The Nio Firefly, a new electric mini car from China, is coming to Europe — and the UK should get it soon too.
This little EV launched in China back in April. It can go about 260 miles on a single charge (according to a more relaxed test) and has a 141 horsepower motor at the back. The price? Around £12,500, which is pretty affordable for an electric car.
At first, Firefly was going to be its own brand, along with another called Onvo, but Nio quickly made both sub-brands under its main name. In May, Nio sold 3,680 Firefly cars in China — a big boost that helped the company’s sales grow by over 13% compared to last year.
So far, the Firefly has only been shown in left-hand-drive, but Nio’s president, Qin Lihong, said at the Shanghai motor show that a right-hand-drive version for the UK will arrive by October.
Nio hasn’t officially announced a UK launch date yet, but this sounds like it could happen very soon.
Right now, Nio is expanding fast across Europe, planning to enter 16 new markets this year. Seven of those are European countries, including Austria, Belgium, Poland, and Romania. Along with the Firefly, Nio will also bring some bigger SUVs and saloons, like the EL6, EL8, ET5, and ET5 Touring.
They also hinted that there’ll be more European news soon, so keep an eye out for announcements.
Oh, and a quick heads-up: Nio might also launch the Onvo L60 — a sporty car that rivals Tesla’s Model Y — in the UK this year. One big reason? The UK doesn’t charge extra taxes on Chinese electric cars, unlike the EU, which adds about 31% fees right now.
