Here are my takeaways on the ET9, firefly (not a typo; the f is officially lowercase), the most important and controversial NIO Day, and its 2025 implications.
Every member of the press attending NIO Day 2024, held at the Haixinsha Asian Games Park in Guangzhou on December 21, received a welcome card with the following message:
Welcome to NIO Day 2024!
NIO Day is an annual gathering day for NIO and its friends, and a stage to showcase NIOβs innovative achievements to its users.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of NIOβs founding. With the theme of βTogether & Further,β this yearβs NIO Day will share with you the stories of our past 10 years with users, employees, partners, and industry innovators.
At this yearβs NIO Day, we will also share with you the achievements of NIOβs development in the past 10 years. The NIO ET9 will be officially launched, ushering in a new era of smart electric executive flagship. Our new brand firefly will also make its world debut, bringing a small, smart, high-end electric car to users who are confident and love life.
Thank you for being part of our journey over the last 10 years. We hope you have a pleasant NIO Day journey in Guangzhou!
It wasnβt just any other NIO Day.
It was the biggest (literally and figuratively), most important, consequential, and controversial NIO Day in the eventβs history since it was first held seven years ago in Beijing.
There was a lot on the plate, and a lot was at stake for NIO leading up to and after the event, more so than any other time in the 10-year history of the Chinese smart EV startup now synonymous with battery swapping: 3,003 battery swap stations (as of January 3, 2025) have completed over 61 million battery swaps for NIO customers in China, and these numbers continue to balloon by the day.
It was the biggest ever in terms of attendance: over 22,000 people including owners, media, supplier representatives, industry ecosystem partners and investors joined the event, almost filling up the Parkβs 24,000-people seating capacity.
It was the biggest in terms of new products and their price gap: the most expensive NIO, the ET9, was launched at a price of 788,000 yuan with deliveries starting in March 2025, while the least expensive NIO, in the form of a smart electric high-end small hatch under the firefly brand, NIOβs third brand, was revealed and began accepting pre-orders at a pre-sale price of 148,000 yuan before official market launch in April 2025.
Rather than just a one product reveal as is usual at past NIO Days, two completely different animals on two opposite ends of the product spectrum were presented: a halo car and a technological tour de force with some of the most advanced hardware/software technologies targeted at business professionals, and a cool, funky, agile and quirky high-end small car for those that pursue freedom and love of life, no age limits.
Think of the 7 Series and the MINI, or the S-Class and the smart, but a few generations ahead.
It was the most important since it came on the heels of NIOβs 10-year anniversary less than a month earlier, so it was an important occasion to celebrate the companyβs achievements over the past decade and the widening user community that has become to define the NIO DNA.
Nearly 1,200 NIO owners and creators took part in the making of NIO Day 2024. More than 170 charity market stalls were set up by NIO owners for the bazaar-like User Charity Marketplace, where owners sold goods to other owners and attendees with proceeds donated to the Guangzhou Charity Association. A full-length βJourney Togetherβ illustration scroll jointly created by artist Sua Balac and 14 NIO user designers artistically depicting the brandβs decade-long journey with employees, users, partners, and industry innovators was unveiled. A documentary short film titled βTogether & Furtherβ depicting the story of nearly 100 NIO owners growing together with NIO over the last 10 years was shown, and the NIO Band composed of several NIO owners performed the inspirational theme song βTogether & Further.β NIO Founder, Chairman and CEO William Li then took the stage and recapped NIOβs achievements and introduced the ET9 and firefly brand in detail before legendary Hong Kong pop singer Hacken Lee capped off the night with a live performance of several of his hit songs. The Park and the famous Canton Tower nearby lit up in NIO Day themed colors.
It was also the most important since it had officially ushered in the era of NIO Group, a Chinese smart EV startup housing three brands: the premium NIO brand, the off-premium, pseudo mass market ONVO brand and the boutique firefly brand with smart EV products covering the 100,000β800,000 yuan price range.
It was the most consequential because the stage is now set for NIO to try to achieve two monumental tasks with the three-brand arsenal: doubling sales in 2025 and achieving breakeven in 2026, two goals announced by Li in the most recent earnings call that many still think are questionable given the current cutthroat market conditions. The bulk of the sales burden will fall on the ONVO and NIO brands, with firefly contributing a small portion to the overall delivery volume of more than 440,000 units in 2025 (based on 2024 delivery numbers of 221,970 units announced on January 1, 2025) toward the second half of the year.
It was the most controversial because of the design of the firefly especially the βtrioβ headlights that immediately took over social media and became the online meme of the night for their close resemblance to the Honda e headlights and the tri-camera design on the back of iPhones. Not to mention the naming of the brand itself with four letters that no EVs want to be associated with, as well as stunts showcasing technology prowess of the ET9 and the firefly while dunking on the Mercedes, MINI and smart.
Oh, it was also the longest: the entire event took more than 3.5 hours with Li spending a considerable amount of time recapping the historical achievements of NIO and its users and explaining in excruciating detail (for well over an hour) technological highlights of the ET9, capped off with a relatively short and sweet reveal of the firefly.
It was also the most heartwarming: it was later revealed on social media that He Xiaopeng, founder, chairman, and CEO of Guangzhou-based smart EV startup Xpeng, a major NIO competitor, had personally delivered a bag of sticky rice balls (βTang Yuanβ, a type of Chinese dessert) to Li before he took to the stage. December 21 marked the Start of Winter on the Lunar calendar, and the customary thing to do for Chinese people in Southern China was to eat Tang Yuan. Li and He shared a few laughs over Tang Yuan, and He even pumped Li up by saying NIO should strive to target monthly deliveries of 5,000 ET9s.
And I was very lucky to be in Guangzhou to witness these moments and more as they transpired and got to be up close to Li and NIO President Qin Lihong the next morning during a face to face with NIO media session.
It was my second time ever attending NIO Day in person, and by far the most memorable. The first was the very first NIO Day back in 2017. Back then, industry frenemies Li Auto Founder & CEO Li Xiang and Xiaomi Founder & CEO Lei Jun were on stage to help Li introduce the ES8, NIOβs first model, as early investors and first owners. There was no marketplace and no NIO Band then, but the enthusiastic user community that defined that first event has remained a constant feature, and Li remained as steadfast and determined as ever.
It was really good to get a feel of that user community enthusiasm and vibe by walking around the marketplace and seeing owners line up at almost every stall to purchase goods from other owners. It was rather infectious.
Safe to say, besides the Beijing and Shanghai auto shows, NIO Day feels like the next biggest industry event of the year because of its unique format and industry influence. Itβs an event thatβs unlike any other because of the anticipation going into it, and It would not be an overstatement to say everyone in the industry tuned in.
If you ask me to summarize the ET9 and firefly in simple one-liners, I would say, βthere are executive sedans, then there are ET9 sedansβ for the ET9 and βsmarter than smart and more mini than MINIβ for the firefly, as Li would put it.Β βWhat reasons would you have to not buy the ET9 in that segment?β I quipped on my WeChat moments.
The highlights that stood out for me was the video that was shown where industry heavyweights like Dr. Herbert Diess, former CEO of Volkswagen Group and Dr. Yu Kai, founder & CEO of Horizon Robotics conversed with Li as they tested out the capabilities of the SkyRide Full Active Suspension, which NIO claims to be the worldβs first integrated hydraulic fully active suspension with an active suspension electric drive unit inside the shock absorber, allowing the ET9 to adapt to an ultra-large range of transient adjustment capabilities for stiffness, damping and height. In the video, Dr. Diess was seen saying, βitβs impossibleβ as he and Li successfully performed the 5-layer champagne glass stability test for the ET9 over a set of speed bumps, while Dr. Yu and Li were also seen sitting in the front seats of the ET9 watching a movie while the car shook violently, creating a 5D experience.
Another pre-recorded video showed Li donning the full racing uniform and helmet and personally doing a high-speed tire blowout test at speeds of 150 km/h and 160 km/h to showcase the stability of the ET9 thanks to the SkyRide Steer-by-Wire and digital chassis.
The drone show for the firefly brand just before its reveal was cool and a nice way to bring the audience into the brand spirit of βfreedom to glowβ and DNA of βvivid, thoughtful and solidβ which respectively represent the brandβs styling, space concept and safety attributes. The side-by-side comparison of the ET9 and the Mercedes S-Class Maybach going through speed bumps simultaneously with ET9 remaining eerily stable but the Maybach shaking violently drew laughs and made some of my PR friends over at Mercedes cringe. Another video showing a firefly outsmarting a MINI and smart in a head-to-head competition traversing a closed circuit proved the brandβs versatility.
The SkyRide Full Active Suspension, Steer-by-Wire and Rear-Wheel-Steering make the ET9 the worldβs first model to integrate all three technologies at the same time. Interestingly enough, the active suspension technology has special meaning for me: Iβve known the founders of Boston-based ClearMotion, which supplies the technology to NIO, since 2016 and had already experienced the technologyβs ride comfort and bump damping capabilities then. So, it was really nice to see their work finally find their way onto a production vehicle after all these years, a NIO no less. The ET9 also has the distinction of being the first car model in China to obtain the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT)βs steer-by-wire mass production certification, a technology crucial for more advanced smart vehicles and higher-levels of autonomous driving functions. All thanks to German supplier and steering specialist ZF, a company I have followed closely over the last 10 years.
And seeing Li up on stage for three and a half hours tirelessly talking about the past, present and future of NIO, the ET9 and firefly showed that this is a man with unwavering determination to make NIO a pioneering, prominent and relevant player, and perhaps one of the final ones standing, in the global smart EV arena.
The next morning, Li took a variety of questions from a dozen or so foreign media, including myself, for about an hour. Topics ranged from the ET9, firefly design controversy, battery swapping rollout, partnerships, and standardization, ONVO L60 production ramp, export tactics and principles amid geopolitical uncertainty, and industry outlook. Below are highlights of his responses:
firefly design controversy, pricing and European prospects:Β itβs within our expectations and better that we have this debate, itβs difficult to have a design and styling that pleases everyone, our goal was to have a design that tries to convey all three brand DNA attributes of vivid, thoughtful and solid at the same time, itβs different but we hope itβs logical for the global audience; BaaS pricing for the firefly will be below 100,000 yuan; global debut of firefly would have been in Europe and prospects there would have been better had there not been EU tariffs, but still plenty of opportunities and confident of fireflyβs competitiveness to address a market of about 4 million vehicles in the A and B segments; European launch in the first half of 2025;
ONVO L60 production ramp and customer behavior:Β ramp toward a monthly delivery run rate of 20,000 units by March has been within expectations, slightly faster than normal while ensuring quality; three battery suppliers β BYD, CATL and CALB β together are supplying 60-kWh and 85-kWh batteries as of December, no bottlenecks expected on the battery supply side; Tesla owners have been the β1 source of buyers, only about 2% of ONVO buyers previously considered a NIO, within expectations. ONVO sales team is incentivized to bring potential leads to NIO;
Long-term European and global market entry principle for firefly and broader NIO Group:Β one brand, one country, one partner collaboration format for all three brands worldwide; the U.S. market is a highly profitable market even if products address a niche segment but nevertheless a tougher market to crack into due to tougher legal and regulatory requirements, tariffs and geopolitical uncertainty, preparations have always been ongoing but absolute top priority is to focus on the Chinese domestic market where itβs the worldβs biggest and most competitive market; if you donβt come out of the cutthroat competition at home a winner, you cannot become a true global company; over the next three years China remain our top priority while preparations will continue to expand to additional global markets; European production will be a reasonable business decision and a matter of scale but only makes sense if NIO Group sales there top 100,000 units;
Battery swap standardization, partnership and overseas expansion:Β long-term there will be standardized battery pack sizes for power swap depending on price and segmentation, for NIO there will be three: call it #1 for NIO, #3 for ONVO and #5 for firefly; discussions have been ongoing with CATL about cooperating on standard battery packs, there are lots of resources to be shared and opportunities for cooperation where NIO and CATL could each be responsible for operating certain networks compatible to the same battery pack standard; European rollout of battery swapping station network slower primarily due to slower pace of construction, but roll out of swap stations for firefly will be much faster at only a third of the cost of NIO swap stations due to simpler format and lower construction costs; NIO battery swap partners will primarily benchmark on the ONVO battery pack standard and follow a four-step process: first, framework agreement; second, product technology roadmap integrating battery swapping; third, vehicle development; fourth, market launch and operation, akin to cloud service where it starts as an internal service first, matures internally for several years before opening service to external customers, therefore, it takes time;
Business strategy principle:Β sticking to vision of becoming a global company servicing more customers and best customer experience through battery swapping, but in terms of action need to adapt faster to changing external environment with low latency like the ET 9;
Significance of Shenji NX9031 5nm smart driving chip:Β a matter of business decision because it improves gross margin, system performance and mitigates supply chain risk, currently four NVIDIA Orin-X chips per vehicle for 200,000 NIO vehicles incur a huge cost;
One thing to have done differently:Β more aggressive with battery swap station network expansion, instead of having stations up and running in most of the counties in China by the end of next year, would have been better if this goal was achieved two years earlier;
2025 keyword for the industry and NIO:Β reshuffling of the industry landscape and leap forward for NIO.
NIO Day 2024 is in the rearview mirror, NIO has made a lot of additions, and 2024 ended with a bang as December deliveries reached 31,138 units, the first time ever in the history of NIO that monthly deliveries had topped 30,000 units.
Will 2025 be the same? Regardless, it will be the most crucial year for NIO as the industry moves to what Li calls the final stages of qualification over the next two years. How NIO performs in 2025 might just decide whether it becomes one of the final qualifiers.
Lei Xing is a former editor-in-chief of China Auto Review and co-host of theΒ China EVs & MoreΒ podcast; you can follow him onΒ Twitter or Medium.
