Nio’s second sub-brand, Firefly, has officially launched in Macau, where it began taking orders for its debut model on Thursday.
Macau becomes the first market in which the company has opened orders for the right-hand-drive version (RHD) of the Firefly model.
According to an official poster first shared by the well known automotive blogger ‘德卤爱开车‘ on Weibo, the compact fully electric model is priced from HK$169,000, equivalent to $21,740.
While Nio wasn’t officially operating in Macau before a business model change earlier this year, the brand has been present in the market through a showroom and charging facilities.
Agency Model in Macau
Earlier this year, Nio announced that it was adopting a “General Agent Partnership Model” in Macau after assessing the market’s needs.
The company later revealed it had partnered with Guangdong Hongyue Automobile Sales Group as the sole distributor for the market, effective July 1.
The group is “fully responsible” for Nio‘s operations in Macau, which include “market operations, user service network development, and brand ecosystem growth.”
The brand is represented in a space at the Lisboeta Macau H853 Fun Factory shopping mall, which has been open since 2022.
The company’s website also shows that its battery-swap network includes two stations in the special administrative region.
The electric vehicle maker is also expected to enter the Hong Kong market in the fourth quarter of this year, adopting the same sales model it has in Macau, according to Chinese media outlet Lanjinger.
RHD First-Spotted
The right-hand drive configuration of Firefly’s debut model was first spotted in early October, at the company’s UK engineering facilities.
The version hinted at its entry into key markets like the UK, Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau, Australia, and New Zealand.
“Right-hand drive is a sizeable market, and we will be ready to build cars for the market,” Nio co-founder and president Qin Lihong said at a media briefing in April. “We will continue to go global with our Firefly and Onvo brands.”
Since then, the company has announced last month that it will introduce the model in Thailand, where the Group is expanding, also through a dealership agreement.
At the same event, Nio said that Firefly‘s debut model will have a “long-range” variant — with a larger battery capable of delivering around 500 to 600 km (310 to 372 miles).
Business Strategy Overseas
Nio’s launch strategy differs by market.
The Shanghai-based group is shifting to a mixed business model overseas — maintaining direct-to-consumer showrooms in its existing markets while relying only on local dealerships in upcoming ones.
In Europe, both Nio and Firefly brands will be introduced in Austria, Portugal, Belgium and Hungary before year-end, followed by Romania, Armenia, Czechia, Poland and Luxembourg in 2026.
Meanwhile, in Armenia, and as exclusively reported by EV earlier this month, it is preparing to introduce the family-oriented Onvo, which is currently available only in China, along with the premium Nio brand.
On Wednesday, the same automotive blogger reported that “the first batch of L60 vehicles has arrived in Uzbekistan,” a market to which expansion had been announced earlier this year.
