firefly: "Just so small" is the right solution for urban travel

On April 24, 2026, the 19th Beijing International Automobile Exhibition was officially opened in the spotlight. With the theme of "leading the era, smart future", this auto show focuses on cutting-edge technologies such as intelligent driving, full-stack self-developed architecture, 800V high-voltage fast charging, and AI large model entry. In the same period, the Automobile House invited NiO Vice President, Firefly (parameter | inquiry) Brand Marketing Leader and NiO Life Business Leader Pu Yang to conduct in-depth exchanges, focus on innovation together, and talk about the future of the industry. In terms of market positioning, Puyang believes that there are "excessive pursuit of large-scale" and "lack of low-cost car quality" faults in the current car market. Rather than blindly stacking spaces, Fireflies advocate “just the right size,” aiming to fill gaps in high-quality urban mobility. This positioning is directly reflected in the user behavior, and the penetration rate of its modification plan is close to 40%, which proves the high viscosity of the boutique car in personalized expression. Regarding the rhythm of products and the volume in the industry, Puyang's performance was relatively pragmatic and cautious. In response to the extremely loud open-top version, he bluntly stated that he would not sacrifice standards to make "low-quality products" for the sake of speed, because structural safety requires hundreds of millions of levels of redevelopment and cannot be mass-produced in the short term. The logic of fireflies is that under the trend of internal roll spillover, it is only through the global layout and the technical thickness of the product itself that it can survive long-term competition. The following is a transcript of the conversation: Car House: This booth also saw three other firefly fireflies with different styles. Can you give us a detailed introduction to the highlights? Puyang: Firefly has always had its own unique style. This time, we have our own characteristics on a stage with NiO and two other brands of Ledo. Our theme is called "spontaneous glow", and it is our latest season's project glow together glow plan. You can understand it as a user-created retrofit plan. So far, nearly 40% of users have retrofitted their vehicles, which is a very high penetration rate in the automotive field. Some people say that we are a "naturally modified Eucharist", this time bringing a total of three different styles of modified models: one is a snow track style "hot snow light"; the second is a British retro style "light holiday"; the third is a "glow rod fluorescent switch" by Kris Tomasson, senior vice president of NiO Design, which recently participated in Milan Design Week, and we also shipped it to the Beijing Auto Show. Inspired by the very popular Hot Rod modified car culture of the early 20th century, we translated it into the design language of this era with lightning and lightning, named "glow rod", which is very different and widely welcomed by everyone. Home of Cars: Over the past year, we've seen the ‘visibility‘ of this car on the road grow. Do you think firefly can gain user recognition in such a market, what is the core point that makes users "top"? Pu Yang: There are two big core points, one more macroscopic, one more microcosmic, macroscopic core points, including, like today, especially at the last auto show, the Shanghai auto show, and the Beijing auto show the year before, almost all the world is launching six SUVs that are about five meters long. Those people who are used in large families or businesses have been well satisfied, but no one seriously thinks about the small families or individuals who are composed of those individual individuals. What should an excellent car look like in the process of daily travel in line with today's urban development? Above the second big dimension, many people used to go in two directions when making trolleys: First, the trolley is very introductory, not that it is not good, because it is a product with a more entry price, so it is difficult to pursue higher quality on the product, and it has also informed many markets. There are also many trolleys in this market with the largest amount. Second, many people make trolleys as large as possible. You will see a large number of trolleys of 4m2 and 4m4. In fact, it does not bring you the joy of a real trolley in the daily driving process in the city. This is a macroscopic thing. Microscopic things Fireflies seriously travel as a city and make a really boutique car. We think that the trolley should be small and just as small. For example, the second row can not sit, nor can it reach 4 meters 3 and 4 meters 4. It also loses the real meaning of the trolley. We just called it small. What do users really care about in the field of trolley products? It must be safe. The firefly Firefly is very proud to have won the five-star scores of Euro NCAP in Europe and C-NCAP in China, and has obtained the C-IASI All Excellent Rating from CIAS. It is the world's first "three-slam" trolley. In the Euro NCAP 2023-2025 version of the assessment, we achieved the first place in the occupant protection score. In addition, we received the “China Safety Excellence Award” from Euro NCAP, the first place in the Small Family Car subcategory. This “Grand Slam” performance in the field of safety is our highest priority in building our products. The second priority is forward-looking design, excellent service, including the innovation of the intelligent cockpit of the entire vehicle. These innovations are the success of certain functions above the microscopic specificity of the car. These are superimposed on each other, so that those who originally did not really think about it and were not really well supplied have new choices for these markets and users. Firefly fireflies are rare and will sell better models. We are confident that more success will follow with more and richer models. Car House: Although everyone loves the agility of a car, some users feel that "the smaller the car, the safer it is". How can we eliminate this bias? Pu Yang: This is a very normal idea, whether it is physical cognition or the past, because many cars are subject to price and there is no way to have a lot of investment in this. We have made four layers of investment in hardware and foundation. The passive collision of everyone on the first floor, especially the passive collision of pedestrians in the car, we got 96% in the five-star collision in Europe, which is the highest score ever, and we have 9 airbags. Second, the overall use of hardware materials in the vehicle, our high-strength steel and aluminum use accounted for up to 83.4%, which is the only data in the ultra-luxury car. Third, the safety of the vehicle's engineering structure, like the strength of the side door and the three layers of conduction. Fourth, the efforts made in active safety are only 100,000 yuan vehicles, but like NiO Group's AEB and immediate AES in active safety, including 120 kilometers forward and rearward safety, all are standard. All of the things I just said were standard on the whole car, which made this car achieve such good results in safety. Car House: Since the launch of the firefly, many special edition models have been officially launched, and new and upgraded models have recently been launched. What's next for product planning? Is there any news about the large battery version and the open-top version that users are interested in? Pu Yang: I am also very concerned about these. The aesthetic-based design conveys a new lifestyle and then releases the functions of the new vehicle. These have formed strategies and methods for the past period of time, and have achieved great success in the market. We are also very grateful for everyone's support for us. In addition to the basic functions of the vehicle, according to the requirements of the national regulations, with the major revision, with the play of the front or rear, for everyone to provide. For the past year, I have provided you with better control of the chassis "g-force gravity kit", including the ability to open the front trunk of the flash knock. The convertible version is loved by a lot of people, and we are very confident that we can make a good convertible product. If the firefly firefly is made, it must be a very serious open-top version, because the structure of the entire upper half of the body of the open-top version has changed. If we still need to maintain relatively high safety standards, we need to improve the entire vehicle structure and chassis. The improved engineering cost probably belongs to the ability to rebuild a car. For NiO's quality and standards, we will not do the kind of work that simply cuts off a canopy. We will definitely seriously do such a product. It has a huge investment, maybe hundreds of millions of investment. We also believe that it will be better for us to polish such a product for a while. In the past, in the Chinese market, maybe because of supply, or because the market has just begun to mature, open-top vehicles have not been welcomed by everyone, because open-top vehicles are also very expensive for supply chain reasons. We hope to come up with enough sincerity, such as adding as little money as possible, so that everyone can use better prices, and it is easier to have a convertible car. I am very confident myself. I once blew a cow inside the company. I said that as long as the firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly firefly fireflly Car House: Is there a chance to see it this year? Pu Yang: There is no chance this year, but it is still necessary to seriously report such work to everyone. In fact, it is equivalent to redeveloping another car, and there is still a great challenge. Car House: I would also like to know the layout of overseas markets, which markets are more in love with our cars. Pu Yang: At present, firefly has entered 11 countries on three continents: Europe, the Americas, and Asia. In March, we just launched in Thailand, and announced the Thai version of the right rudder at the auto show. At the end of March, we also landed in the Costa Rican market. The process of globalization has steadily expanded. The reason why we entered such a market is because the local market has a good understanding of cars. We also won a very important award "World Urban Car" the other day. The award of the world urban car is almost the highest award in the world. There is no doubt that our products are successful on a global scale. We also respect the difficulties faced by new markets around the world, such as more realistic difficulties, such as tariffs, regulations, and the expansion of the dealer network. We also recognize that like brands, like a new brand, enter new markets. Everyone needs to have a long-term understanding of your country. A long-term process is required. We are working with all partners to attach to the existing timing and market as much as possible. The second is to look at opportunities in other markets. We hope that firefly fireflies can fly to any corner of the world and shine together. Car House: Back at the Beijing Auto Show, we found that this year's conference was super many, more than 200, and more than 80 conferences were released last month. Do you feel that there are a lot of events released in such a short period of time, do you think it is necessary? Pu Yang: This proves several things: First, it proves that the Beijing Auto Show is influential enough that everyone hopes that after communicating their products to the market clearly before the Beijing Auto Show, all participants in the Beijing Auto Show, including exhibitors, potential consumers and partners, will be able to see their products. Second, to some extent, like some types of vehicles, I have seen some manufacturers or learned about some manufacturers, their market strategy will make some adjustments, but in my opinion, these are an indispensable part of market competition, these competitions will bring two changes and I think it is very difficult. 1. Products will become more and more excellent. Each car company's own internal skills include product planning capabilities, and the ability of the supply chain will become more and more excellent. 2. More direct, the entire industry will become better, and consumers can buy better products with less money. The Chinese consumer is definitely the happiest consumer on the planet in the field of automobiles, because he can buy the world's most advanced products with the least money, without discussing this matter at all. Third, of course, it will face a lot of problems. When the market enters a state similar to deflation, a very fierce competition process, Ddeliver will be a better product today, but because of the entire upstream and downstream supply chain, the profit situation is getting worse and worse. For more long-term product investment and corporate profits, including automobiles, which are huge industrial chains, it may be the first place in all consumer goods industry chains in China. If the industry is fiercely competitive like this, it means that all practitioners in this industry will not make money. In the long run, everyone's happiness will be challenged. Like I just said, it is an indispensable part of the market economy development process. To some extent, I feel that there should be a very significant improvement in the next few years. AutoHome: In 2025, the auto industry margin was only 4.1%. In the first two months of 2026, it fell again to 2.9%. What do you think are the main reasons why the industry does not make money? Pu Yang: This may not be just the auto industry's own thing, this is the global economy, including the macroeconomic development to face today, you will also see more happy numbers, for example, we have become the world's largest exporter of cars, I practiced about ten years ago, this is you will not imagine, I practiced the day to tell you that we are the most advanced car company on earth, we are the largest exporter of cars, you can not imagine such a thing, I feel that this is also the case of internal coil spillover, to some extent, also made us create a way to participate in global competition. I am not sure that speaking as a business can improve some of these things, what we can do is to provide users with better products, more advanced products. I feel that the product is really good and I can talk, whether it is in China or in the world, it is the same thing. In the end, it is still the product that speaks.