Starting at $30,669! Nio Officially Launches ONVO Brand, First Model Named L60

Many people do not realize that today is a holiday - the International Day of Families. This holiday was established by the United Nations in 1994 to raise global awareness of family values.

Since the family is the place where norms of behavior and values are acquired, through proper climate action and education for sustainable living, families can pass these values from generation to generation.However, despite the noble intentions of the UN, the impact of the International Day of Families does not seem to have lived up to expectations, and I wouldn't have recognized the holiday if it weren't for the launch of Rakuten, which is, after all, not a holiday.

Nio's ONVO brand has just announced the pre-sale price of its first product, the ONVO L60, at $30,669, which is $4,184 cheaper than the starting price of the competing model, the Tesla Model Y. The company's CEO Li Bin began the event by explaining the meaning of "ONVO".

Li Bin, CEO of  Nio, began the event by explaining the meaning of "ONVO". ONVO means "the path of happiness," and "every path you take with your family is a path of happiness, “ Li Bin said.

The brand logo of ONVO is an upward path, and its brand color is named "Morning Orange", the color of the sun rising in the morning. It can be found that ONVO is a family-centered brand. Making family life better is the mission of Nio. After giving a basic introduction to the ONVO brand, Li Bin brought out the main character of the day - ONVO L60.

Family needs, figured out by Nio

Although Nio was only officially announced today, its appearance has long been no secret, and Nio has coincidentally announced the person responsible for the L60's design - VP of Design Raul Pires.

Pires began his design career at Skoda, where he was responsible for the Minvi, Jaguar and Spyder, before moving to Bentley, where he stayed for 12 years.

Pires then moved to Bentley, where he stayed for 12 years, designing the first generation of the Continental GT and establishing the next generation of Bentley's design language, as well as the Flying Spur, the Continental GT convertible, the Azure range and the legendary Brooklands models. In the case of the ONVO L60, he wanted to express the idea of Way Up, with the 'Way Up Lamps' at the front and rear inspired by the ONVO brand's symbolism of the way up.

Every family wants their days to be, well, prosperous.

With a length of 4828mm, a width of 1930mm, and a wheelbase of 2950mm, the ONVO measures longer, and wider, and will be more spacious than the Tesla Model Y. How big is it? Even if a family of five is traveling with a full load, it is possible to have "one box for each hand".

To demonstrate the huge riding space of ONVO L60, ONVO also called on a pair of 183cm tall twins to cross their legs in the front and rear rows at the same time. According to ONVO, in terms of rear net knee room, the L60 is 3.5 times more than the Model Y and 7.5 times more than the Toyota RAV4.

Why compare these two cars? Because they represent two eras:

Since its release in 1994, the Toyota RAV4 has been the world's No. 1 seller in the fuel-vehicle era, with 1,009,000 units sold, and since its release in 2019, the Tesla Model Y is the world's No. 1 seller in the electric-vehicle era, with 1,189,000 units sold.

"Everyone's desire for a better family life is the same," said Li Bin. Speaking of family, the pursuit of space is the common point of these two "champions".

Li Bin also moved out a "family car value formula", see the chart below:

In ONVO's view, family fun includes all-round safety, space comfort, intelligent cabin, range supplement, driving experience, and intelligent driving; while family-friendly covers the cost of purchasing a car, the cost of supplementing energy, the cost of maintenance, the cost of time, the cost of insurance, and residual value. ONVO L60 is a car built strictly according to this formula.

First on the list is safety. ONVO L60 adopts a steel-aluminum hybrid double-compartment body, with the passenger compartment guarding the safety of the family in all aspects, and the chassis protection compartment being responsible for protecting the core components.

Especially worth mentioning is the passenger compartment, ONVO L60 adopts submarine-grade 2000MP a ultra-high-strength steel in several key parts, which can withstand 20 tons of weight per square centimeter.

In a 70% rear offset crash test at 90km/h, the passenger compartment of the ONVO L60 remained intact, the high-voltage system was automatically de-energized, the door handles popped out smoothly, and the doors could be opened without any problems.

It should be further clarified that the energy of the collision is four times that of the national standard when tested at 90km/h. Li Bin said that the reason why ONVO pays so much attention to the rear impact performance is that "AEB performance is very good, but if you can brake, the person behind you may not be able to brake". After ensuring safety, ONVO started to optimize the cockpit entertainment system.

The ONVO L60 addresses the previous Azalea model's predominantly vertical screen, replacing it with a 17.2-inch 3K retina screen with a bezel of just 5.35mm, 125% of the display area of the Model Y, and 225% of the resolution of the Model Y. The L60 also offers a 13-inch HUD head-up display and an 8-inch rear entertainment scene screen. A 13-inch HUD head-up display and an 8-inch rear entertainment scene screen are also available.

The only pity is that the NOMI on the Nio is gone.

In terms of energy consumption, which is Tesla's specialty, the ONVO L60 also achieves a new breakthrough, consuming only 12.1kWh per 100km, lower than the Model Y's 12.5kWh.

The difference in energy consumption is also reflected in the range, ONVO L60 rear-wheel drive version has a CLTC range of 555km, which is just 1km more than the Model Y; L60 long range has a CLTC range of 730km (Model Y long range is 688km). In addition, ONVO will follow up with a 1,000km ultra-long-range battery pack.

In order to realize a range that can satisfy more family users, the ONVO L60 is equipped with a full-range 900V high-voltage architecture, and its 900V silicon carbide main electric drive system boasts an industry-leading CLTC efficiency of 92.3% and a power-volume density of 8kW/L. The 900V main electric drive system is equipped with an industry-leading CLTC efficiency of 92.3% and a power-volume density of 8kW/L.

At the same time, the ONVO L60's wind resistance coefficient measured at 120km/h is Cd 0.229, which is a leading level among the world's medium-sized SUVs.

Looking at the ONVO L60 beside him, Li Bin showed plenty of confidence, saying that Nio's research into family needs is deeper than that of its friends and that it also has a latecomer's advantage.

Li Bin said the ONVO L60 is a spacious, comfortable SUV that's easy to drive and has a much smaller turning radius than the Model Y, which has a shorter wheelbase.

ONVO's biggest advantage is that it is backed by Nio.

In the eyes of Qin Lihong, Vice President of Nio, Nio is a "generation of creators", while ONVO is a genuine "second generation of rich people".

There are brands that have more than 1,000 power exchange stations waiting for their first car just after it is released, but we have only climbed to more than 200 after two years of delivery. In many systems, it (ONVO) is more mature than anyone could have imagined. In Li Bin's opinion, ONVO users need power exchange stations more than Nio users. After all, not everyone can buy a parking space. The vast majority of urban users live in apartments, so a lot of users, in fact, more than half of the new energy users find it very difficult to have the conditions to install charging piles.

During the 2023 earnings call, Li Bin clarified the position of ONVO in Nio's power exchange network. He said that Nio's power exchange network will be divided into a "dedicated network" and "shared network" in the future, with the former being a dedicated network for Nio users, which is not available to ONVO users, and the latter being a power exchange network shared by Nio, Alpine, and other brands.

Up to now, Nio has accumulated 2,226 power exchange stations globally, with over 9,400 supercharging piles and 11,000 destination charging stations. Today, the system has been in operation for five years and has provided more than 32 million power swaps.

Similarly, Li Bin also attaches great importance to the construction of the sales network.

Within Nio, the construction of the sales and service network has a very high priority, second only to technical research and development. If we don't expand our sales network, it won't be enough for us to compete in the market," Li Bin said previously. That's why Nio brought in more than 3,000 sales consultants in the second half of last year. This year, that number is set to increase significantly - and ONVO will have a completely separate sales network from Nio, with all sales consultants focusing on ONVO itself, as well as on the "family needs" of its target group. Furthermore, Nio's existing sales capacity will not be affected.

Also in terms of Smart Driving Smart Cabin can inherit the whole set of Nio's mature system, so that it works well on release.

ONVO Motors, making money for Nio.

Nio's 2024 is off to a rough start. Li Bin confessed in the first quarter earnings meeting, said that although Nio has made progress in a number of areas, such as the smooth launch of the second generation of products, the release of  Nio cell phone, and Changan, Geely, and other six major brands to reach the power exchange station cooperation, but the overall performance did not meet expectations. Revenue of 1.492 billion USD in the first quarter fell far short of expectations of 2.195 billion USD. After the release of the earnings report, Nio's stock price fell, down as much as 4%, but the subsequent appearance of the ONVO brand in the earnings call brought Nio new hope. Making money is ONVO Auto's first priority.

For Nio, boosting sales is a top priority in order to get past the break-even line and maximize the use of its heavily invested Nio Power network, and hitting the 30,000-vehicle-per-month steady-state sales threshold is a milestone.

In the Chinese auto market in 2023, there will be only two cars with average monthly sales of more than 30,000 units: the Tesla Model Y and the Nissan Hennessey. The sales of these two cars also reflect a trend: the rapid rise of trams and the decline of gasoline cars.

The Model Y outsells the Hennessey by more than 80,000 units a year, with an average of 40,000 units sold per month. On the other hand, sales of the Model Y are up 44.7% year-over-year, while the Hennessey is down -10.6%.

Without discussing why the Model Y, which looks like a larger Model 3, has been so successful, it's clear that small and midsize SUVs have the potential to be the biggest hit. It's also clear that there's a small group of people who are willing to spend more than $27,894 on a trolley.

That's why Nio is targeting the Model Y for its first model.

In order to protect the new brand, Li Bin also invited Ai Tiecheng, who was involved in organizing Shanghai Disneyland, to be the president of ONVO, hoping to borrow his understanding of the needs of family users to ensure ONVO's sales. Interestingly, Ai Tiecheng is also the 107th owner of the Genesis Edition.

Last week, in his first public appearance, Ai Tiecheng recalled the past to a group of media.

In 2020, Bingo and Lihong approached me and said, "Alan, we're going to create a new brand for mainstream home users". At that time, I thought, "Isn't this a job tailor-made for me? I've always done work that creates joy for families, and that's my strong suit, so I didn't hesitate to come in at that time. The only thing to worry about is whether, as a new brand, ONVO has the ability to successfully capture the minds of users and gain widespread recognition like Tesla. The bullet has just been discharged, let it fly a little longer.

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