Shanghai-based Nio Group delivered 35,486 vehicles in March, including 16,255 units of the third-generation ES8 SUV launched in its domestic market last September.
The three row SUV — which has been dominating the company’s delivery figures in the past five months — will see its 90,000th unit delivered “this week,” Head of User Operations Yang Bo said on Weibo this Tuesday.
The timeline suggests a return to the pace Nio maintained before disruptions slowed output in February — with monthly deliveries jumping 44.4% sequentially.
The new iteration was launched in September last year with a lower than expected price, leading to more than 100,000 firm orders in about 48 hours.
Nio reclaimed its position as the group’s best-selling brand of the group in the first quarter, following the continued ramp-up of the model.
The premium brand had briefly lost that spot to Onvo when the sub-brand launched the L90 SUV last Summer — with the model accounting for more than 30,000 units in its first three months of deliveries.
Nio delivered 58,543 vehicles in the first quarter, with 22,490 of those coming in March — representing a 63.4% share of the group’s monthly total.
The ES8 drove the bulk of the its performance — at 45,160 units, or 77.1% of all deliveries.
The SUV accounted for 28,905 deliveries in January and February alone — surpassing Nio‘s total brand deliveries for the entire first quarter of 2025, which stood at 27,313 units.
The group’s quarterly total reached 83,465 vehicles, exceeding its guidance range of 80,000 to 83,000 units.
Share within Nio
After Nio delivered 22,258 ES8 units in December, the model became China’s best-selling SUV in the 400,000 yuan ($58,000) segment by single-month volume.
In January, the all-new ES8 accounted for 17,646 out of the 20,894 units delivered by the brand, representing a 84.5% share of the Nio brand’s registrations and 64.9% across the group.
Last month, the three-row SUV represented 74.3% of the brand’s deliveries and 54.1% of the Nio Group‘s total of 20,797 units.
March figures represent 45.8% in the Group’s total and 72.3% of the brand’s registrations.
Delivery Pace
The Shanghai-based EV maker is on track to have delivered 10,000 ES8s within 11 to 16 days (until Sunday).
The previous milestone — the 80,000th ES8 delivery — was reached in 21 days, already an improvement over the 70,000-unit mark, which took roughly 30 days.
That earlier slowdown reflected the impact of the Chinese New Year holiday, which China’s Passenger Car Association (CPCA) noted was the longest on record this year.
Nio also disclosed late in February that a shortage of audio signal processing chips had forced it to make production adjustments.
By comparison, Nio needed only about 14 days to go from 50,000 to 60,000 ES8 deliveries — a benchmark the company now appears close to matching again.
Demand
When the model launched in late September, wait times reached 24–26 weeks — nearly half a year.
By mid-January, that figure had fallen to 13–14 weeks (just over 3 months), and by February 11, to 8–9 weeks.
In the two weeks that followed, the window was cut roughly in half again, dropping to 6–7 weeks, then 4–5 weeks in the first week of March.
Users who order the ES8 on Tuesday can expect delivery in roughly 3–4 weeks, according to the online configurator.
Nio last updated that estimate on March 9, suggesting production has since stabilized.
Portfolio Updates
Speaking about the contribution of the ES8 SUV in the latest earnings call, founder and CEO William Li said that it would “still be playing a major part in our total deliveries in Q1.”
Nio is preparing to unveil its ES9 on April 9. The larger model will replace the ES8 as the company’s flagship SUV.
The EV maker announced on Wednesday that a facelift for its ‘5566’ entry-level models will be released on Thursday.
Co-founder and President Qin Lihong revealed over the weekend that a five-seat version of the ES8 will also launch in early July.
It marked the first time Nio has mentioned a five-seat variant of the ES8.
The announcement came weeks after a new version of what appeared to be the ES7 was spotted being transported in China.
Lihong said then the model would debut in the third quarter, but his framing of it as a five-seat ES8 — rather than an updated ES7 — may suggest the ES7 nameplate has been shelved, following weak sales and its eventual discontinuation in China last year.
