“The EV market, especially in China, is incredibly competitive,” says Kris Tomasson, vice president of design for Nio, one of China’s leading EV startups. To keep ahead of the competition, “design really has to be leading edge, always looking forward, very progressive. So we’re given the ability to really push on the design side.”
Being design-forward means being agile enough to pursue new ideas quickly—with a helping hand from digital technology. “Key decisions that maybe would take months at a traditional carmaker, we can make within hours through our digital tools,” Tomasson says.
Nio is now trying to use its design chops in releasing a new entry-level vehicle—dubbed “Firefly”—as it tries to break into the entry-level segment in both the Chinese and European car markets.
Tomasson, who had previously worked at BMW, Ford, and Coca-Cola, was “one of the first 10 people brought on board, which made me realize how important design was going to be for this company going forward.”
Michael Tropper, cofounder of design agency Forpeople, was also brought into Nio early to work on “a once-in-a-career opportunity to build something from scratch.” He tried to focus on Nio’s offerings beyond the car itself, particularly the company’s battery-swapping stations.
“This is the main worry everybody has about EVs: How am I going to charge the car? What if I run out of power?” Tropper says. Nio has since made its sleek, minimalist battery-swapping stations a “cohesive part of the brand experience,” Tropper says.
The second unique aspect behind Nio are the “Nio Houses,” the company’s retail storefronts. The startup pitches these “houses” as community spaces for Nio drivers, including co-working spaces, libraries and cafes. “We took inspiration from private members clubs,” Tropper said. “I took William Li to Soho House here in London, and we really immersed ourselves into that world.”
Nio now has over 180 such spaces, mostly in China with a few in Europe and the Middle East. “A key element of differentiation for Nio is its service culture and care for the customer. We felt, very early, that a space where you host people is the best way to express that,” Tropper says. “The car industry can learn a lot from the hospitality industry.”
The startup’s latest offering is “Firefly,” a more entry-level vehicle compared to its standard premium models.
When designing the car, Nio “distilled it down to three keywords: Vivid, thoughtful, and solid,” Tomasson says. That first characteristic—vividness—comes through in its “trio lights”: three small headlights on each side of the car’s front, which are mirrored on the back. “Nobody’s done that in the industry,” Tomasson explains. “It’s instantly recognizable.”
Thoughtfulness comes through in the car’s interior, which the company made “as efficient as possible” in order to maximize space. And finally, despite its more entry-level price tag, the car still needs to feel like a “premium, grown-up car.”
Tropper, too, embraced the idea of the “firefly” in developing the car’s brand image, choosing an “electric yellow, glowing color that offsets the cooler tones of the night.”
For Tropper, working on Firefly was a chance for the branding and design teams to work closely together, rather than in separate, siloed verticals. “The design DNA has to work for the brand as well as the cars,” he says.
