The Onvo L60 is the first car from Nio’s new family-focussed spin-off brand

Nio doesn’t sell its any of its nine EVs in the UK just yet, but we're well acquainted with the brand name thanks to its rapid EP9 supercar and its keen use of battery swap technology across China (and now Europe too). Now though, in a bid to confuse us all and follow the trend set by other Chinese carmakers, Nio has created a completely new sub-brand.

Short for On Voyage, the brand will be known as Onvo. Its first car will be the L60 – known as LeDao in China – and it's a family-focussed Tesla Model Y rival that should be priced at around £27,500. Well, that's if it makes it to the UK...

Penned by the original Bentley Continental GT designer Raul Pires, the Onvo L60 has a lot in common with the Model Y at first glance, but we're told that the body is longer and the front side lights sit a bit higher while the tailgate lines are narrower with slimmer lights. The star-designed alloys of the L60 are far more appealing, too.

It'll use a battery pack also used by Changan and Geely models. According to Nio, the 900V setup will offer the lowest energy consumption in the world. Bold claims. The L60 will of course have battery swap functionality too, so there's no hanging around for charging once the swap stations actually arrive (there's only 30 across Europe at the moment).

Nio, sorry Onvo, says the L60 will be a 'family-centric smart BEV'. Inside, we're told the cabin is spacious and versatile enough to make multiple lounge-like configurations. How very camping-friendly.

The Onvo L60’s sub-£30,000 price point should be fairly customer-friendly too, although Nio is also looking to launch cheaper city cars in 2025 with another spin-off brand – a project currently known as ‘Firefly’, according to reports from Reuters.

William Li, founder of Nio, said, "Kicked off three years ago, Onvo has already developed a holistic set of system capabilities, and has been further enabled by Nio's capabilities and resources accumulated in the past 10 years. With Onvo added to our brand lineup, we are able to reach out to and serve more users. Leveraging the system competitiveness of the entire company, we have full confidence in Nio and Onvo."

More info as we have it – including whether or not this thing will make it to Blighty.