Tesla Model Y Juniper competitor filmed doing a battery swap at NIO station

One of the most innovative Chinese electric car companies is preparing to release a direct competitor to the Model Y Juniper refresh, which will have a manufacturing cost advantage before Tesla.

The CEO of NIO even advised who are considering to purchase a Model Y - China's bestselling vehicle for 2023 - to wait and see what its new midrange brand Onvo will come up with.

The resulting crossover has now been filmed without its test mule camouflage, and it indeed looks svelte in red, with a design style that seems less bland than Tesla's pride and joy vehicle.

NIO is preparing to announce the Onvo L60 specs and features later this quarter, and start mass production in the fall. This means that the shipment of its first batches may coincide with the release of Tesla's rumored Model Y Juniper refresh. The Model Y facelift is supposed to launch early in Q1 to pad a traditionally slow sales quarter.

Besides the price tag, the new NIO brand will beat Tesla to a faster charging system with modern 800V architecture, as well as the larger console display, tipped its CEO.

The other big advantage of the Onvo L60 that Tesla won't be able to replicate any time soon, will be the support for 3-minute battery swaps at NIO's dedicated stations.

It's precisely one such battery swap that the direct Model Y competitor has been filmed doing, this time wrapped in NIO's colorful test mule camo.

NIO has a growing battery swap network and its cars can now automatically get off the highway, drive to the station, and queue up for a battery swap all on their own.

Its network will have more than 3,000 stations this year, with the latest 4th generation consisting of 23 battery packs and able to do 480 swaps in a single day.

NIO also entered a development partnership with its cell supplier CATL to increase the warranty of said battery packs to 15 years at 85% capacity retention.

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