Chinese electric car company Nio launched its lower-cost brand Onvo on Wednesday, May 15, 2024, in Shanghai, China.<\/p>\n
CNBC | Evelyn Cheng<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
HEFEI, China \u2014 There’s yet another Chinese electric car aiming to undercut Tesla<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span>, with a steeper discount.<\/p>\n Onvo, the lower-priced brand launched by premium electric car company Nio<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span>, announced its first car, the L60 SUV, would start as low as 149,900 Chinese yuan ($21,210) when buying battery services via a monthly subscription, starting at 599 yuan. That’s the equivalent to just over $1,000 a year for “renting” the battery.<\/p>\n A model with the battery and the car starts at 206,900 yuan. Deliveries are set to begin Sept. 28.<\/p>\n Nio shares briefly rose by more than 3.5% in U.S. trading Thursday after the Onvo L60 launch.<\/p>\n The L60’s new price is even less than what the company announced previously. When Nio launched the Onvo brand in May, the company said the L60 would start selling<\/a> at 219,900 yuan versus Tesla’s Model Y at 249,900 yuan.<\/p>\n Nio CEO William Li told CNBC in an exclusive interview Thursday that he hoped to launch Onvo in Europe as soon as next year, but he did not have a specific timeframe to share.<\/p>\n He said the lower-priced brand would help the company better reach a global market, due to growing tariffs and other challenges for the premium Nio brand to reach its target overseas markets of Europe and the U.S.<\/p>\n As for whether Onvo would cannibalize the Nio-branded sales, Li said the two brands are aimed at very different price segments. He noted how Nio’s deliveries have improved since the company announced its plans for Onvo.<\/p>\n China’s electric car industry has become fiercely competitive over the last few years, with Nio and other companies vying for part of Tesla’s market share.<\/p>\n Geely<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span>-backed Zeekr<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span> is set to launch its first midsize electric SUV<\/a>, the Zeekr 7X, in China on Sept. 20, starting at 239,900 yuan.<\/p>\n