Nio‘s founder and Chief Executive Officer William Li declared that only two automakers globally remain exclusively focused on pure electric vehicles — with Nio being one of them.
The Shanghai-headquartered EV maker is weeks away from producing its 1 millionth fully electric vehicle without ever releasing a hybrid model.
“I estimate that globally, only two companies focus exclusively on pure electric vehicles, and Nio is one of them,” Li said during a speech at the 2025 China Automotive Entrepreneur Annual Conference in Beijing on December 6-7.
Li did not name the other company, but the description aligns with Tesla, whose CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly rejected hybrids.
Three and a half years ago, in July 2022, Musk described them as “a phase” adding that it was “time to move on.”
7 Years, 3 Brands, 0 Hybrids
Nio‘s first mass-produced vehicle — the ES8 SUV — rolled off the production line in Hefei, China, in 2018.
Seven years later, the company is expected to produce its 1 millionth unit in early 2026, having reached 949,457 cumulative deliveries by November 30.
Despite launching two additional brands in the past 18 months — Onvo for the mass market in May 2024 and Firefly for premium small EVs in December 2024 — Nio has never released any hybrid vehicles across any of its brands.
The commitment stands in stark contrast to nearly every other major Chinese EV startup, which has pivoted from BEV-only lineups to offering extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs) or plug-in hybrids (PHEVs).
The Tesla Parallel
Li has previously joked that Nio would “only discuss extended-range vehicles when Tesla adopts that approach.”
“We will only discuss extended-range vehicles when Tesla adopts that approach,” Li said in September 2024 following the Onvo L60 launch. “Nio‘s battery swapping and upgradable batteries are, in a way, a more efficient form of extended range.”
Both Nio and Tesla have invested heavily in proprietary charging infrastructure — Tesla‘s Supercharger network and Nio‘s battery-swap stations — as alternatives to hybrid powertrains for addressing range anxiety.
Competitors
Li’s claim that only two companies remain pure-EV reflects a dramatic industry transformation.
Nearly all Chinese EV startups that launched as BEV-only have now added hybrid models:
XPeng launched its first EREV — the X9 MPV — last month, priced from 309,800 yuan ($43,550). CEO He Xiaopeng cited varying global infrastructure and customer demands.
More EREVs are planned: the G7 in Q1 2026, followed by G6 and P7+ variants.
Xiaomi is preparing the YU9 — codenamed “Kunlun” — as its first EREV for 2026 launch.
The full-size 6/7-seat SUV will compete directly with Li Auto’s L9 and Huawei-backed Aito M9, with an expected range of up to 1,500 km combined.
Zeekr unveiled the 9X flagship SUV with a “Super Hybrid” PHEV powertrain in September.
CEO Andy An called it a “new form of power” combining the advantages of BEV, PHEV, and EREV technologies.
Leapmotor was among earlier adopters, launching EREV variants starting in 2023. Its D19 flagship (October 2025) features a record 80.3 kWh EREV battery.
Avatr (backed by Changan, CATL, and Huawei) launched the Avatr 07 with an EREV option in September 2024 — its first hybrid model after initially offering only BEVs.
Why Competitors Made the Switch
The market incentives were clear: PHEVs and EREVs accounted for approximately 45% of China’s new energy vehicle sales by mid-2024, up from 34% a year earlier.
EREV sales grew 109.8% year-on-year in the first nine months of 2024, compared to 17.7% growth for BEVs. Li Auto’s EREV-focused commercial success proved the model’s viability.
However, a counter-trend is emerging. BEVs recaptured over 60% of China’s NEV market in the first half of 2025, with battery costs falling dramatically — LFP packs now trade below $108/kWh in China.
Li’s Defense
Li argued during his speech that market dynamics now favor pure electric vehicles.
“The golden age of extended-range three-row SUVs has passed, and the golden age of pure electric three-row SUVs has arrived,” Li said.
He cited January-October 2025 data showing pure EV sales exceeded 6.2 million units, up 30% year-on-year, while EREV sales “basically stagnated.” In October alone, pure EV three-row SUVs outsold their EREV counterparts 39,000 to 24,000 units.
“The market has given its answer,” Li said.
The CEO explained why EREVs gained popularity initially: “When charging and battery-swapping infrastructure wasn’t that developed, wasn’t having both fuel and electric options a better choice?”
But he argued that dynamic has changed: “This year, the turning point arrived. The value that pure electric technology now delivers to users exceeds the experience loss caused by charging and swapping inconvenience.”
“Large-Battery EREV Is Resource Waste”
In an interview with The Paper (澎湃新闻) published on Wednesday, Onvo President Shen Fei criticized the industry’s direction toward larger EREV batteries as wasteful.
“In an era of increasingly complete charging infrastructure, ‘large-battery EREV’ is a kind of resource waste,” Shen said. “It not only takes up more interior space, but the 15,000 yuan ($2,100) range extender kit brings unnecessary cost burdens to both automakers and consumers.”
He drew a sharp distinction between the two approaches.
“Extended-range and battery swap are not competition on the same dimension. Continuously adding to battery size and fuel tank capacity is incremental innovation; battery swap is systemic innovation — it’s not something that can be solved with a single technical solution, but requires the company to answer and solve many questions,” he said.
Consumer Behavior
Shen noted that approximately 40% of Onvo L90 buyers voluntarily “downgrade” from the standard 85 kWh battery to the 60 kWh battery rental option — saving RMB 3,600 ($500) annually in rental fees. He attributed this to mature charging infrastructure eliminating range anxiety.
“This trend contrasts quite obviously with the current direction of larger EREV batteries,” Shen observed.
