The interior overall is somber but not bare, simple but not spartan; material quality feels good. It’s surprising to see heated, ventilated and messaging seats in such an affordable electric car – there’s even an electric tailgate. 

Nio’s cars get a small circular display atop the dashboard solely for the googly-eyed avatar for their own virtual assistant, Nomi. The Firefly does without that (featuring an on-board virtual assistant powered by ChatGPT) and instead has a simple tablet mounted onto the dashboard, with another small display behind the steering wheel.

It’s a pretty clever set-up. For starters, there’s Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which even range-topping Nio models still don’t get yet. There aren’t any physical buttons, but by holding two fingers on the central screen, you can adjust the temperature, fan speed and media volume. 

The 11kW AC and 100kW DC rapid-charging capacities are on par with the R5, MINI Cooper Electric and Fiat 500e. The Firefly has been designed to allow for battery swapping, which would give it an advantage over those retro-inspired rivals, but due to the significantly smaller batteries compared to Nio’s models, it can’t use the brand’s ‘Power Swap Stations’ found in China and Europe. As such, Firefly will require its own network.

The starting price of the Firefly is equivalent to around £13,000 in China, but in Europe, the figure is likely to hit €30,000 – around £25k at the current exchange rate. That’s after all of Brussels’ punitive tariffs have been paid. By the time it’s ready to export – there are no confirmed UK plans as yet – it’s hoped the city car will have met the five-star Euro NCAP plus European comfort standards.

But Nio doesn’t want Firefly to compete with cars like the Citroen e-C3 or the upcoming Renault Twingo. It feels quite comfortable in the environment of the Renault 5 and Hyundai Inster, plus the Volkswagen ID.2 that’s due later this year. But above all, it’s got its eye on the MINI Cooper, which is currently available from just under £27k.

It’s no coincidence that Nio chose the MINI as the main rival for the Firefly. After all, the two small cars not only have a similar target audience and compete within the same segment of the market, but they also have (almost) the same origin story: Both are built in China, and both were born in Munich – one in BMW’s research and development centre, the other in Nio’s European design HQ.

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