Shanghai-based EV maker Nio Inc.‘s main brand averaged a transaction price above 450,000 yuan ($66,500) last week, VP of Branding and Communications Ma Lin said Monday on Weibo.
The figure marks a sharp increase from the 390,000 yuan ($57,600) average the brand recorded in the first quarter of 2026 and was driven by early deliveries of the flagship ES9 SUV.
Ma Lin framed the disclosure as a guessing game, asking followers to predict the Nio brand’s average transaction price for the full month of June.
“Here’s a hint: last week it already exceeded 450,000 yuan,” he wrote, adding that Nio would “probably rank first among NBBAA.”
The acronym is a commonly used piece of Chinese auto-industry shorthand for premium brands: Nio, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and Huawei-backed luxury marque Aito.
The comment extends a line of argument Nio‘s leadership has pushed with increasing confidence since the first-quarter earnings call in late May.
On that call, founder and CEO William Li said buyers had already formed a consensus that “Nio will be the next car after Mercedes, BMW and Audi.”
Li cited a first-quarter Nio-brand average selling price of 390,000 yuan — roughly 50,000 yuan above BMW‘s and 50% higher than Audi‘s in the Chinese market.
ES9 Drives the Shift
The jump from 390,000 yuan to above 450,000 yuan in the space of a few weeks is largely a function of the ES9, which began customer deliveries on May 28.
Prices for the full-size flagship SUV start at 498,000 yuan ($73,600) with the battery included, or 390,000 yuan ($57,600) under the company’s Battery-as-a-Service leasing program.
The mid-range Executive Signature starts at 558,000 yuan ($82,500), while the range-topping Horizon Special Edition opens at 628,000 yuan ($92,800).
All three trims came in 30,000 yuan below the pre-sale levels Nio set at the model’s April debut in Hangzhou.
Ma hinted at the ES9’s early commercial momentum in the same series of Weibo posts, launching a separate guessing game asking followers to predict the exact date in June the model would reach its 10,000th delivery.
Deliveries began just 12 days ago, and the model already carries wait times of up to 17 weeks for the higher-spec trims equipped with the SkyRide fully active suspension, according to recent configurator data.
Nio had built a pre-launch inventory of at least 6,000 ES9 units at its factory and delivery centers ahead of the May 27 launch, enabling a same-day “launch-to-delivery” model.
Deutsche Bank expects average monthly ES9 sales to reach approximately 5,000 units once production capacity ramps in the second half of 2026.
Bank of China International has projected the model will stabilize at 3,000 to 4,000 monthly deliveries, driving combined ES8 and ES9 sales above 10,000 units per month.
Rising Group-Wide ASP
The Nio-brand figure Ma cited applies only to the premium marque and excludes the company’s two lower-priced sub-brands, Onvo and Firefly.
On a group-wide basis — incorporating all three brands — the trajectory has been steadily upward after a weak stretch through mid-2025.
Nio Inc.’s consolidated average selling price climbed to approximately 273,000 yuan ($40,400) in the first quarter of 2026, a 16% year-over-year increase from 236,122 yuan ($34,900) in the first quarter of 2025 and a sequential rise of roughly 8% from the 253,241 yuan ($37,400) posted in the fourth quarter.
The first quarter marked a notable inflection: after three consecutive quarters of year-over-year declines, the metric turned positive in the fourth quarter at 5% before accelerating to 16% in the opening months of 2026.
The turnaround was driven overwhelmingly by the third-generation ES8.
Starting at 406,800 yuan ($60,100), the three-row SUV accounted for 54% of Nio-brand deliveries in the first quarter, up from 32% in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to Bernstein analyst Eunice Lee.
The ES8 has been the fastest-selling vehicle above 400,000 yuan in the Chinese market since deliveries began in September 2025, reaching 100,000 deliveries in 215 days and 110,000 by late May.
The model’s dominance lifted the vehicle margin to 18.8% in the first quarter, up from 18.1% in the fourth quarter and 10.2% a year earlier.
Nio reached the highest quarterly average selling prices in both the first and second quarters of 2024, at a value of 278,884 ($41,200) yuan and 273,292 yuan ($40,400), respectively — which could be surpassed now.
By then, the company only offered its main premium brand’s lineup.
The group ASP was dragged lower through mid-2025 as Onvo and Firefly — launched in late 2024 and early 2025 respectively — added high volumes of vehicles priced well below the Nio brand’s range.
The L60, OnvoOnvo‘s first model, starts below 150,000 yuan, while Firefly‘s compact hatchback opens under 80,000 yuan.
The ES8’s rapid ramp through the fourth quarter and into 2026 overwhelmed that dilution, pushing the consolidated figure back above where it had been a year earlier.
Rivalry with Li Auto
Ma’s Monday posts came days after he publicly challenged Li Auto to verify the authenticity of a video comparing the chassis performance of the ES9 and the Li Auto L9.
The video, published on Li Auto’s official mini-program, appeared to show the ES9 exhibiting similar body oscillation in standard mode as in an ultra-soft suspension setting — behavior Ma said does not align with the vehicle’s design.
He asked Li Auto to clarify the source, testing environment, and suspension settings used in the test.
The original video was no longer available on Li Auto’s official channels as of the day Ma published his response, though copies had circulated among independent bloggers. Li Auto had not publicly responded as of press time.
Ma invited consumers to visit Nio stores and test-drive the ES9 themselves, adding that the vehicle had received strong praise from both users and media since deliveries began.
June Outlook
Nio delivered 37,705 vehicles across its three brands in May, a 62.3% year-over-year increase and the company’s best monthly figure of 2026.
The main Nio brand contributed 20,013 units, up 50.8% from a year earlier.
Management has guided for second-quarter deliveries of 110,000 to 115,000 vehicles, implying June needs to reach approximately 51,000 to 56,000 units to meet the target.
The ES9’s ramp is central to that math.
With wait times extending to 17 weeks on higher trims and the model approaching 10,000 deliveries within its first two weeks of availability, early demand signals suggest the flagship is pulling new buyers into Nio showrooms rather than cannibalizing ES8 sales — the same dynamic Li described on the earnings call.
The ES8 reached 11,475 deliveries in May and saw order intake hit its highest level since the October production ramp, with Li attributing the surge to foot traffic generated by the ES9’s pre-launch campaign.
Co-founder and president Lihong Qin has said the ES9 will generate the highest gross profit per unit among all Nio SUVs.
Morgan Stanley analyst Tim Hsiao has estimated the model could deliver more than 100,000 yuan ($14,800) in profit per unit — given its average selling price above 500,000 yuan ($73,900).
