FIREFLY

Characterful supermini embodies new Nio EV brand

- 

What if Honda had stuck with the E? It was a delightful piece of design and was great to drive, but it needed a bigger battery and a lower price. We will never know for sure, because the E is dead and buried, but the Firefly might be a decent consolation prize.

This new supermini is made by Chinese EV firm Nio, but Firefly is its own brand. There's no model name, like when BMW relaunched the Mini: it's simply the Firefly. It has been sold in Europe for a few months and is now confirmed to be coming to the UK later this year.

And to my eyes, at least, it looks really cool. There's a definite E vibe, but the triple lights on either side of the front and rear and the relatively big-wheeled stance mean that it's distinctive and original enough to be its own thing.

The technical run-down also reminds a little of the quirky Honda. Nio wanted this to be a no-compromise, upmarket small car for Europe, so it has not only multi-link rear suspension (which the Mini Cooper E and Renault 5 also have) but rear-wheel drive too.

Otherwise, it's typically Chinese in that there's very little technical detail available, although the fundamentals are pretty standard. The battery is a 41.2kWh LFP pack, which is on the small side, even for a car of this type. On the plus side, claimed rapid-charging speed is decent, at 100kW. Unlike the bigger Nios, the Firefly won't be able to have its battery swapped for a full one in minutes, but then it isn't meant as a continent-crosser, and you could be waiting a long time for Nio to build the required infrastructure in the UK anyway.