China's Nio will sell new mass-market brand in Europe

BERLIN – Chinese electric startup Nio will bring its new mainstream electric brand to Europe a few months after it launches in China in 2024, Nio president and co-founder Lihong Qin said.

Nio announced the foundation of the mass-market brand -- as yet unnamed -- in 2021, saying its relationship to Nio would be similar to that of Volkswagen to Audi, and Toyota to Lexus.

The brand will focus on smaller cars than Nio is currently rolling out in Europe, Qin told journalists at the launch of the Nio brand here on Friday. 

The automaker will aim the brand at European markets that have high sales of mass-market cars, rather than Germany where premium brands BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi are strong. "It's better to start with France, Italy and Spain because of the different penetration structure of the market," Qin said.

Nio on Friday outlined its plans for the launch of its premium brand in Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark following its European market debut last year in Norway.  Next year the brand will launch in the UK as well as Switzerland, Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg, Qin said.

Cars launched from now on in Europe will all be built on the brand’s latest NT2 platform, starting with the ET7 large sedan. Deliveries of the ET7 will start this month, followed by the ET5 midsize sedan and EL7 large SUV in March.

The EL7 was renamed from ES7 after Audi filed a lawsuit arguing that Nio’s ES naming system for its SUVs sounded too similar to its S-badged performance series, which also follows with a number. 

Nio launched in Norway with the ES8 large SUV on the first-generation Nio platform. The ES8 will not be sold more widely across Europe until after the model has been upgraded onto the NT2 platform next year, Qin said. The model will also be renamed EL.

Nio will expand its battery swap network to all European markets, with 20 planned to open by the end of this year, rising to 120 by the end of 2023. The Nio app currently shows three swap stations in Norway and three in Germany.

All Nio vehicles are built to accept standardized swappable batteries and currently 95 percent of owners in Norway lease the battery with the option of upgrading to a larger size when more range is needed.

For Germany and other markets, Nio will lease its cars, either for a fixed period or via a more flexible subscription model. Business leasing will be offered through partners such as the Netherlands’ Leaseplan.

Nio will deal with private customers directly, either online or through network Nio House network. Nio opened the first Nio House in Germany in Berlin near the Schöneberger shopping district.

Nio follows Chinese electric brands BYD and Xpeng in expanding in Europe after starting in Norway.

Other Chinese or Chinese owned brands capitalizing on the shift to electric include SAIC's MG, and Geely's Lynk & CO, the latter boosting deliveries of its plug-in hybrid 01 compact SUV using the subscription model. 

Great Wall is also looking to expand into Europe  with sales of the full-electric Ora Funky Cat compact car scheduled to start in Germany in the fourth quarter. Great Wall's premium brand, Wey, is also set to launch in Germany, where dealer group Emil Frey will introduce the Coffee 01 plug-in hybrid SUV.

Nio posted its highest ever quarter deliveries at 31,607 in the three months ending September, up 29 percent on the year before. The majority of sales were in China.