The designer of the Onvo L60 is Onvo's head of global design, Raul Pires, who has more than 20 years of design experience with Volkswagen, designing several Bentley models.

For lower vehicle energy consumption, Nio founder, chairman, and CEO William Li vetoed a vehicle styling that had been around for six months, Ai said.

At the time, the Onvo team had a model styling design that everyone thought was stunning, but Li said he needed to use the Chinese New Year holiday to think about it, Ai said, adding that Li later rejected the design because of the sacrifice of vehicle range.

"Batteries cost a lot of money, and if we reduce the power consumption, then the range is longer and it saves the user money," Ai said.

($1 = RMB 7.2378)

Onvo has prioritized low energy consumption from day 1, says Nio sub-brand chief