China's NIO's Second Brand will Launch its First Model, Aiming to Rival Model Y

In recent years, numerous new energy automobile brands have emerged in the Chinese market, with NIO being particularly prominent. Their models exhibit unique strengths in the fields of autonomous driving and battery swapping, securing NIO a significant position in the fierce market competition. Earlier reports indicated NIO's plans to launch a second brand, internally codenamed "ALPS." Recently, Chinese netizens captured spy shots of the first model from this brand. It is interesting that a sticker on its rear window reads, "Better than MODEL Y (比毛豆Y更棒)," which clearly indicated its competitive target as the Tesla Model Y!

Picture from Hupu@开电车吃盒饭

It is reported that the new car may be positioned as a mid-size pure electric SUV and is expected to be launched for sale later this year. According to information previously conveyed by NIO, the brand focuses on the mainstream family car market priced between 200,000 to 300,000 RMB. It will emphasize high sales volume and integrate energy supplementation with the existing NIO charging and battery swapping network.

Additionally, the ALPS brand model, based on the NT3 platform, is expected to differ from NIO in terms of autonomous driving solutions. It will be equipped with only one NVIDIA OrinX chip (upgradeable to the Xavier NX9031 chip later) and will not feature a lidar system. Instead, it will follow a pure vision approach similar to Tesla, and provide urban navigation assistance upon delivery.

At the same time, in terms of battery swapping and energy supplement, vehicles of ALPS can only use third-generation or higher battery swapping stations, it is not supporting first and second-generation stations in order to maintain segregation.

In terms of power, Alpine models are expected to adopt a single-motor with rear-wheel drive. And it will probably offer battery capacities of 75 kWh and 100 kWh as options, which are compatible with the use of third-generation battery swapping stations.

NIO's CEO LI Bin has high expectations for the ALPS, he stated, "The first model is larger than the Model Y. The screenis bigger, the charging is faster and batteries are swappable. Moreover, the price will be more affordable. If you are considering buying a Model Y, it might be worth waiting."

Additionally, it's worth noting that the ALPS will launch three models. In addition to the initial SUV, the second model will be a sedan that emphasizes household use and cost-effectiveness, and it is expected to be released by 2025.

(Author: Kevin Wong)