Firefly, Nio Inc.‘s small-car brand, delivered a record 7,738 vehicles in October, its second straight monthly high and its largest share yet of the company’s sales, even as overall group deliveries fell.
The total was up 30.9% from 5,912 a year earlier and 5.6% from the previous record of 7,327 set in September, Nio Inc. said. Firefly was the only one of the company’s three brands to grow from September.
Firefly accounted for 22.6% of Nio Inc.’s 34,246 October deliveries, up from about 19.6% in September and the highest share since the brand began deliveries in April 2025. Before September, its share had never exceeded 17.2%, reached in March.
October was the third month in which Firefly delivered more than 7,000 vehicles, after 7,084 in December 2025 and 7,327 in September.
The brand’s deliveries dipped to 5,771 in July and 5,852 in August before rising again in the past two months.
Firefly has delivered 55,860 vehicles in the first ten months of 2026, more than double the 26,242 it delivered from its April 2025 launch through October last year, when it had been on sale for only seven of those months. That is already well above its 2025 total of 39,414 vehicles.
Firefly has accounted for 16.7% of Nio Inc.’s deliveries so far this year. To keep growing from a year earlier for the rest of 2026, it would need to beat 6,088 in November and 7,084 in December, the totals it delivered in those months of 2025.
Based on Nio Inc.’s monthly figures, Firefly’s cumulative deliveries reached 95,274 at the end of October.
The brand marked its 90,000th delivery at a ceremony in Zhengzhou, Henan province, on October 16, less than 18 months after its first deliveries.
Closing In on 100,000
Firefly is now 4,726 deliveries short of 100,000, a goal set by Firefly President Daniel Jin.
Jin first set the target in September 2025, when he said the brand was aiming for 100,000 customers “by this time next year”. Firefly had delivered 87,536 vehicles by the end of September 2026.
He later told EV the brand aimed to reach 100,000 by the end of 2026, which now requires an average of only 2,400 deliveries a month in November and December.
“We set an internal target of trying to maintain a very stable delivery months of around 6,000 to 6,500,” Jin told EV in November 2025. October was the third month this year above the top of that range, after June and September.
Jin told reporters on October 22 that Firefly would reach 100,000 in November.
‘A Small Surprise’
Jin said he did not expect deliveries to fall or plateau in the final months of the year. “It definitely won’t turn downward, and it shouldn’t be flat either, so most likely it will keep climbing,” he said.
“In the coming months, everyone will see that Firefly’s sales can actually exceed 7,000,” he added. “As for where we finish the year, let’s wait and see. There should be a small surprise for everyone.”
Jin said orders locked in by customers had exceeded deliveries in almost every month this year and that Firefly still had a sizable order backlog. The plant can build 10,000 to 11,000 vehicles a month when running at full efficiency, he said, and a battery supply bottleneck would be fully resolved by the end of October, according to the account.
“In a year and a half on the market, there’s basically no one whose volume and price have both risen,” Jin said. The model’s average transaction price has risen by 7,000 yuan ($1,100).
Nearly Level With Onvo
Firefly’s single model came within 645 units of Onvo, Nio Inc.’s family-SUV brand, which sells three models and delivered 8,383 vehicles in October. That was the narrowest gap since April.
In May, Onvo delivered more than twice as many vehicles as Firefly. Since then, Onvo’s deliveries have fallen for five consecutive months, while Firefly’s have risen in each of the past three months.
The Nio brand delivered 18,125 vehicles, its lowest monthly total since February.
Bigger Battery
Firefly launched a larger battery option on October 23, offering a 60-kilowatt-hour ternary lithium pack alongside its standard 42-kilowatt-hour lithium iron phosphate battery.
The larger pack raises the car’s range to 560 kilometers (348 miles) from 420 kilometers (261 miles) on China’s CLTC test cycle, which is more generous than US EPA ratings. Acceleration and curb weight are unchanged, the company said.
Prices for the 60-kilowatt-hour version start at 136,800 yuan ($20,600) for outright purchase, compared with 119,800 yuan ($18,000) for the standard pack.
Under Nio’s battery-as-a-service rental model, the starting price is 79,800 yuan ($12,000) for both packs, with the monthly battery rental rising to 599 yuan ($90) from 399 yuan ($60) for the larger pack, according to Firefly.
Because both packs share the same housing and mounting points, existing owners can switch to the larger battery through a battery swap. Outright owners can upgrade permanently for 17,000 yuan ($2,600), the company said.
The brand said new buyers can choose the larger pack when ordering.
Jin said the larger pack was meant to win new buyers rather than replace the 42-kilowatt-hour version. About 80% of 42-kilowatt-hour owners bought the car as a second household vehicle, he said.
“This isn’t because the 42 has range anxiety, but because I need to get new customers,” Jin said.
Earlier in October, Firefly pushed its Aster 2.1.0 software update to cars in China.
Firefly gained access to Nio’s fifth-generation battery-swap stations in August, after its shorter body had prevented it from using the previous generation.
Overseas Expansion
On October 19, Firefly opened what it described as its first standalone store worldwide to operate long-term with the full brand identity, a showroom of more than 350 square meters at the centralwOrld mall in Bangkok, Thailand.
The store is run with Firefly’s Thai distributor, Thonburi Group.
The brand also launched an upgraded right-hand-drive version of the car in Thailand, about seven months after its local debut. Firefly did not disclose the price of the updated model or details of the changes. The same day, it offered 99 discounted cars in Thailand after registering 20 there since March.
Single-Model Strategy
Nio Inc. Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer William Li told analysts on the company’s second-quarter earnings call in September that Firefly will “keep this single model strategy,” adding special editions and technology upgrades rather than new models.
“So for FIREFLY, it’s a bit like taking the iPhone approach where it will stay in this same product, but with new additions,” Li said on the call. Firefly had already ruled out a new model launch for 2026.
A 2025 filing showed planned annual output of 120,000 vehicles for Firefly. Nio Inc. had included Firefly in its fourth-quarter sales target for the first time last year.
Firefly’s growth has partly offset a slowdown at Onvo, but not enough to keep Nio Inc. on track for its fourth-quarter goal of “an average volume of over 40,000 units per month.”
Market Context
China’s passenger-car retail sales fell 26% year over year to 1.145 million units from October 1 to 25, while new energy vehicle retail sales fell 13% to 753,000, according to the China Passenger Car Association.
The association has not yet released brand-level October data. Its model-level data is due next week, and because Firefly sells a single model, that figure will cover the whole brand.
Jin said selling Firefly’s premium positioning abroad is harder. “In China, I’m 80% to 100% more expensive than a certain rival, but overseas I’m 40% more expensive, and overseas users find that strange,” he said.
