Chinese EV maker Nio has delivered 35,486 vehicles across its three brands — including Firefly and Onvo — last month.
The figures represent a 136.0% jump year over year, with first-quarter deliveries nearly doubling to 83,465 units.
Nio set a delivery guidance of 80,000 to 83,000 units between January and March, which implied the registration of 32,021–35,021 vehicles in March alone.
Earlier this year, founder and CEO William Li set a target of 40–50% growth for vehicle deliveries in 2026.
The guidance suggests that the Shanghai EV maker will deliver between 456,000 and 489,000 units across its three brands this year.
As of the end of the first quarter, Nio had achieved between 17.1% and 18.3% of that target.
Most of the group’s deliveries have come from its Nio brand, largely driven by the success of the all-new ES8 SUV, which remains the company’s top-selling model.
By contrast, Firefly continues to make up only a small portion of Nio Group’s deliveries.
It accounted for 17.2% of vehicle registrations in March and 13.9% over the first quarter as a whole.
Firefly
Firefly was launched in December 2024 with deliveries starting in the final days of April 2025.
The brand debuted with the standard Firefly EV, with a starting price of 119,800 yuan ($17,400) in China, and a higher trim at 125,800 yuan ($18,300) — both including the battery.
Under Nio‘s Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS) rental model, prices drop to 79,800 yuan ($11,600) and 85,800 yuan ($12,500) respectively, with a monthly battery fee of 399 yuan ($60).
Since last April, monthly deliveries grew consecutively month-over-month, peaking at over 7,000 units in December.
February, however, represented the brand’s second-worst monthly result since its first full month of deliveries in May 2025.
The Chinese New Year holiday period typically weighs on both production and sales, making February one of the weakest months of the year.
Firefly saw deliveries double sequentially to 6,119 units in March — representing more registrations than the first two months of the year combined and the second strongest month ever.
During the first quarter of 2026, Firefly delivered 11,583 vehicles in total.
The sub-brand surpassed 50,000 cumulative deliveries on March 28, eleven months after the first deliveries took place.
The figures are well below the pace needed to reach the brand’s stated goal of 100,000 deliveries by year-end — a target set by Friefly’s brand chief Daniel Jin in September — representing just 11.6% of the guidance.
Additionally, Jin had set an internal target of 6,000 to 6,500 monthly deliveries starting from the second quarter of 2026.
Late last month, Firefly‘s brand chief Daniel Jin acknowledged a challenging start to 2026 while maintaining the brand’s expansion targets.
New Edition
Despite the initial launch frenzy, Nio‘s second sub-brand has been struggling to ramp up sales both domestically and overseas.
In China, the company recently opened its first multi-brand store, as it aims to boost brand awareness for Onvo and Firefly while reducing fixed costs.
Last month, the brand also launched a new special edition of its debut model, as it continues to use limited-run variants to sustain interest.
Priced from 137,800 yuan ($19,990), the edition is limited to just 166 units.
The ‘Rebirth Green’ edition is the fourth special variant since Firefly‘s launch, following the Nomadic Maillard (333 units, August 2025), the Night Creature (666 units, October 2025), and the Pegasus Rhapsody (99 units, January 2026).
The most recent Pegasus Rhapsody was priced at 95,800 yuan ($13,900) under the BaaS plan — a 20% premium over the standard BaaS price.
Expansion
Speaking with Nikkei at the Bangkok Motor Show, brand chief Daniel Jin reaffirmed that the brand plans to launch in between 20 and 30 countries this year.
Firefly has been positioned as Nio Group‘s spearhead for international growth.
Founder and CEO William Li wrote to employees earlier this year that “Firefly serves as our pioneering brand for global market entry,” adding that “in China, our lineup is ‘Nio, Onvo, Firefly,’ while globally it is ‘Firefly, Onvo, Nio.'”
Firefly recently launched in Thailand, where Nio partnered with Thonburi BlueSky, a subsidiary of the Thonburi Group — which also represents Mercedes-Benz.
The Firefly EV was showcased at the 47th Bangkok International Motor Show in late March.
The EV maker officially launched in Costa Rica — its first American market — over the weekend.
According to William Li, it is the “first overseas location to bring all three brands under one roof,” with the Firefly EV included in the lineup.
In Europe, where the brand debuted in mid-August 2025 with deliveries in the Netherlands and Norway, sales remain modest.
Firefly has since expanded to Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Austria, and Portugal, with Luxembourg following.
However, the European Commission’s extra tariffs on Chinese-produced EVs have forced pricing adjustments and shifted the brand’s focus toward tariff-free markets.
Speaking with Reuters, Jin said last year the company was in talks with distributors in the UK.
Australia and New Zealand are also targeted for 2026 entry.
