The first model of NIO’s new low-cost Onvo brand, the L60 electric SUV, could lead to a sales surge, according to at least one analyst. Aimed at Tesla’s best-selling Model Y, the NIO Onvo L60 could boost sales to over 20,000 per month as an even more affordable ($30K) option.
NIO’s new $30K Onvo L60 could lead to a sales surge
After launching the first EV under its new mass-market Onvo brand this week, starting at $30,500 (219,900 yuan), NIO’s new electric SUV is already attracting analysts’ attention.
In a statement sent to investors overnight, Deutsche Bank (via CnEVPost) analyst Wang Bin’s team said: “Onvo L60 SUV will officially start delivery in Sep. 2024, and the company is targeting Onvo L60 monthly delivery volume of ~10,000 units.”
However, the analyst agreed NIO’s previous target of 20,000 deliveries per month is doable. “Thus we think Nio’s expectation of monthly >20,000 unit delivery is achievable with boost from Onvo.”
At 4,828 mm long, 1,930 mm wide, and 1,616 mm tall, the Onvo L60 will directly rival the Model Y (4,750 mm long X 1,921 mm wide X 1,624 mm tall).
A true Tesla Y rival?
Starting at $30,500 (219,900 yuan), NIO’s new electric SUV undercuts the Tesla Model Y in China. Tesla’s base RWD Model Y starts at $34,500 (249,900 yuan) with up to 554 km (344 mi) CLTC range.
NIO Onvo L60 vs Tesla Model Y trims
Range (CLTC)
Starting Price
NIO Onvo L60 (60 kWh)
555 km (341 mi)
219,900 yuan ($30,500)
NIO Onvo L60 (90 kWh)
730 km (454 mi)
TBD
NIO Onvo L60 (150 kWh)
+1,000 km (+621 mi)
TBD
Tesla Model Y RWD
554 km (344 mi)
249,900 yuan ($34,600)
Tesla Model Y AWD Long Range
688 km (427 mi)
290,900 yuan ($40,300)
Tesla Model Y AWD Performance
615 km (382 mi)
354,900 yuan ($49,100)
NIO Onvo L60 vs Tesla Model Y
The new NIO Onvo L60 gets over 1,000 km (+621 mi) CLTC range with the top-of-the-line 150 kWh version. However, the base L60, starting at $30,500 (60 kWh battery), gets up to 555 km (341 mi) range.
Tesla’s Long Range AWD Model Y starts at $40,300 (290,900 yuan) with up to 688 km (427 mi) range, while the AWD Performance model costs $49,100 (354,900 yuan).
NIO says its new electric SUV has better energy consumption than the Tesla Model Y (12.1 kWh/100km vs. 12.5 kWh/100km) under the same CLTC conditions.
Bin’s team expects NIO to launch six new vehicles next year, generating 300,000 in sales. That would be 25,000 unit sales per month, including NIO’s new Onvo brand.
New EVs to accelerate growth
NIO CEO William Li and Alan Ai, president of Onvo, revealed the brand’s second model will be a larger (six or seven-seater) electric SUV. According to CarNewsChina, the second Onvo EV is expected to launch in 2025.
In addition to the two new Onvo EVs, Bin’s team expects four new NIO brand models to roll out next year: the ET9 Sedan, ES8 SUV, and ES7 SUV, all based on its new NT 2.0 platform.
“As a result, we forecast Nio’s total 2025 sales volume to increase 62% YoY to 300,000 units,” the note read. The breakdown includes 200,000 NIO brand models and another 100,000 in Onvo sales.
NIO delivered 15,620 vehicles last month, up 135% YOY, with the EC6 (+53%), ES6 (+48%), and ET5 (+52%) all seeing double-digit month-over-month gains.
NIO management told the media this morning that the the development of Onvo’s second EV is almost complete and deliveries will begin next year.
“If the product is done right, a single model could sell enough, as Tesla BYD has proven,” Li said. BYD recently launched its own Model Y competitor, the Sea Lion 07, starting at 189,800 ($26,250), undercutting both rival EVs (Check out BYD’s Sea Lion 07 here).
What do you you think? Can NIO’s new Onvo brand match Tesla’s or BYD’s sales? Drop us a comment below to let us know your thoughts.
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An aircraft alledgedly carrying US businessman Donald Trump Jr. arrives in Nuuk, Greenland on January 7, 2025.
Emil Stach | Afp | Getty Images
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump‘s pursuit to acquire Greenland could well be motivated by critical minerals, with mining executives and researchers describing the island’s massive resource potential as an “enormous opportunity.”
Trump’s years-long bid to take control of the world’s largest island has kicked into overdrive in recent weeks.
Ahead of his inauguration on Jan. 20, Trump said U.S. ownership of the autonomous Danish territory is an “absolute necessity” for purposes related to “national security and freedom throughout the world.”
Trump has since doubled down on those comments, refusing to rule out the use of military or economic force to make Greenland a part of the U.S.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede has told Trump that the Arctic island is “not for sale” and urged the international community to respect the territory’s aspirations for independence. Alongside Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Egede has also recently called for talks with Trump to resolve the situation.
Asked about Trump’s fixation on making Greenland a part of the U.S., the president-elect’s incoming national security advisor, Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., was unequivocal.
“This is about critical minerals. This is about natural resources,” Waltz told Fox News in an interview on Jan. 9.
“This is about reintroducing America in the Western Hemisphere,” Waltz said. “You can call it Monroe Doctrine 2.0, but this is all part of the ‘America First‘ agenda.”
Greenland is going to become more and more topical; it is going to become more and more front and center because of the climate change discussion, the critical metals discussion and the geopolitical discussion.
Roderick McIllree
Executive director of 80 Mile
Critical minerals refer to a subset of materials considered essential to the energy transition. These minerals, which tend to have a high risk of supply chain disruption, include metals such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements.
Critical minerals and rare earth elements are vital components in emerging green technologies, such as wind turbines and electric vehicles, energy storage technologies and national security applications.
China is the undisputed leader of the critical minerals supply chain, accounting for roughly 60% of the world’s production of rare earth minerals and materials. U.S. officials have previously warned that this poses a strategic challenge amid the pivot to low-carbon energy sources.
In this aerial view melting icebergs crowd the Ilulissat Icefjord on July 16, 2024 near Ilulissat, Greenland.
Sean Gallup | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Jakob Kløve Keiding, senior consultant at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), said a 2023 survey of Greenland’s resource potential evaluated a total of 38 raw materials on the island, the vast majority of which have a relatively high or moderate potential.
These materials include the rare earth metals graphite, niobium, platinum group metals, molybdenum, tantalum and titanium.
“Overall, we can say that there is a huge potential for critical raw materials [in Greenland],” Keiding told CNBC via telephone.
“Many of these are of great importance for the EU economy and, of course, it is not limited to just Europe. Many of these are also on the list of American [critical raw materials],” he added.
‘Greenland is not for sale’
Aaja Chemnitz, a Greenland member of the Danish parliament from the Inuit Ataqatigiit party, described Trump’s comments about Greenland as “disrespectful” and reaffirmed the prime minister’s message by saying the territory is not for sale.
“I’m not concerned. I think that some people in Greenland are quite concerned, but I think it is important for us to say that Greenland is not for sale, never has been for sale [and] never will be for sale,” Chemnitz told CNBC’s Silvia Amaro on Monday.
Chemnitz said Greenlandic lawmakers would need to have “clear and very specific goals on how to collaborate with the U.S.”
Closer ties between Greenland and the U.S. moving forward, for instance, could help to facilitate investment in the island’s mining industry, she added.
“If we look at extraction, for example, of rare earths. This is something that we have been willing to do for a very long time. We’ve been looking for American investors, [but] we haven’t found them, so they are quite welcome,” Chemnitz said.
The U.S. military maintains a permanent presence in northwest Greenland at the Pituffik Space Base, formerly known as Thule Air Base.
‘A race for what’s left’
Roderick McIllree, executive director of U.K.-based mining company 80 Mile, said he’s been working in Greenland for just over 20 years on projects ranging from resource discovery to feasibility.
“I think that what we’re seeing in Greenland is really a race for what’s left,” McIllree told CNBC via video call.
“A lot of independent state surveys are pointing to Greenland and its natural shelf boundaries as potentially hosting 20% to 25% of the last remaining extractable resources on the planet. Now, if that’s right, that’s an enormous opportunity for Greenland.”
The Old Colonial Harbour of Nuuk, Greenland is pictured on August 30, 2024. Greenland, an icy land whose rugged landscapes are bewitching, wants to attract more tourists, a paradox for a territory that is particularly vulnerable to global warming and whose geographical isolation means that many people have to take planes to get there.
James Brooks | Afp | Getty Images
80 Mile currently has three projects it is actively developing in Greenland, including a large oil concession on the island’s east coast, a titanium project near Pituffik in the northwest and its Disko-Nuussuaq project in the southwest.
Underlining the resource potential in the territory, McIllree said the firm’s Disko project could be one of the largest occurrences of nickel and copper on the planet.
“Greenland is going to become more and more topical; it is going to become more and more front and center because of the climate change discussion, the critical metals discussion and the geopolitical discussion. And its proximity to the U.S. really kind of makes it a natural jurisdiction for significant U.S. investment,” McIllree said.
“If Greenland play their cards right, this will lead to their independence,” he added.
‘Significant strategic interest’
In March last year, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen traveled to Nuuk, Greenland to inaugurate an EU office in the island’s capital.
The move, which came several months before Donald Trump Jnr.’s recent trip to the same city, was designed to firm up Europe’s presence in the territory as well as the broader Arctic region.
Von der Leyen announced two cooperation agreements totaling almost 94 million euros ($95.9 million) at the time, which she said would be used to invest in clean energy, critical raw materials and skills in Greenland.
(L-R) President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Greenlandic Prime Minister Mute B Egede and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen sign an agreement on the opening of the European Commission’s new office in Nuuk, Greenland, on March 15, 2024.
Leiff Josefsen | Afp | Getty Images
“I’m a geologist by background and I know that Greenland is very well endowed with natural resources,” Paul Lusty, head of battery raw materials research at Fastmarkets, told CNBC via video call.
“There has been a lot of interest in rare earths in Greenland, for example, and clearly, they can be of significant strategic interest to the U.S.,” Lusty said.
Hot on the heels of Kia being added to Tesla’s “coming soon” page for Supercharger access, we’re now learning that Supercharger support won’t actually come nearly as soon as expected for Kia – with a delay of weeks or months before Kia owners can plug in at North America’s largest fast charging network.
Earlier today, Kia and several other brands were added to Tesla’s coming soon page, suggesting that access could be imminent.
This squared with a previous September announcement that access would come in January – with a planned date of January 15, just two days away from now.
But today, PC Magazine reported that Kia’s access will be delayed to sometime in Spring.
That means it could be any time in the next three months, assuming there are no further delays.
PC Magazine quoted James Bell, Kia’s head of PR, as stating that “a delay has occurred and we are working with the appropriate teams to confirm new availability/date.” We also reached out to Bell to see if we could get any more information, but hadn’t heard back as of press time.
It’s unclear whether this delay will affect other brands, like Hyundai and Genesis.
Kia and Hyundai (and Hyundai sub-brand Genesis) share a platform for their electric vehicles, and have been the first to offer vehicles with native NACS ports on 2025 models, as opposed to using adapters like all other brands have so far. Older Kia/Hyundai vehicles without a native NACS port will still be able to use an adapter once cars gain access to the network.
We reached out to Hyundai to find out whether they’ve been hit by the same delay, but haven’t heard back yet. We’ll update if we do.
For a while it seemed like a bit of a hail mary, as many thought that most of the industry was already committed to the SAE CCS standard for fast charging.
But these things take time, and the industry had to work on redesigning vehicles, building adapters, organizing software handshakes, and building out an official standard. Now, several brands can already use Superchargers, with more to come.
Earlier today, when so many brands were added to the “coming soon” page, it seemed like perhaps the dust had settled on the chaotic charging situation caused my Musk’s instability. But perhaps this Kia news is indication that there’s still some trouble that needs to be worked through.
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The Biden administration awarded $635 million in EV charger grants just 10 days before Donald Trump takes office, leaving just $700,000 of the $2.5 billion from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law unallocated.
The grants from Biden’s zero-emission refueling infrastructure programs will fund 49 projects that will deploy more than 11,500 EV charging ports and alternative fuel infrastructure along corridors and in communities across 27 states, four federally recognized tribes, and the District of Columbia.
$368 million will be allocated for 42 projects that expand EV charging infrastructure within communities across the US, while $268 million will go toward seven projects that build out the national fast charging network along designated Alternative Fuel Corridors.
US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement, “These investments will help states and communities build out a network of EV chargers in the coming years so that one day, finding a charge on a road trip will be as easy as filling up at a gas station.”
There are currently nearly 70,000 public EV charging stations across the US, with over 197,000 charging ports, according to the DOE’s Alternative Fuels Data Center. The Biden administration set a goal of building out 500,000 publicly available EV chargers by 2030.
Since the election, the Biden administration has been rushing to distribute clean energy funding in response to Trump’s threats to claw it back. Once the funds are allocated, reclaiming them will be nearly impossible.
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