Photo: NIO
NIO has announced the NIO Day 2021 will happen on December 18. Held in Suzhou, the event promises to reveal exciting news about the Chinese luxury company, especially for those that wanted to have a NIO and could not afford it so far. All rumors about it involve reaching a larger number of customers.
The most important information that may emerge from the NIO Day 2021 is the name of the affordable brand. According to William Li, it will be to NIO what Toyota is to Lexus with a significant difference: Lexus was born from Toyota. Having a mass-market brand as a luxury company’s spin-off will be interesting to watch, especially if the less expensive vehicle can retain luxury features to set them apart from the competition.
The company is also expected to present two new vehicles and at least one is already certain: the ET5. As the name implies, it will be a smaller version of the ET7 or a D-segment sedan to compete with the Tesla Model 3, Audi A3 Sedan, BMW 3 Series, and Mercedes-Benz C-Class, if you prefer.
The second NIO novelty is a little more mysterious. According to CNEVPost, rumors talk about a luxury MPV to compete with the Toyota Alphard or a high-performance sports coupe called EF9. We have also heard about another possibility: another SUV to sit between the ES6 and the ES8. It would be called ES7.
That all depends on the company’s plans. If it wants to dedicate itself to luxury market segments, the EF9 may make a lot of sense, regardless of sales volumes. If the goal is to increase the number of vehicles it wants to sell, another SUV would be a great fit, but why would it care about a more affordable brand if it wished NIO to have higher sales volumes?
Another doubt we have refers to the name ES7. With the company’s current products, our impression is that sedans get even numbers and SUVs get odd numbers. If the ES7 really happens, it may prove us wrong.
NIO’s affordable brand will put pressure on the battery swap stations the company currently has. The EVs from the new brand will very likely share the technology with the more expensive ones, but will they use the same stations? That may make NIO feel less premium, just like the Model 3 did with Model S and Model X owners. As we said, these are moves that will be interesting to watch, even if still two months away.
The company is also expected to present two new vehicles and at least one is already certain: the ET5. As the name implies, it will be a smaller version of the ET7 or a D-segment sedan to compete with the Tesla Model 3, Audi A3 Sedan, BMW 3 Series, and Mercedes-Benz C-Class, if you prefer.
The second NIO novelty is a little more mysterious. According to CNEVPost, rumors talk about a luxury MPV to compete with the Toyota Alphard or a high-performance sports coupe called EF9. We have also heard about another possibility: another SUV to sit between the ES6 and the ES8. It would be called ES7.
That all depends on the company’s plans. If it wants to dedicate itself to luxury market segments, the EF9 may make a lot of sense, regardless of sales volumes. If the goal is to increase the number of vehicles it wants to sell, another SUV would be a great fit, but why would it care about a more affordable brand if it wished NIO to have higher sales volumes?
Another doubt we have refers to the name ES7. With the company’s current products, our impression is that sedans get even numbers and SUVs get odd numbers. If the ES7 really happens, it may prove us wrong.
NIO’s affordable brand will put pressure on the battery swap stations the company currently has. The EVs from the new brand will very likely share the technology with the more expensive ones, but will they use the same stations? That may make NIO feel less premium, just like the Model 3 did with Model S and Model X owners. As we said, these are moves that will be interesting to watch, even if still two months away.
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