Nio founder and CEO William Lee poses for a photo outside the New York Stock Exchange to celebrate the company’s initial public offering.
Image: New York Stock Exchange
BEIJING – China’s electric car startup Neoh And Xpeng Motors It is moving into the low-cost market and plans to launch a new car brand this year
NIO’s first mass-market car will be an SUV with a low price tag TeslaModel Y CEO William Lee told CNBC’s Eunice Yun on Thursday. The price of this Tesla SUV in China starts from 249,900 Yuan ($35,197).
Like many early entrants into China’s electric car market, US-listed Nio targeted the premium segment when it launched nearly a decade ago. Its vehicles, priced around $50,000 or more, offer buyers additional services such as the Neo Clubhouse and a network of battery charging and swapping stations.
Nio and Xpeng Motors plan to launch mass-market brands, putting the companies in more direct competition with local rivals. BYD and German automakers Volkswagen.
The new cars were launched amid a fierce price war in China’s new energy vehicle market, including pure battery and hybrid vehicles. Such vehicles currently account for more than 40% of new passenger car sales in the country.
Lee said that although he expects market price fluctuations to continue for some time, he does not expect major brands to adjust prices significantly.
NIO plans to launch in mid-May its new brand name Onvo, known as “Le Dao” in Chinese.
Brian Gu, vice chairman and vice president of Xpeng Motors, told CNBC on Thursday that Xpeng Motors, which sells at slightly lower prices than NIO, plans to launch a new sub-brand Mona in the next two to three months.
Gu said the new car will be priced at 150,000 yuan ($20,700), below NIO’s target price range. Last summer, Xpeng Motors said it would develop a new mass market brand to achieve this price range through a strategic partnership with ride-hailing app operator Didi. done
“Why we are ready to enter this market segment is that we believe that through scale, technology and cost control, we can introduce different technologies to the mass market,” he said, noting that in the past only the high-end market could enjoy high-quality products.
Xpeng Motors has made its driver assistance software one of its selling points in China. Tesla’s equivalent of fully self-driving software is yet to launch in the country.
In an interview with reporters, Gu said that Xpeng Motors will differentiate the technology of mass-market brands from the existing technology.
He also noted that there are at least a dozen brands competing in the high-end market, while only two or three brands currently account for about 80% of China’s mass market.
According to Autohome data for the first quarter of this year, Tesla’s Model Y is China’s best-selling pure electric SUV under 250,000 yuan.
Despite the Model Y price cut, Li said the new brand’s first car will cost around $30,000 (213,000 yuan), not as low as BYD.
Much of Chinese battery and electric car giant BYD’s success has come from the lower end of the mass market. Last year, the company launched new brands of high-end and luxury cars, with the company’s product range ranging from less than 100,000 yuan to more than 1 million yuan.
Among several new cars it plans to launch this year, BYD said Thursday it will launch a new hybrid car in the second quarter with prices ranging from 120,000 yuan to 150,000 yuan.
