A few days ago, a blogger exposed a group of suspected new sub-brands of NIO - the first model of Alps (internal name), the new car is positioned as a medium-sized pure electric SUV, and the predicted price is in the range of 20-250,000 yuan. Although the positioning is slightly lower than that of the NIO brand, Alps brings better value for money while maintaining quality, and it is worth mentioning that all models under the brand support battery swapping technology.
The new car adopts a fastback styling design, the height of the front hatch is relatively low, and the slope of the A-pillar is large, and the overall shape is designed towards a coupe SUV. The roof is not equipped with lidar, due to brand positioning issues, and the new car will adopt a purely visual intelligent driving assistance solution.
In terms of appearance, the size of the new car is larger, which should be calibrated against the Tesla Model Y, and it is not ruled out that it will be longer than its own NIO EC6. In addition, the low nose, smooth body/roof, and fastback styling are all considered for wind resistance (range/energy consumption), and I am looking forward to the average power consumption and drag coefficient of the new car.
The interior of the new car is expected to be on par with the NIO brand and Tesla's models, and it is richer than the "equipment" on the Tesla model, but the texture and luxury of the cockpit will be slightly inferior to the NIO brand models, and the central control screen will use an OLED screen, and the horizontal layout, functions and applications should be synchronized with the NIO brand.
From the perspective of positioning, the price of the new car is much more "down-to-earth" than the price of the NIO brand model, and it is expected that there will be a single-motor model, which may cancel the all-aluminum body, and even cancel some of the standard high-end configurations on the NIO model, such as ADB matrix headlights, electric suction doors, Brembo brake calipers, etc.
The new car will adopt the self-developed "three electrics" technology, based on the NT3.0 platform, with a new electrical architecture, three electrics, intelligent cockpit and intelligent driving technology, all models will be equipped with 800V scheme, the first model will use 800V scheme, the first model will be equipped with 60kWh and 90kWh battery packs, and share the battery swap function with NIO's third-generation battery swap station.
In terms of intelligent driving, all models of the brand will not be equipped with rooftop lidar, and will instead use a "pure vision" solution, equipped with an NVIDIA Orin-X chip with a computing power of 254 TOPS (estimated), which is believed to still be able to achieve high-speed and urban navigation assistance functions, but the effect/experience of decision-making or execution is not as good as that on NIO brand models.
N Comments: The Alps brand focuses on the 200,000-300,000 level market, which is the most competitive mid-range market for independent brands, and Li Bin, CEO of NIO, has set a sales target of 50,000 units per month for the main models of the Alps brand. From a product point of view, Alps brand models support battery swapping, can also lease batteries, have a better level of energy consumption, can also achieve intelligent assisted driving, and the price is more affordable, I think as long as the production capacity can keep up, sales should not be a problem. (Image source: Delu Ai Driving)