio. Which requires the battery to have a different shape. The v2 and v3 exchange stations are compatible with cars with a wheelbase of 2.8 meters. But for the Firefly, we expect a distance between the axles of around 2.7 meters.
The consequences of this bad news
This news is bad news for Nio’s affordable cars, because it means the Chinese automaker will have to set up a new battery swap network. Which is a shame, considering the huge cost involved (each station permanently stores more than 10 batteries costing several thousand euros). The Chinese automaker is also expected to put Europe behind China, which means that the Firefly’s sub-three-minute charge may not be available when the cars go on sale. Similar to what happened with the Nio ET7, which was sold in Europe before the swap stations were set up.
There is also the question of whether the Firefly electric car swap stations will allow the battery to be swapped in less than three minutes, or whether the operation will take longer. Nio will also have to deal with the increase in customs fees in Europe for electric cars produced in China. But this does not seem to scare the Chinese manufacturer, which announces that they will remain competitive even with these tax increases.
