Nio‘s upcoming ES9 SUV has entered pre-production, founder and CEO William Li said Tuesday, as the Chinese EV maker prepares to launch its largest and most luxurious model yet.
“The ES9 is already in the pre-production stage,” Li said during a media Q&A session at the company’s one-millionth vehicle ceremony in Hefei.
He did not specify an exact launch date but confirmed the model would arrive in the second quarter.
The ES9 is expected to be one of Nio‘s highlights at the Beijing Auto Show, scheduled for late April.
Design Preview
Li said the first images of the ES9 will soon appear in an upcoming catalogue from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology — a regulatory requirement for new models that often gives the public its first glimpse of a vehicle’s design.
The SUV has been spotted road-testing in China multiple times over the past few months, though heavily camouflaged prototypes offered few visible design details.
Larger Than ES8
Li reaffirmed that the ES9 will be larger than the ES8, Nio‘s current flagship SUV.
The model is expected to measure approximately 5,400 millimeters in length, slightly longer than the ES8’s 5,280 millimeters.
The ES9 will serve as the SUV counterpart to Nio’s ET9 executive sedan, which began deliveries in China in late March after being unveiled at Nio Day 2024.
Li said technology from the ET9 will also be used in the ES9. Like the sedan, the ES9 is expected to feature steer-by-wire, Nio‘s latest Cedar operating system, two Shenji NX9031 intelligent driving chips, and the SkyRide chassis system.
Business Focus
Li said the ES9 is more geared towards business use than the ES8. Compared to the purely executive ET9, the ES9 will have more diverse applications, the CEO added.
Over the past eleven years, the ES8 has served as Nio’s flagship model since becoming the brand’s first mass-produced vehicle in May 2018.
The third-generation ES8, launched last September, quickly became the brand’s best-selling model by crossing 100,000 orders in about 24 hours.
Launch Timeline
The update aligns with remarks made in May by Nio‘s co-founder and president Lihong Qin, who said the new flagship SUV would debut in the first half of 2026.
With recent models, Nio has typically held a pre-launch event to showcase each vehicle’s technology and specifications without disclosing prices.
Pre-orders usually open at that stage and remain available until the official launch, which takes place a few weeks later, followed by the start of deliveries.
Nio has not yet announced plans to offer the ES9 outside its domestic market. The ET9 also remains exclusive to China.
At the same event, Li said Nio Group deliveries will grow at a rate of 40-50% in 2026, implying between 456,000 and 489,000 vehicles based on the 326,028 units delivered in 2025.
