Shanghai-based Nio and Beijing-based Li Auto are stepping up their rivalry as Nio launches two new large SUVs positioned against Li Auto’s bestsellers.
In early August, Fei Shen, a long-time Nio executive and head of its sub-brand Onvo, publicly rejected claims from a Li Auto salesperson that “many” customers had canceled pre-orders for Onvo‘s newly launched L90 SUV in favor of a rival model.
Shen insisted that L90 orders remained strong, pushing back on the remarks.
The discussion came as Li Auto quickly revised pricing and configurations of its L8 SUV — a direct competitor to the L90 — just a week after its launch.
Shen had also responded to a Li Auto advertisement at the time, dismissing speculation that Nio was hiring paid commenters, saying the company had no budget for that.
The latest exchange unfolded on Sunday.
A Weibo user, posting under the handle ‘仁者无敌boy,’ warned Nio’s Head of User Operations Yang Bo that “many” Li Auto sales staff were rushing to arrange test drives and then flooding online comment sections with smear campaigns and hostile remarks.
“Recently, many Li Auto sales staff have been rushing to do test drives, and then in the comment sections there’s been a lot of smear campaigns and negative noise. You all should be careful,” the user wrote.
“We have also been monitoring this. Thank you for the reminder,” Yang Bo replied.
The tensions surface as Nio prepares to deliver its third-generation ES8 SUV.
The company said on Monday it has begun nationwide shipments of the six- and seven-seat model to showrooms across China, with customer handovers scheduled to begin on September 21 — less than 24 hours after its official debut at the company’s annual Nio Day event in Hangzhou.
Founder and CEO William Li said on X that the Hefei factory is “ramping up shipments” to ensure immediate deliveries following the September 20 launch.
Morgan Stanley has estimated pre-orders may have already topped 30,000 units in the days after the pre-sale event in August.
The ES8 Executive Premium Edition is priced from 416,800 yuan ($58,530) including the battery, or 308,800 yuan under Nio’s Battery-as-a-Service subscription. The Executive Signature Edition starts at 456,800 yuan, or 348,800 yuan with BaaS.
