Nio Firefly - coming to Singapore in 2026

[inlinesix]

On 8/21/2025 at 12:59 PM, Volvobrick said:

The are calculating dollar and cents.....

Buy EV with the smallest 20kWh battery with 20k omv but swap to 100kWh pack at the swapping station. Wohoo! 

Cannot fit.

Nio sell car without battery.

Owner needs to lease the battery from Nio.

[steveting99]

How Nio's battery swap works in real life over in Europe (Netherlands), using Nio's older generation swap station. Do note that the Firefly will use Nio's newer fifth generation battery swap station. It will be faster.

So how will the battery swap work for the Firefly here in Singapore? Assuming at least one is built.

Using Firefly's native navigation system, a trip is plotted to the next convenient swap station(s). As you approach one, a specific time slot is allotted, and a particular battery gets assigned to your car. Your car’s battery temperature is shared, and the station adjusts the coolant in the replacement battery to match, thereby preventing expansion or thermal shock. When it’s your turn, the station talks you through the process - explaining what the automatic system is doing as shown in the youtube video. You'll sense the station lift the Firefly slightly, you hear 10 bolts simultaneously undoing, the swap occurs, the bolts tighten, you drop back down and you’re on your way with an almost fully charged high voltage battery - at least 90%.

Everything gets done under five minutes. Stay inside your ride with AC comfort all the way. No need to get out and break a sweat to fiddle with cables, looking for the right app to match the charger and waiting for a while to fully charge the battery. Convenient and comfortable - what's not to like?😃

Edited August 21 by steveting99
typo

[Lethalstrike]

On 8/21/2025 at 12:59 PM, Volvobrick said:

The are calculating dollar and cents.....

Buy EV with the smallest 20kWh battery with 20k omv but swap to 100kWh pack at the swapping station. Wohoo! 

Quite a nice idea actually. Battery as a service. 

If you need the larger battery for longer trips up north, just rent the bigger batt pack and swap to it for that few days. 

And don't have to care about battery degradation liao. The risk is no longer on the user when you can always swap batteries. 

[BoneStock]

@steveting99  car looks very nice. 

 

Both Dongfeng Box and Firefly has similar battery size ~42kWh but Box has superior range 430km, which is 100km more than Firefly.  Means Box's motor is a lot more efficient than Firefly's?  Latter weighs 150kg more though.

 

[steveting99]

@BoneStock  Spec sheet of Dongfeng Box taken from AD (Volt Auto). What threw me off was the high energy consumption numbers of 19.3kWhr/100km on the spec sheet shown below.

Review from AutoApp on the test drive of the Dongfeng Box is here: https://www.dongfeng.sg/Media-Release-Details/Autoapp-Dongfeng-Box-Review

What's apparent is that the spec sheet on energy consumption (19.3 kWhr/100km) doesn't match AutoApp's real world driving condition of 10.5kWhr/100km. SG Car Mart's review of the Dongfeng Box is here: https://www.sgcarmart.com/articles/car-reviews/dongfeng-box-423kwh-review-37028 and seems to match ------ Motoring review of the Dongfeng Box here: https://www.------.com/articles/car-reviews/dongfeng-box-review-unwrapping-joy/. Both SG Car Mart and ------ seems to match (a little bit lower) than that of AutoApp.

So looks like AD needs to review their spec sheet to reflect the correct energy consumption under WLTP test conditions.

Dongfeng Box's energy real world energy consumption figures are miles ahead of everyone else. The box's kerb weight of under 1,400kg is also ahead of the pack - which helps with energy consumption number being better.  

A pity about the provision of just two airbags on the Dongfeng Box. Wondering what's crash test score is going to be? In particular Euro NCAP.

 

[FrankieLoh]

Battery swopping good for consumer....battery degradation will not longer be our liability.

[Ake109]

I like the head and rear lights. Also the wrap around C-Pillar macham Mk IV Supra rear wing but is C pillar.

If only can buy and reg the car without the battery... save on ARF and excise.

[Ake109]

I like the head and rear lights. Also the wrap around C-Pillar macham Mk IV Supra rear wing but is C pillar.

If only can buy and reg the car without the battery... save on ARF and excise.

[steveting99]

Nio has commenced sales of the Firefly in Europe with Norway and Netherlands (both LHD vehicle markets) being the first to get the Firefly based on this cnevpost article:https://cnevpost.com/2025/08/15/nio-firefly-begins-deliveries-europe/

Price is around €30k.  

Will be interesting to see if the BaaS option on the Firefly is going to be offered to Europeans as there are 60 battery swap stations already in Europe. To make it work with the Firefly, some of those battery swap stations have to be upgraded to the latest 5th generation.  

[steveting99]

Interesting statistic on sales of the new Onvo L90 large SUV in China. According to Car News China article, about 70% of Onvo L90 owners have chosen the Battery as a Service (BaaS) option here: https://carnewschina.com/2025/08/11/nios-latest-top-selling-model-onvo-l90-gets-60-kwh-rental-only-battery-option/. Savings on upfront costs of the BaaS option seems to be a determining factor. 

[steveting99]

Looks like the world's largest battery maker: Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) is going to compete with Nio on the battery swap business via it's Choco-swap station using their newer and cheaper sodium ion battery here: https://carnewschina.com/2025/09/08/catls-naxtra-sodium-ion-passes-new-national-safety-standards-ready-for-mass-production/. CATL supplies to many Chinese vehicle manufacturers - which means their battery swap technology is available to a much broader base of vehicles.  Think this is going to give Nio some headaches to claim they're the only game in town.

Interesting that CATL's sodium battery (Naxtra) has passed the latest and more stringent battery safety standard specified in GB 38031-2025 with test certificate from an independent 3rd party - the Automotive Testing Centre of China Automotive Technology and Research Centre (CATARC). 

GB 38031-2025 becomes mandatory from 1-Jul-2026, which isn't too far away. Would need to check if Nio's Firefly complies with GB 38031-2025.

Specs on CATL's Naxtra Sodium ion battery is an energy density of 175Wh/kg (which is close to most LFP chemistry batteries) - but with a longer 10,000 cycle life. If CATL can make Natra work with their Choco-swap stations, it's going to be interesting times ahead in the BEV market. 

 

Edited September 9 by steveting99
additional text

[steveting99]

Crash test results from Euro NCAP on Nio's Firefly.

Adult Occupant : 96%

Child Occupant: 87%

Vulnerable Road Users: 82%

Safety Assist: 86%

Got an overall five star rating.