Tesla’s Chinese rival Nio cuts price for new Onvo-branded car

cnbc.com:

HEFEI, China — There's yet another Chinese electric car aiming to undercut Tesla, with a steeper discount.

Onvo, the lower-priced brand launched by premium electric car company Nio, announced its first car, the L60 SUV, would start as low as 149,900 Chinese yuan ($21,210) when buying battery services via a monthly subscription, starting at 599 yuan. That's the equivalent to just over $1,000 a year for «renting» the battery.

A model with the battery and the car starts at 206,900 yuan. Deliveries are set to begin Sept. 28.

Nio shares briefly rose by more than 3.5% in U.S. trading Thursday after the Onvo L60 launch.

When Nio launched the Onvo brand in May, the company said the L60 would start selling at 219,900 yuan versus Tesla's Model Y at 249,900 yuan.

Geely-backed Zeekr is set to launch its first midsize electric SUV, the Zeekr 7X, in China on Sept. 20, starting at 239,900 yuan.

Xpeng in late August announced its mass market brand Mona would begin sales of its M03 electric coupe in China. The basic version starts at 119,800 yuan, with a driving range of 515 kilometers (320 miles) and some parking assist features.

A version of the Mona M03 with the more advanced «Max» driver assist features and a driving range of 580 kilometers will sell for 155,800 yuan.

In comparison, Tesla's cheapest car — the Model 3 — costs 231,900 yuan in China, after a price cut in April.

Chinese electric car companies have gradually expanded overseas, often starting with Europe. However, the European Union is nearing the end of a process that would increase tariffs on imported Chinese-made battery electric cars starting in early November. The bloc began an investigation into the Chinese EV makers' use of subsidies last year.

Nio cooperated with