On May 10, according to the “Hefei Release” WeChat public account, Hefei Economic Development Zone and NIO signed a cooperation agreement on the second phase of the NeoPark Xinqiao Intelligent Electric Vehicle Industrial Park and the supporting projects for key core components. The production base of NIO for mid-to-high-end brands will be located in Hefei.
It is reported that the project covers an area of 1,860 mu (0.46 square mile). According to the agreement, it will introduce new mid-to-high-end brand smart electric vehicle products under the NIO Group. It is planned to be completed and put into production in 2024.
At present, the core team of the new brand has been established, and the first batch of products has entered the key research and development stage.
NIO CEO Li Bin once said: “We will enter the mass market through a new brand, and NIO will not release models that are too cheap.” Looking at NIO’s current product line, its price range is 328,000- 634,000 yuan. Although NIO has achieved good results in 2021, the weak sales growth of high-end models is becoming more and more obvious.
According to the information released earlier by NIO, a new car brand will be launched for the low-end market. It has a clear internal code-“ALPS”, and the price of its models is also aimed at 150,000 to 300,000 yuan. The competition in this price range will be more intense, not only to face several times more competitors than now, but also to solve many challenges such as production capacity, reducing manufacturing costs, and improving the gross profit margin of the whole vehicle.
On May 10 last year, Anhui JAC Automobile Group Co., Ltd. released the “Tender Announcement for the Renovation of AGV Renovation for the General Assembly and Chassis of the Gemini Model Production Line Flexible Technical Transformation Project”. According to Qin Lihong, co-founder of NIO, Gemini was NIO’s codename of a new product that the brand will launch in 2022. Gemini may be subsumed under the new brand for positioning reasons. But so far, there is no update on Gemini.
