Onvo's executive team didn't take a break during the just-concluded Qingming Festival holiday, but instead held meetings to prepare for the next marketing operations, according to local media.

(A spy shot of the first model of Nio's sub-brand Onvo.)

Nio (NYSE: NIO) is gearing up for the marketing of Onvo, Ledao in China, with the sub-brand's official debut expected in about a month.

After nearly 3 years in the making, Onvo is about to enter an intensive marketing period, local media outlet Jiemian said in a report today.

This is a key brand for Nio to achieve scaled volume growth and amortize manufacturing costs, and an important step in determining whether it can turn around its losses and improve its financials, the report noted.

Nio is ready for Onvo's marketing rhythm, with the sub-brand's executive team not taking a break during the just-concluded Qingming Festival, or Tomb Sweeping Day, but instead holding a lot of meetings to prepare for the upcoming marketing operations, Jiemian said, citing a person familiar with the matter.

This year's Qingming Festival holiday was April 4-6, with April 7 being an extra workday, albeit a Sunday. Onvo was previously known by the internal codename of Alps.

Nio founder, chairman, and CEO William Li shared a video yesterday showing him at the company's office in Caohejing, Shanghai, which is home to Nio's innovative businesses including Onvo, the Firefly sub-brand, and phones, according to Jiemian.

Li said in the video posted yesterday on short-form video platform Douyin that he and his team held meetings for days.

The launch of the Onvo brand is scheduled for early to mid-May, but the first product will have to wait until September to go on sale, with volume deliveries in the fourth quarter, the report noted.

To reduce R&D costs, Onvo's self-driving R&D, smart cockpit business has been integrated into the Nio brand, Jiemian said, adding that Onvo will also share the NT 3.0 platform with the Nio brand.

Expected deliveries starting in the fourth quarter could help Onvo widen the time gap with Xiaomi's first electric vehicle (EV) model, the SU7, but the Nio sub-brand will need to pace itself, the report said, citing automotive industry analyst Mei Songlin.

The Alps brand will debut in the second quarter, with the first product launching in the third quarter and mass deliveries starting in the fourth quarter, Li said on March 5 during an analyst call after Nio announced its fourth-quarter 2023 earnings.

Nio's management had previously been referring to Onvo by its internal codename of Alps, and only started referring to the brand by Onvo or Ledao after spy shots leaked the brand's official name in the middle of last month, saying that the brand launch would be in early-mid May.

Alps' first model will be one that competes directly with the Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) Model Y, and the BOM (bill of materials) cost will be about 10 percent cheaper than Tesla's, Li said in the analyst call.

In what may be a preparation for the marketing of the sub-brand, Li, who previously had little presence on social media, has begun to actively reach out to a broader group of people through Douyin.

In a short video on Douyin on March 21, Li said he test drove the first Onvo-branded car on the factory campus and showed off some of the model's internal space performance.

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