We are just days away from Chinese EV automaker NIO’s annual NIO Day event, which has already promised some big reveals, including the long-teased ET9 and the first model under its new FireFly sub-brand. As an appetizer, NIO has shared the first un-camouflaged images of the ET9 and its official FireFly logo.
NIO remains a mainstay on Electrek‘s homepage because it always seems to be announcing something new and interesting. With its main marque well established and expanding globally, we’ve been following NIO’s rollout of two new sub-brands called Onvo and FireFly, the last twelve months especially.
While we get plenty of exciting news from the Chinese automaker throughout the annual calendar, no event is more likely to include landmark announcements than its annual NIO Day event, held every December. In the past, we’ve seen NIO unveil flagship sedans like the ET7, followed by the debut of the ET5 sedan a year later. NIO also shared plans to expand to new global markets by 2025.
The 2022 event included unveiling NIO’s ES8 and EC7 SUVs, pushing the automaker’s lineup to eight available EVs. For 2023, we learned NIO would unveil a new flagship model we speculated would be the ultra-luxe ET9.
That would be true. The ET9 debuted at a pre-sale price of RMB 800,000 ($109,810) – NIO’s most expensive model to date. It sits atop a 900V platform complete with an upgradeable wire-controlled chassis. It’s been nearly a year, however, and since then, we’ve only gotten camouflaged peeks at the NIO ET9 and its capabilities.
With a promise to officially launch the new ET9 at NIO Day later this week, the automaker has posted several images for the public as well as an official look at the logo that will be donned by its new line of affordable FireFly EVs.
NIO offers a clear look at ET9 before unveiling this week
Before we get all the juicy details about the ET9 and NIO’s plans for 2025 and beyond, the automaker offered its best look at its next flagship model yet. NIO posted several images (seen above) to its Weibo page with the following caption:
The high-tech executive flagship NIO ET9 will be officially launched on December 21st, NIO Day 2024. The original ‘flying body design’ creates a powerful aura of an epoch-making executive flagship with the flagship size. Elegant posture, presented with exquisite details. The debut is to lead innovation.
Following the upcoming launch, NIO expects ET9 deliveries to begin in China in Q1 of 2025. In addition to the sedan’s unique intelligent chassis system, the ET9 will be the first model equipped with NIO’s own 5 NM process-based “Shenji” autonomous driving chip, evolving from its current NT 2.0 platform that utilizes four NVIDIA Orin chips.
We will have to wait until this weekend to learn where ET9 pricing officially lands and how close that figure is to the presale price. In addition to the launch of the ET9, NIO has also promised to launch its new FireFly sub-brand and unveil its first model.
To date, we’ve only seen a camo’d image of the EV’s side profile, which appears to be a family-friendly compact, but we are certain to get a full look in a couple of days. Previously, NIO co-founder and president Qin Lihong has said that Firefly EV models will be priced between RMB 100,000 ($13,800) and RMB 200,000 ($27,500).
Furthermore, FireFly will join NIO’s Onvo brand on sale in China before expanding to Europe in 2025. During a recent interview with local media outlet 36kr, Firefly president Daniel Jinsaid the brand’s first model will be launched in China in the first half of 2025, followed by a launch in Europe likely a quarter later. We know the flagship model will share the same name as the FireFly brand itself, but not much else at this point.
Ahead of FireFly’s debut at NIO Day 2024, the automaker launched the sub-brand’s official app, which showcased its brand logo you can see below.:
NIO Day 2024 is scheduled for this Saturday, December 21, in Guangzhou, in the Guangdong province of China. Trust we will follow up with a full recap as we learn more.
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