Nio plans to start building two production facilities for each of its two planned subsidiaries for more affordable electric cars in March 2023. What’s also new is that one of the brands appears to be primarily for export to Europe.
The plant for the Nio sub-brand, codenamed Firefly, will be built in Chuzhou in China’s Anhui province, according to insiders, and is expected to start production in the third quarter of 2024. This brand will cover the electric car segment with a price range of 100,000 to 200,000 yuan (equivalent to about 13,600 to 27,200 euros at present).
According to new information, these Firefly electric cars are initially intended primarily for export to Europe. However, it will take some time before this is the case: One of the sources referred to in the reports by the CN EV Post and Reuters stated that the start of production is planned for the third quarter of 2024. They will be small cars, but apart from the possible price range, no details about the models are known yet.
The location of the internally probably named F4 plant is also worth mentioning: after Nio was supported by backers from Anhui province in 2020, virtually all of the company’s industrial activities took place in the provincial capital Hefei. With Chuzhou, Nio will once again be active outside of Hefei, but will remain in Anhui province. Chuzhou is located in the easternmost part of Anhui province, about two hours’ drive from Hefei and just over an hour from Nanjing.
The other new Nio brand, codenamed ALPS, targets electric cars with a price range of 150,000 to 300,000 yuan (currently about 20,400 to 40,800 euros). The ALPS electric cars will be built in a new production facility in the NeoPark industrial park in Hefei. This plant is known as F3.
There are already two plants in NeoPark manufacturing for Nio: The ET5 sedan is built in the F2 plant, while all other models are produced in JAC-Nio’s production base, the F1 plant. Currently, the company is reportedly converting its current model range to the NT2.0 platform.
cnevpost.com, reuters.com
Keyword: Nio to launch construction of two new EV factories