According to local media, Onvo's management did not take a break during the just-ended Qingming Festival holiday, instead holding a meeting to prepare for its next marketing assignment.
(Spy shot of the first model of Nio's sub-brand Onvo.)
Nio (NYSE:NIO) is preparing to market Onvo, Ledao in China, with the sub-brands' official debut expected in about a month.
After nearly three years of development, Onvo is about to enter an intensive marketing period, local media outlet Jiemian said in a report today.
This is a key brand for Nio to achieve scale and amortize manufacturing costs, a key step in determining whether it can turn around losses and improve its financials, the report said. .
Nio is ready for Onvo's marketing cadence, and the sub-brand's management team doesn't take a break even on the just-ended Qingming Festival or Tomb Sweeping Day, instead holding many meetings to prepare for upcoming marketing efforts. Mr. Ziemian said. He said this, citing a person familiar with the matter.
This year's Qingming Festival holiday was April 4th to 6th, and although April 7th was a Sunday, it was a temporary working day. Onvo was previously known by its internal code name Alps.
According to Jiemian, Nio founder, chairman and CEO William Li yesterday shared a video of the company's office in Caohejing, Shanghai. The office is home to Nio's innovative businesses, including Onvo, a sub-brand of Firefly, and mobile phones.
In a video posted on short video platform Douyin yesterday, Li said he and his team had meetings for days.
The launch of the Onvo brand is scheduled for early to mid-May, but the first products will have to wait until September, with mass production shipments expected in the fourth quarter, the report notes.
To reduce research and development costs, Onvo's autonomous driving R&D and smart cockpit businesses have been integrated into the Nio brand, Jiemian said, adding that Onvo will also share its NT 3.0 platform with the Nio brand.
The report quotes automotive industry analyst Mei Songlin as saying that Ombo will be in line with Xiaomi's first electric vehicle (EV) model, the SU7, as deliveries are expected to begin in the fourth quarter. It may be possible to improve the time gap, but sub-brand Nio says the pace needs to pick up.
The Alps brand will debut in the second quarter, with the first products launching in the third quarter and mass shipments beginning in the fourth quarter, Lee said on March 5 in an announcement following Nio's fourth-quarter 2023 earnings report. said in a conference call with List.
Nio's management had previously called Onvo by its internal code name “Alps,” but since the brand's official name was leaked in a spy shot in the middle of last month, they have started calling it Onvo and Redao for the first time since the brand's launch. said it would be early – mid-May.
Alps' first model will compete directly with Tesla's (NASDAQ:TSLA) Model Y and will have a bill of materials (BOM) cost about 10% lower than Tesla's, Lee said on a conference call with analysts. .
Perhaps in preparation for marketing the sub-brand, Lee, who had previously had a weak presence on social media, began actively reaching out to a wider range of people through Douyin.
In a short Douyin video on March 21, Li said he test drove the first Onvo brand vehicle on the factory premises and showed off some of the model's interior space performance.
Nio continues hiring under Onvo sub-brand
