Nio has concluded winter testing of its upcoming ES9, the company’s largest and most expensive SUV, as the Shanghai-based EV maker prepares for an April 10 launch event.
“ES9 winter testing 2026. Mission accomplished,” Nio principal chief engineer Danilo Teobaldi wrote on LinkedIn Thursday while sharing images from the testing campaign.
The engineering team tested the model in Yakeshi, a city in the Hulun Buir region of north China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region that serves as a benchmark base for automotive winter testing in China.
The tests included snow flats, snow and ice circles, ice flats, bumpy roads, gradients, and handling tracks, allowing engineers to verify safety features including anti-lock braking, electronic stability control, and traction control systems.
Yakeshi is expected to reach a new high in testing scale this winter, with an estimated 230 automakers from around the world and more than 2,700 vehicles testing.
Launch Timeline
Nio is targeting April 10 for the ES9 launch event, a few weeks before the Beijing Auto Show opens, co-founder and President Lihong Qin said earlier this month.
“We have tentatively scheduled the time around April 10 this year — around the transition from early to mid-month,” Qin said during a Q&A session in China. “Our ES9 product technology launch event will be held then.”
Deliveries are expected to begin later in the second quarter following the April debut.
The Beijing Auto Show, where the ES9 will be displayed, is scheduled for late April. The event attracted 892,000 visitors in 2024, setting a new record.
Nio founder and CEO William Li confirmed earlier this month that the ES9 had entered pre-production.
Pricing and Margins
As reported earlier this week by EV, Morgan Stanley analyst Tim Hsiao said the company expects the ES9’s average selling price to exceed 500,000 yuan ($71,900).
“Management said the ES9 would be key to higher margins, potentially exceeding Rmb100k profit per unit, given its high ASP above Rmb500k, which would enable it to compete against models like BMW X5, Mercedes GLE, and Aito M9,” the analyst wrote after meeting with Li.
The comments mark the first pricing indication for the upcoming model, which will become Nio‘s largest and most expensive SUV.
Specifications
Regulatory filings published earlier this month by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology show the ES9 measuring 5,365 millimetres in length, 2,029 millimetres in width, and 1,870 millimetres in height, with a wheelbase of 3,250 millimetres.
That makes it 85 millimetres longer, 29 millimetres wider, and 70 millimetres taller than the ES8, which has served as Nio’s flagship SUV since becoming the brand’s first mass-produced vehicle in May 2018.
The ES9 will feature a dual-motor all-wheel drive system producing a combined 520 kilowatts (697 horsepower), with 180 kW at the front axle and 340 kW at the rear. Top speed is rated at 220 kilometres per hour.
Technology
Li has said the ES9 will serve as the SUV counterpart to the ET9 sedan, which began deliveries in China in March 2025 after being unveiled at Nio Day 2024.
Like the sedan, the ES9 is expected to feature steer-by-wire, Nio‘s ‘Cedar’ operating system, two Shenji NX9031 intelligent driving chips, and the SkyRide chassis system — representing the highest level of technology Nio has put into a vehicle.
“The ES9 is more geared towards business use,” Li said at a media briefing during the company’s one-millionth vehicle ceremony in Hefei earlier this month. “Compared to the purely executive ET9, the ES9 will have more diverse applications.”
Battery and Options
The SUV will be equipped with CATL-supplied nickel-cobalt-manganese ternary lithium-ion batteries with a capacity of 102 kWh.
CATL has been Nio‘s primary battery supplier since the company’s founding in November 2014.
Three curb weight variants are listed at 2,845, 2,870, and 2,915 kilograms, suggesting different battery pack or equipment configurations.
Available options include two-tone exterior paint, 21-inch, 22-inch, or 23-inch wheels, coloured brake calipers, electric running boards, and various blacked-out trim pieces.
The ES9 is one of three large SUVs the Nio Group — which includes the Nio, Firefly, and Onvo brands — is launching this year in China.
