⚡From premium brand to mobility ecosystem: the strategy behind 35/55/10. NIO's hidden roadmap: why ONVO will be the engine of growth. How a second brand redefines the entire strategy. The architecture of the next million vehicles

"35, 50, 10" refers to the long-term target sales structure for NIO's three main brands (NIO, Ledao, and Firefly), as planned by its founder, Li Bin. This plan aims to cover different market segments through a multi-brand matrix.https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail\_forward\_33220885

10/55/35 is the guide for a longer-term projection: Firefly 10k, Ledao 55k, NIO 35k. Afterwards, the buyer will do what they want and can... but we're talking about 100k monthly sales, that is, 1.2 million annually... Anyway, it's striking that they're projecting only 10k for the Firefly... Look, hypothetically speaking, they wouldn't expect any new model for this sub-brand... but it's striking because they're about to launch the 5th generation charging stations compatible with that model... Perhaps because it's a single model... they chose to project a conservative estimate of how many units a model can reach in the premium urban compact segment... but we could also see, over time, a number that approaches 15,000 units... The expansion of the charging stations will be the main driver of sales for the second brand, Onvo... and the differentiating factor compared to its direct competition... It's where the brand could grow the most... also taking into account Since aggressive global expansion is not expected in the short term, the NIO brand has a clearer ceiling. Onvo, in the segment it competes in, does not. As its main brand is not expected to capture new markets in the short term, if NIO intends to scale in terms of volume, the most logical strategy would be to do so through its family sub-brand. Therefore, it would be reasonable to expect new releases under the ONVO sub-brand in the coming years.

If we take as a hypothesis that 10/55/35 (Firefly/ONVO/NIO) distribution over 100,000 units per month, the implicit message is that the company no longer envisions NIO as the main volume driver. NIO would remain the premium brand, with high ASP, higher margins, and a technological focus; ONVO would be the commercial "engine"; and Firefly would occupy an entry-level urban niche.

As we mentioned, the conservative projected sales figure assigned to the Firefly is striking, considering that:

It operates in a potentially much broader segment.

It has a lower entry price.

It will benefit from compatibility with the new generation of battery swap stations.

It is the most exportable of the three products if they decide to accelerate international expansion at some point.

Absolute priority for ONVO

Today, everything seems to indicate that the highest return on investment is with ONVO.

ONVO competes in the heart of the Chinese market:

families,

mid-size and large SUVs,

the highest-volume segment.

For a premium NIO buyer, the battery swap is just one more advantage within a complete experience.

For an ONVO buyer, it can become a decisive buying argument:

upgradeable battery,

reduced initial price via BaaS,

simplified long-distance travel,

infrastructure support.

In other words, the competitive advantage is much more visible compared to direct rivals.

And regarding the long term, if NIO ever wants to approach volumes of 1 million or more vehicles annually, it's hard to imagine them doing so solely with the NIO brand.

Premium brands are almost never the ones that generate the bulk of the volume.

The parallel would be something like this:

NIO → equivalent to the role of BMW.

ONVO → equivalent to the bulk of the mainstream market.

Firefly → urban and eventually international entry point.

Under this scheme, it wouldn't be surprising if, within a few years, ONVO represents more than half of all the group's deliveries.

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And the SWAP stations? 1.2 million annual sales could mean that the network would begin to be profitable for the first time in its history... It is, in fact, what one would expect from an infrastructure that finally reaches critical mass. Remember that the network not only bills for subscriptions...it also bills for services through V2B bidirectional charging technology that allows electric vehicles to transfer energy to the electrical grid.

We're no longer talking about niche sales... The company is aiming for masive production. To give you an idea, Tesla sells 1.5 million vehicles worldwide annually.

We're talking about:

1.2 million vehicles per year.

Tens of thousands of daily trade-ins.

High-volume industrial production.

An optimized supply chain for economies of scale.

Brands segmented for distinct audiences.

This is no longer a company trying to survive or defend a premium niche.

It's a company that aspires to compete in the same league as the major global manufacturers.

NIO: 35,000/month → 420,000/year.

ONVO: 55,000/month → 660,000/year.

Firefly: 10,000/month → 120,000/year.

The entire group would be delivering approximately 1.2 million vehicles annually.

To put that in perspective, that's a higher volume than many established Western brands considered major players.

That's why the most interesting takeaway from the famous "35/55/10" isn't how many each brand will sell, but rather the implicit message: NIO is no longer designing a company to sell 300,000 cars a year. It's designing a structure capable of operating on a scale of millions of units.

And that's where ONVO becomes the centerpiece, because it's the only one of the three brands with the realistic potential to contribute the majority of that volume growth. NIO maintains its prestige and ASP (Average Sales Position); Firefly provides access and urban expansion; but the leap from hundreds of thousands to more than a million units annually will likely depend on ONVO capturing a significant share of the massive Chinese family market.