Nio just launched its new EV brand Firefly to compete with Renault 5 and BYD Dolphin in Europe.
The car has been designed to stand out from rivals, said design director Kris Tomasson, with a “unique” tri-circular headlight and rear lamp design. “All good things come in threes,” said the American, formerly of BMW and Ford.
Elsewhere, Firefly has, like rivals in the class, short overhangs and a slightly raked roofline to maximise range.
Speaking about the design, Tomasson said: “We started with something that was simple yet iconic: a firefly. Firefly is small, electric and buzzing with energy and totally mesmerising. It became the foundation of our design DNA.”
Lamp designed is quite complex. The 3 front round shapes headlamp seems to be integrated into the front module including bumper. Rearlamp is fully integrated into the tailgate, that is requesting additional lamps when tailgate is open (expensive solution)
Further technical details, such as power, range and battery pack size have yet to be announced, but it is thought Firefly could feature swappable battery packs as Nio previously confirmed it was developing a new version of its battery swapping platform to be able to accept smaller batteries. But while that is a key feature of Nio models, the challenge of creating a network of swap stations has been a key reason for the brand’s relatively slow rollout across Europe, and it is unknown if the technology will be as key to Firefly.
