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Chinese carmaker Nio has just revealed more details on its electric Firefly hatchback and with the brand gearing up to focus on exporting to the world this cute and cool EV could be coming to Australia.
The little Firefly will be the first vehicle in Nio’s budget range of EVs and it’s already made an impact with its stylish design and unique features such as the triple ring headlights. Now we know more about this little hatch as it prepares to enter the world and go up against rivals such as the electric Mini and Fiat’s 500e.
The Firefly dimensions are close to the electric Mini’s at 4003mm long, 1782mm wide and 1557 tall with a wheelbase of 2615mm. That fairly long wheelbase means a 42.1kWh battery can be fitted delivering a range of up to 420km. A 105kW electric motor drives the rear wheels.
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We have yet to see images of the production vehicle’s interior but you can expect cool and quirky elements which match its exterior. We do know it will have a small front boot with a 92L capacity and a rear boot with what looks to be about 200 litres in volume.
New electric technology is seeing the design of vehicles move away from the long bonnets of the past and short cars with hatchbacks like the Firefly could signal to start of a new hatch revolution.
Nio says the Firefly will be engineered for maximum five-star NCAP safety and have nine airbags. NCAP is the European crash test peak body and equivalent of ANCAP in Australia which often uses the same results to rate our cars.
Nio is making a name for itself in innovative battery swapping technology systems in China which allows vehicles to have depleted batteries taken out and new fully-charged ones installed in a matter of minutes. But we now know the Firefly is unlikely to have this system at its launch. The battery is smaller than those currently used in swapping systems.
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Nio will launch the Firefly hatch and the Firefly brand officially in April in China. Where it will list from the equivalent of A$32,486.
The Nio brand is already selling vehicles in Europe and says the Firefly will launch in April. And with exports a major part, if not the biggest part of Nio’s plan, Australia would be next on its list. Australia currently doesn’t impose tariffs on Chinese vehicles, making our country a desirable destination to set up shop.
Nio currently has has nine models in its range from swooping fastback saloons such as the ET9, ET5 and ET7 to SUVs including the ES8 and ES6.
Even if Firefly does not come to Australia the Nio brand could arrive here and bring its battery swapping elecric cars.
Just in the past three years a multitude of Chinese brands have come to Australia from Zeeker and Geely, to BYD and Leapmotor.
