Nio took more orders for its ES9 flagship in August than in July, founder and chief executive William Li told analysts on Tuesday, in the company’s first public comment on order intake for a model whose deliveries had fallen sharply the month before.
“If we look at the sales number of the ES9 in August and July, I think July we were still consuming some pre-orders,” Li said on the second-quarter earnings call, which began at 8:00 a.m. US Eastern Time. “But if we are making a comparison between the incremental orders in July and August, we actually have seen a growth from July to August. So we are also confident in the continuous popularity and also demand for the ES9.”
Li gave no numbers, and Nio has never published an order figure or a backlog for the model.
The company’s August delivery release breaks out only the three brands, not individual models.
The remark came in answer to a question from Deutsche Bank analyst Wang Bin, whose team had forecast before the results that Nio would report about 180 million yuan of non-GAAP net profit for the quarter, and had raised its full-year volume assumption for the group to 450,000 vehicles.
Why It Matters
The ES9 fell 26.5% in July to 6,315 units on China Passenger Car Association data, its first sequential decline since deliveries began on May 28.
That followed 3,108 units across the last four days of May and 8,595 in June, its first full month, taking cumulative wholesale volume to 18,018 through July.
Nio does not break the ES9 out in its monthly releases, so the association’s model data has been the only regular read on the model.
The company marked its 20,000th delivery on August 8, 73 days after handovers began, but has not published a monthly figure since.
The Wait Times
“Regarding our flagship executive SUV ES9, it also sees strong demand since its launch, especially for the Horizon edition and the Signature Edition,” Li said. “Right now, for users placing an order, they will need to wait for three months or nearly four months to pick up a new car.”
Nio’s own configurator, checked on Tuesday during the earnings call, puts the figure lower.
It shows 13 to 14 weeks from configuration lock for both the 628,000-yuan Horizon Special Edition and the 558,000-yuan Executive Signature Edition, in either the centre-console or walk-through six-seat layout.
Thirteen to fourteen weeks is three months to three months and one week.
The entry Executive Premier Edition, at 498,000 yuan, shows three to four weeks.
That split is the story of the model.
The two upper trims carry Nio’s Tianxing fully active suspension, while the entry car gets dual-chamber air suspension with external-valve dampers, and it is the upper hardware that has set the queue since launch.
The queue has also stopped moving.
Waiting times for the higher trims ran 16 to 17 weeks in early June, 15 to 16 weeks on July 8 and 13 to 14 weeks on August 8, where they remain as of Tuesday’s check.
The Incentives Are Still Running
There is a second explanation for rising orders, and Nio is not hiding it.
The app tells prospective buyers that customers locking an ES9 order up to and including September 30 qualify for limited-time launch benefits.
The model was launched on May 27, so those benefits will have run for more than four months by the time they lapse.
The package covers a zero-deposit finance plan with two of its five years interest-free, the Feihang executive seat package, a delivery gift box and five years of free access to NOP+, the assisted driving subscription Nio otherwise charges for.
None of that moves the sticker price, which is how the company has protected the vehicle margin it reported at 18.5% for the second quarter.
It does move the cost of ownership, and the September 30 cut-off gives buyers a reason to lock orders this month.
Separately, the app lists the standard ownership terms: a six-year or 150,000-kilometre vehicle warranty, ten years and unlimited mileage on the drivetrain, lifetime roadside assistance in mainland China and six years of connectivity at 8GB a month.
What the August Arithmetic Implies
Nio has not published an August figure for the ES9, and the association’s model split is not due until around the second week of September.
The group numbers narrow the range.
The Nio brand delivered 21,174 vehicles in August, of which the ES8 accounted for 10,999 on a wholesale basis, leaving 10,175 across the ES9 and the older ES6, EC6, ET5, ET5 Touring, ET9 and EC7.
In July the equivalent remainder was 9,720, split 6,315 for the ES9 and 3,407 for the legacy models.
The ES8 Rose Too
Li said the ES8 delivered 10,999 units in August, up 6.91% from July’s 10,288 on the same wholesale basis.
“In 11 months we have delivered more than 140,000,” Li said, adding that September would bring the next milestone, “which means that in less than one year since its launch, it has already surpassed 150,000 unit deliveries.” Deliveries of the third-generation car began in late September 2025.
The ES8 has now delivered 99,946 units in the first eight months of 2026. Its monthly path this year runs 17,658 in January, 11,271 in February, 16,256 in March, 13,028 in April, 11,477 in May, 8,969 in June and 10,288 in July, all on a wholesale basis, with the June trough coming as buyers held out for the five-seat version that launched on July 9.
Li argued the model is breaking a pattern in the Chinese market, where new cars lose attention quickly after launch.
“As previously we’ve talked about how the products are quickly iterated and introduced in the Chinese automotive market, where for a new model in the market it’s almost difficult, we’re having difficulty to lose its popularity and attention by the market,” he said. “But for the ES8, it may be the first model that is breaking away from this market trend.”
One detail in the association data supports him. Insurance registrations for the ES8 have exceeded wholesale shipments in every month of 2026, by 3,553 units in total across January to July, after shipments ran 1,956 above registrations in December 2025. The model has been drawing down dealer stock all year rather than building it.
‘ES’ SUVs Carry the Brand
If the ES9 delivery figures came in near 7,000, the two flagship SUVs together made roughly 18,000 vehicles in August, or about 85% of Nio-brand volume and half the group total.
In July the pair accounted for 16,603 units, 83% of the brand and 46% of the group. In June it was 17,564, or 80% of the brand.
Nio said with its results that the ES8 ranked first in China’s large SUV segment and the segment above 400,000 yuan from January to July, and that the ES9 ranked first among passenger vehicles priced above 500,000 yuan in both June and July.
The ES9 starts at 498,000 yuan with the battery included, rising to 558,000 for the Executive Signature and 628,000 for the Horizon Special Edition, each cut 30,000 yuan from the pre-sale price announced in April.
Under battery subscription the entry price falls to 390,000 yuan.
