SHANGHAI -Firefly, a compact electric vehicle brand owned by China’s Nio, is seeking growth in right-hand drive markets that are free from punitive tariffs on Chinese EVs and is preparing to ramp up deliveries to those destinations next year.
On Tuesday, the brand said it rolled out its first batch of right-hand drive models for export to Singapore. Firefly also plans to enter Thailand and Britain in 2026 and talks are ongoing with local distributors, CEO Daniel Jin told Reuters.
“We will significantly ramp up our efforts in countries without tariff barriers in the short term,” Jin said, naming Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia as key markets.
He declined to say how many cars Firefly expected to sell in those markets, but warned the pace would likely be slow as consumer trust builds.
Like others in China’s crowded and competitive EV market, Nio is facing pressure to improve its profitability as consolidation heats up.
In the last two years, Nio has introduced two new lower-price brands – Onvo and Firefly – helping push monthly sales to a record high of 40,397 units last month, nearly doubling its sales from a year earlier.
The company reported a second-quarter net loss of $697.2 million, but expects to break even in the fourth quarter, CEO William Li told investors previously.
In Singapore, the Firefly EV will be marketed as a boutique small car, priced higher than competitors like BYD’s Dolphin, Jin said, in an effort to avoid price wars with domestic rivals overseas.
“One key point we emphasized during our negotiations with the distributors is that you cannot simply regard Firefly as just another made-in-China EV,” said Jin. “If we lower its positioning, we’re done for.”
Launched in December 2024, the Firefly features a triple-circular headlight design. It has mainly been sold in China, with 26,242 units sold as of October 2025 at an average price of more than 120,000 yuan ($16,891).
Small batches were delivered to Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium earlier this year, but tariffs imposed by the European Commission in late 2024 have slowed its expansion there and squeezed margins, Jin said.
Firefly was designed with global markets in mind, targeting the compact car segment that accounts for 17% of global annual sales, Jin said. The European market is home to a third of those compact cars, so Nio took European consumer preferences into consideration when it came up with the size and user interface of the Firefly’s digital system.
Currently priced at around 29,900 euros ($34,658) in Europe, higher than the originally planned 25,000 euros due to tariffs, the Firefly EV competes with Volkswagen’s ID.3 and Renault’s R5. Jin remained optimistic about its competitive edge in Europe, citing the EV’s dual luggage compartments and advanced electronic architecture.
($1 = 7.1043 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Zhang Yan and Casey Hall in Shanghai; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)
