NIO's Comeback Move? New Launch: NIO Sub-brand ONVO L90 Hits the Market
On July 31, NIO’s sub-brand ONVO officially launched its new flagship SUV — the ONVO L90. Positioned as a smart, spacious family car, the L90 comes in both six-seat and seven-seat versions. The six-seat version starts at RMB 179,800 and began delivery on August 1. The seven-seat version, priced from RMB 185,800, is expected to start deliveries in late September. Each version will be available in Pro, Max, and Ultra trims.
Catalog
📏 Spacious, Practical, and Stylish
The ONVO L90 measures 5145mm (L) x 1998mm (W) x 1786mm (H) with a 3110mm wheelbase, offering ample interior space. The exterior design features a closed front grille and split headlight design with ADB adaptive lighting. Streamlined body lines, hidden door handles, soft-closing doors, and a 240-liter front trunk combine practicality with a futuristic aesthetic.
🛋️ Minimalist Interior with Premium Features
The cabin sticks to a minimalist design philosophy, highlighted by a 17.2-inch high-definition central display and a 35-inch AR-HUD system. Rear-seat entertainment screens are available as optional extras. Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295P automotive-grade chipset, the L90 runs on NIO’s self-developed Coconut 2.0 smart system, supporting multi-screen interaction and smooth voice control.
Both first- and second-row seats come standard with ventilation and massage functions, and the rear seats can be optionally upgraded to zero-gravity seats for superior comfort.
⚡ Performance and Range
The L90 is offered in single-motor rear-wheel drive (RWD) and dual-motor all-wheel drive (AWD) versions:
RWD: Maximum output of 340kW
AWD: Combined output of 440kW, with 0–100 km/h acceleration in 4.7 seconds
All variants come with an 85kWh battery pack, delivering a CLTC-rated pure electric range of 605 km, suitable for both daily commuting and long-distance travel.
🤖 Smart Driving & Safety
ONVO L90 adopts a vision-only autonomous driving solution, powered by an NVIDIA Orin-X chip, enabling full-scenario assisted navigation.
In terms of safety, the L90 is developed to meet the C-NCAP 2024 five-star safety standards, featuring a steel-aluminum hybrid body structure with 84% high-strength materials, and is equipped with 9 airbags across all configurations for enhanced passive safety.
⚔️ Targeting Competitors with Lower Prices
The ONVO L90 goes head-to-head with competitors like the newly launched Li Auto i8 (starting from RMB 321,800) by offering a differentiated battery-swap architecture and EV-only platform. Notably, the L90’s final pricing is RMB 14,000 lower than its pre-sale price.
NIO CEO William Li emphasized that the L90 is designed to address key pain points for families: limited space and charging anxiety.
💰 NIO’s Critical Moment: Sink or Swim?
As one of the established players in China’s new energy vehicle (NEV) sector with a decade of history, NIO has faced less-than-ideal performance in recent years, accumulating losses exceeding 100 billion RMB. Its successive sub-brands, including the Firefly and ONVO (Le Dao), have not met market expectations. The newly launched ONVO L90, developed with a focus on cost reduction and efficiency improvement, is therefore crucial for NIO. Given the company’s current financial situation, it may not be able to afford the failure of one or two more models. Fortunately, the ONVO L90 appears to be a promising start. If NIO can maintain this momentum, it has a real chance of turning things around and becoming the next NEV success story after Li Auto and Leapmotor.
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