NIO said on Thursday its Onvo L90 three-row sports utility vehicle will start at just RMB 193,900 ($27,052), if customers subscribe to its monthly battery-leasing service, putting it into direct competition with boxy offerings from rivals such as Li Auto and Aito at less than half the price.
Why it matters: The success of NIO’s second model under the Onvo brand is vital to the company’s financial well-being, after the first Onvo car, the L60, failed to meet its delivery targets over the past few quarters due to production constraints.
- NIO chief executive William Li has remained confident of delivering on the promise of turning a profit in the fourth quarter of this year, Bloomberg reported. Faced with slowing demand for its main luxury brand, the electric vehicle maker expects the mainstream Onvo lineup, which targets price-sensitive Chinese households, to be a major growth driver.
Details: NIO is breaking into the competitive three-row SUV market with the Onvo L90, offering what it calls “a revolutionary spatial layout” as its unique selling point. The 5.2-meter-long SUV, with nearly 4.2 meters of effective cabin length, provides passengers of each row with more than one meter (39.4 inches) of legroom.
- The six- or seven-seater vehicle also has a boot capacity of 670 liters when all the rows are in use, the largest among its peers, creating ample space for six people and ten suitcases, according to NIO. By comparison, the all-electric Aito M9 Max offers 316 liters with all the seats up.
- NIO has also made efforts to maximize the car’s driving range by reducing vehicle weight. The single-motor version has a driving range of 605 kilometers (376 miles), powered by an 85 kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery pack, while Aito’s M9 achieves the same result with dual-motor all-wheel drive.
- The company started taking pre-orders for the L90 at a price tag of RMB 279,900 ($39,050) with ownership of the battery pack, versus RMB 193,900 for those who pay a monthly rental fee for the Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS) program. It is set to go on sale at the end of the month and delivery will begin on August 1.
- NIO’s shares rose 6.2% to HK$29.30 ($3.70) on Friday on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Context: NIO delivered 114,150 all-electric cars in the first six months of this year including its Onvo and firefly brands, representing an increase of 31% from a year ago. The company had sold 52,623 Onvo and 7,843 firefly-branded cars as of June, after deliveries began last September and in April, respectively.
READ MORE: NIO vying for market share from Tesla, VW, and more with first mainstream SUV
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