First Drive! China’s Mini Cooper Fighter Is Adorably Luxe
Can Chinese EV startup Nio’s cute compact Firefly defeat Mini when European tariffs are shaving its price advantage? And are Americans missing out?
Think of private EV startup Nio (est. 2014) as China’s homegrown Tesla—a premium brand that solved buyers’ range/charging anxiety by investing in its own infrastructure (battery-swap stations in this case rather than fast-chargers) and by designing and developing its own hardware and software in house.
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A big difference is that after just seven years of selling cars (and before sustaining a profitable bottom line), Nio is introducing a small, affordable, urban electric runabout. So as not to dilute its premium executive-car brand reputation, Nio’s Firefly is a subbrand targeted at premium competitors like Mini and Smart.
We spent the day driving one around exurban Shanghai and found lots of features and traits that Americans could love and wish for in an urban EV.
Ultra-Compact Rear-Wheel Drive
Nio designed and developed its own electric drivetrains, and the permanent-magnet motor tucked under the low rear cargo floor is particularly space efficient. Its highly integrated 6-in-1 electric drive system (motor, drive-reduction gearing, differential, motor controller, high-voltage power distribution unit, and DC-DC converter) is unique in this class.
The rear motor adopts a coaxial layout, meaning the half-shafts are concentric with the motor’s rotor, not offset below it, and the planetary differential gearing is inside the rotor, the way Lucid does it. This all helps keep the center of gravity low and the motor out of the way of cargo.
Ultra-Tight Turning Circle
With no constant-velocity joints to protect, the front wheels are free to turn to a much more extreme angle, permitting a city-friendly 30.8-foot turning circle. This is a choice that shouldn’t cost much if any extra to implement, and it’s thus ripe for adoption on U.S.-market cars.
Tesla Model S–Sized Frunk
Nio’s Firefly EV mounts the steering rack ahead of the front wheel centerline instead of behind it, as most cars do. This frees up interior foot room and gets the steering out of the way of the frunk.
And with no drivetrain components up there, the Firefly’s 3.2-cubic-foot frunk accommodates a good-sized carry-on bag. Better yet, throw your dirty or wet stuff in there to keep the cabin neat and dry—the plastic bin can easily be hosed out (or filled with ice and used as a cooler), thanks to a drain with a removable plug in the bottom.
There’s another cubic foot of storage under the right rear seat cushion (plus more under the front passenger cushion, with manual-adjust cloth seats). Here again, no government subsidizing made this feature possible.
Stiff and Safe
At 35,700 Nm/degree, the Firefly’s torsional rigidity is said to be more than 30 percent stiffer than that of a Tesla Model 3 and 50 to 80 percent stiffer than more direct competitor hatchbacks.
China cuts some safety regulatory slack to cars measuring shorter than 4 meters, so the Firefly stretches to 4.003 meters long to reassure buyers its nine standard airbags will protect them in a collision with a larger car. China’s equivalent to our IIHS gives it top marks.
Oh, and that ninth bag serves to separate the two front passengers in a crash. Some of this is a major source of cost, some is smart engineering.
Unique Design Striving for Iconic
Head of design Kris Tomasson, an American who has stamped his passport at BMW, Ford, and Gulfstream, among others, recalls his marching orders: “My brief was to create the next [Fiat] 500 or Mini. Right away that says it's gotta be something unique—not different, unique.
“A car that can be recognized by anyone from a child to your grandma. Three lights was something that was going to be a game changer in design—something memorable. Then copying and pasting front to the rear; no one's not gonna know that's a Firefly, right?”
Capturing the innermost lamps in an “elongated pill shape” front and rear provided another design element that’s replicated elsewhere—see the charge port and door handles outside as well as the rearview mirror; accelerator, brake, and dead pedals; and more inside.
Feels Fancy
Spending a week familiarizing ourselves with the entire Nio line, we were struck by the utter lack of parts-bin sharing. Every inch of this little car has been designed. (We’ve said the same of Mini.) There’s refreshingly little shiny, hard plastic. Most everything is wrapped in soft-touch microfiber or polyurethane, and at night it’s dressed up by 256-color ambient lighting.
Dash-level A/C air emits from a row of vents way forward on the dash; they’re not aimable, but there’s a “swing” function like an oscillating fan that worked great. Design is free, and we can hope smart materials developers elsewhere can figure out these finishes on a tiny-car budget. Swinging vents are a bigger cost.
The 13.2-inch central display is not pill-shaped, but the home screen incorporates pleasing circular graphics, and every screen features a Firefly font and look.
A UI/UX win that everyone should start copying at no additional cost: No matter what’s currently displayed on the screen, dragging two fingers up or down on the left side of the screen changes volume, and on the right adjusts temperature.
Standard equipment includes a 14-speaker Dolby Atmos sound system that punches above its class, a power liftgate, phone-as-key, welcome lighting, and an AI assistant named Lumo. Smart parking and level-two-plus autonomy are also included—all of which are likely budget-busters for western competitors.
Slide Across Seating
Sometimes in dense city centers, you end up parked too close to something to comfortably open a door. The area ahead of and between the seats is open, and the top of the center console (which features a slide-out bin) is level with the seat cushions.
So, simply raising the armrest allows both driver and front passenger to easily enter and exit via either door. A great, free idea.
Battery, Range
The Firefly gets a 42.1-kWh lithium-iron-phosphate battery (the West’s great hope for cheap entry EVs) that’s claimed to provide 261 miles of range.
But that, like the 10.9 kWh/100 km overall efficiency statistic (192.1 mpg-e!) are both products of the wildly optimistic China Light-Duty Vehicle Test Cycle (CLTC), so salt them liberally.
Slow Charging but Fast Swapping
Firefly uses budget-friendly 400-volt architecture and is limited to 100-kW charging, which is said to be able to bring the 42.1-kWh battery pack from 10 to 80 percent in 30 minutes.
But the promise of 3-minute battery swaps will eventually make charging speed irrelevant. The delay is the fact that the smaller Firefly battery can’t use Nio’s 3,275 existing battery-swap stations.
The new fifth-generation design has been developed in conjunction with battery partner CATL, which will contribute to the swapping station buildout along with seven other EV manufacturers that have signed on to share this new battery-swapping standard.
So, early Firefly owners may find themselves charging more than swapping for a while.
Driving the Firefly EV
Firefly claims the 141-hp motor will scoot this 3,300-pound runabout to 60 mph in around 8 seconds, roughly matching our most recent Fiat 500e. But with that thrust coming from behind, the rear suspension is a five-link design where many competitors fit cheaper trailing twist beams.
Add in the fact that Nio enlisted the aid of Canada’s Multimatic to tune the suspension (using fixed-rate dampers), and the result is admirably agile driving dynamics.
Our Chinese-market test car felt more softly suspended than a Mini or 500e, but its longer wheelbase helps it feel equally well planted and stable, with no excessive roll, pitch, or dive.
Tuning could be tweaked to suit European tastes, or possibly left as is to carve out a more comfort-centric niche. Unlike other Nio products we drove, this one offers full one-pedal driving as well as adjustable regenerative braking levels, plus an auto mode using forward radar to increase regen to pace slowing vehicles.
Sport, Normal, and Eco drive modes alter steering feel and accelerator responsiveness, and we found that only Eco allowed smooth highway driving, with higher levels of regen selected. No mode provided realistic steering feel, but that’s almost universally true in this class.
How Much and How Soon?
The Firefly is on sale now, starting at the equivalent of $16,800 in China, sporting five mostly bright exterior colors and four interior color schemes, as well as a choice of two seat materials and two wheel designs.
It will eventually enter 16 countries on five continents, with North America and Antarctica the odd rocks out. Even at twice that price or a little more, the Firefly EV would strike most Americans as an unbelievable steal. Which has raised the question: What might end up actually getting stolen—market share, hearts, minds, perhaps—if Americans could buy this car for $34,000?
I started critiquing cars at age 5 by bumming rides home from church in other parishioners’ new cars. At 16 I started running parts for an Oldsmobile dealership and got hooked on the car biz. Engineering seemed the best way to make a living in it, so with two mechanical engineering degrees I joined Chrysler to work on the Neon, LH cars, and 2nd-gen minivans. Then a friend mentioned an opening for a technical editor at another car magazine, and I did the car-biz equivalent of running off to join the circus. I loved that job too until the phone rang again with what turned out to be an even better opportunity with Motor Trend. It’s nearly impossible to imagine an even better job, but I still answer the phone…
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