Firefly registered 40 new units of its debut model in the Netherlands in September, marking its best month in the country. However, most of the vehicles registered by September 28 belong to a cluster of 31 that was still uninsured on Thursday, according to the Dutch vehicle authority RDW.
The 40 come from the Dutch industry associations BOVAG and RAI, which counted three vehicles for the main Nio brand.
RDW’s data, which run to September 28, show 34 Fireflies registered to an owner for the first time in September, and only three of them were admitted and registered in the same month and insured.
The six-car gap between the two counts has not been explained, and may reflect registrations on September 29 and 30 or a difference in how the two sources count.
Firefly’s total was almost twice its previous high of 22, set in December 2025, and close to the 43 cars it registered in the first eight months of the year combined, according to BOVAG and RAI’s monthly figures.
Nio Inc.’s two brands registered 43 cars in September, up from 21 a year earlier, when the Nio brand registered 20 and Firefly one.
The group registered 94 cars in the first nine months of the year.
The Firefly Cluster
RDW data show 34 Fireflies registered to a Dutch owner for the first time from September 1 to September 28, the latest date in the published data.
Thirty-one of them had been admitted to the register earlier, 18 on August 28 and 13 on September 4, before being registered to owners from September 18 to 26.
None of the 31 was insured, according to RDW, against 100 of the 101 other Fireflies registered as new cars in the Netherlands since June 2025.
Customer deliveries began two months later, in August 2025.
Twenty-two of the 31 were listed at the same catalogue price of €29,601 ($33,400), and the other nine at €32,200 ($36,400), the data show.
RDW does not publish owners’ names, and Nio has not said who registered the cars, or whether they have been sold to end customers.
Vehicles registered by a dealer or a fleet operator can remain uninsured for some time before they are driven, so the data do not show who holds them.
Excluding the cluster, Firefly registered three cars in the Netherlands from September 1 to 28.
A Stock Discount
Firefly is offering Dutch buyers €4,000 ($4,500) off cars from stock, cutting its list price of €29,900 ($33,800) to €25,900 ($29,300), according to its Dutch website.
“Rijd dit jaar nog in jouw gloednieuwe firefly, nu met €4.000,- voorraadkorting,” the site says, offering the discount to drivers who want a new Firefly this year.
The offer runs “zolang de voorraad strekt,” while stocks last, and Firefly has not said when it started.
Firefly did not cut its Dutch price when it reduced prices in four other European markets over the summer.
The Nio Brand
The Nio brand registered 11 new cars in the Netherlands in the first nine months, down 89% from 104 a year earlier.
It registered none in April, May or August, and one each in June and July, according to BOVAG and RAI.
Nio’s Dutch inventory page listed eight Nio-brand cars on Thursday, three EL8s, three EL6s and two ET5 Tourings.
It showed no ET7, ET5 or EL7 available, the same position as in August, when the site listed eight configurations and none could be ordered immediately.
Nio’s Dutch promotions page still advertises stock deals on the ET5 and ET5 Touring “tot en met 31 juni 2026,” a date that does not exist and has passed.
Nio has no model updates planned for Europe until late 2027.
Rivals
Tesla led the electric brands in the Netherlands in September with 3,165 registrations, up 209% from August and 56% from a year earlier, according to BOVAG.
BYD registered 1,351 vehicles, almost double its August total and up 274% from a year earlier.
Geely’s Zeekr registered 214, up 38% from a year earlier, and XPeng 187, up 108%.
Polestar registered 226, up 88% from August but down 36% from a year earlier.
Firefly’s 40 registrations put it ahead of the premium brand Lucid, with four, and the Nio brand, with three, which was down 85% from a year earlier.
A Growing Market
Dutch new car registrations rose 12.6% to 36,259 in September, and battery-electric cars took a record 52.8% of the market, up from 37.5% a year earlier, BOVAG and RAI said.
Registrations in the first nine months fell 1.9% to 264,701, the associations said.
Nio Inc.’s two brands accounted for 0.12% of the month’s registrations.
