NIO Inc. (NYSE: NIO) founder and CEO, William Li, announced on the company’s quarterly earnings call, Thursday, that the company will enter the mass market through a new brand. Li said NIO will launch the mass market brand hoping to be lower in price than Tesla, but the experience will surpass the latter.

The average price of all NIO models currently on sale is around RMB 400,000, much higher than Tesla. The current price of the Tesla Model 3 has an entry price of below RMB 250,000.

"The relationship between Nio and our new mass-market brand will be like that of Audi-Volkswagen and Lexus-Toyota," Li said. "We want to provide better product and service at prices lower than Tesla Inc's (NASDAQ: TSLA).”

The company said in its earnings announcement that it aims to deliver three products based on NIO Technology Platform 2.0 in 2022, including its flagship sedan ET7, which was released earlier this year. The CEO announced that an entry-level model launching next year which will be the lowest-priced model under the NIO brand.

According to a Reuters report, Nio is also expanding its production base in Hefei city.

NIO also opened an office in Norway in May and plans to start selling cars there later this year as it pushes to expand globally.

By Michael Elkins | [email protected]