Chinese EV maker Nio Group registered 24 vehicles in Norway in March, according to the vehicle registration platform EU-EVs, nearly doubling from the 15 units recorded in February and marking the company’s strongest month of 2026 so far.
However, the Group’s figures in March remained below the 44 units recorded a year ago even despite the launch of the cheaper sub-brand Firefly.
Last month’s vehicle registrations included 14 units of the EL6 entry-level SUV (known as the ES6 in China), two ET5 sedans and eight vehicles from Firefly, the group’s urban-focused sub-brand that began Norwegian deliveries last August.
Nio‘s flagship ET7 sedan is no longer listed for sale in Europe, with the company’s website showing only the ET5, ET5 Touring wagon, EL6 and second-generation EL8 SUV.
Onvo, the group’s other sub-brand, has not launched in Europe. Management has pointed to a 2027 debut.
Slow Start to 2026
March’s improvement follows a difficult opening quarter for the Shanghai-headquartered group in Norway.
January registrations fell to just nine units — the company’s weakest Norway sales month in three years — with all vehicles being Nio-brand EL6 SUVs.
No Firefly units were registered that month.
February picked up modestly to 15 units, split between eleven Nio-brand vehicles and four Firefly registrations.
The first quarter’s combined total of 48 units trails the pace needed to improve on 2025, when the group sold approximately 520 vehicles in the country and missed its annual target of 1,500 units by roughly 65%.
European Registration Data
Norway’s figures, however, tell only part of the story.
As EV reported on Tuesday, Nio’s European registration data has fundamentally misrepresented the company’s commercial presence on the continent since it launched, according to a person familiar with the company’s operations in the region.
The distortion stems from the subscription model Nio introduced when it expanded to Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark in October 2022.
Under the scheme, each vehicle is registered only once regardless of how many customers subsequently use it.
The blind spot may significantly understate the active user base while masking the fact that no new vehicles have been shipped to Europe in recent years.
Norway’s EV Market Rebounds
The Norwegian market surged in March.
Registrations jumped to 17,685 vehicles, with electric cars accounting for 98.4% of all sales — a new monthly record that lifted the quarterly share to 96.7%.
The rebound follows a sharp January slump triggered by the Norwegian government’s decision to scale back EV purchase incentives from January 1, 2026, after the country finished 2025 with 95% of new vehicle sales being fully electric.
Consumers now face stricter value-added tax rules on EV purchases.
February registrations had already tripled from January’s depressed levels but remained roughly half of the year-earlier figure.
Tesla registered 6,150 vehicles in March, a fivefold increase from February, after posting its worst result in three years in January.
2025 in Review
Nio sold 451 vehicles in Norway last year under its main brand, according to EU-EVs.
Including Firefly deliveries from August onward, the group moved approximately 520 units — roughly half of what it sold the previous year and its lowest annual total since launching in the country in late 2021.
The company struggled throughout 2025 to clear inventory of 2023 and 2024 model-year vehicles across Europe, with monthly registrations dipping as low as 22 units in June.
December provided a brief bright spot, with 85 Nio-brand registrations — a two-year monthly high — driven largely by 56 EL6 units as Norwegian buyers rushed to purchase ahead of the incentive changes.
Norway was Nio‘s first international market.
The company’s founder and CEO William Li attended the opening of the group’s first overseas Nio House showroom in central Oslo in September 2021.
