NIO's small-car brand Firefly will launch a new version equipped with a 60-kWh battery pack on October 23, lifting CLTC range from 420 km to 560 km, Chinese automotive media reported this week. The new pack, supplied by CATL, keeps the same external dimensions as the current 42.1-kWh unit but switches the cell chemistry from LFP to ternary lithium, which explains the capacity jump in the same envelope.
What makes the launch unusual is that existing owners will be able to pay to upgrade to the larger pack — an option that has virtually no precedent in the US market and that industry observers describe as extending the "hardware-evolvable" OTA philosophy to the battery itself. Upgrade pricing and mechanics are expected to be announced at the October 23 event, with swaps handled through NIO's Power Swap network.
Separately, Firefly opened its first long-term standalone brand store worldwide at the centralwOrld shopping mall in Bangkok on October 19, complete with an art car co-created with a Thai illustrator, and launched an upgraded right-hand-drive version in Thailand, its second right-hand-drive market after Singapore. Firefly has delivered 90,000 units since its April 2025 debut.
Source: Autohome/CnEVPost/InsideEVs digest, October 20, 2026
