Nio delivered the 160,000th unit of its third-generation ES8 on Friday in Xi’an, 33 days after the 150,000th, its slowest 10,000-vehicle stretch since the large SUV’s first 10,000 deliveries.
The handover came 397 days after deliveries began, an average of about 403 a day. The EV maker announced it on Friday, four days after Assistant Vice President of User Operations Yang Bo said the milestone would come this week.
The ES8 milestone comes as Nio Inc. needs record months in the fourth quarter to reach its annual delivery target, after meeting its third-quarter guidance.
The 10,000 deliveries between the two milestones work out to about 303 vehicles a day.
That compares with about 333 a day over each of the previous five 10,000-unit stretches, which Nio completed in exactly 30 days each, from 100,000 on April 23 to 150,000 on September 20.
The slightly slower pace came with a broader lineup than the one that drove the model’s fastest stretches. Since July, the ES8 has been sold as a five-seater as well as a six- and seven-seater.
The Milestone Ladder
The ES8 took 41 days to reach its first 10,000 deliveries, on October 31, 2025, as production ramped up.
The pace then accelerated during the winter peak. The fastest stretch was 30,000 to 40,000, which took 11 days and ended on December 29.
Two other stretches took less than two weeks. Deliveries went from 50,000 on January 18 to 60,000 on January 31 in 13 days, and from 80,000 on March 20 to 90,000 on April 3 in 14 days.
The model passed 100,000 on April 23, 215 days after launch. From then until September, each additional 10,000 took 30 days.
The latest stretch is the first since the opening 10,000 to take longer than a month.
Two Body Styles Since July
Every milestone up to 120,000, reached on June 22, came from the six- and seven-seat ES8 alone, including the 11- to 14-day stretches of the winter.
The five-seat version, launched on July 9 with deliveries from July 10, has been on sale throughout the three latest stretches and for most of the one before. The 130,000th ES8, handed over in Jinhua in July, was a five-seater, according to Nio.
The model has therefore held a 30-day rhythm, and now slipped to 33 days, with two body styles to sell, so the current pace is not a like-for-like comparison with the early ramp.
Nio does not disclose how many of the deliveries are five-seaters, and neither its model figures nor China Passenger Car Association data separate them, so the version’s share of recent volumes cannot be measured.
It also spanned China’s week-long National Day holiday at the start of October, when Nio set a daily battery swap record of 183,469 swaps.
Monthly Deliveries Near 10,500
Nio does not break out ES8 deliveries in all its monthly filings. According to the company’s own model figures, the ES8 delivered 10,542 units in September, down from 10,999 in August.
That was the third consecutive month above 10,000, after June fell to 8,969, the only month below that level since November 2025.
The ES8 delivered 31,829 vehicles in the third quarter, 4.9% fewer than in the second, and 110,485 in the first nine months of 2026, making it Nio Inc.’s best-selling vehicle.
It accounted for 49.5% of the Nio brand’s 21,318 deliveries in September and 28.2% of Nio Inc.’s 37,408, which also include its Onvo and Firefly brands.
Monthly volumes are well below the model’s peak of 22,258 in December 2025.
Quarterly deliveries have fallen in each quarter of 2026, from 45,184 in the first quarter to 33,472 in the second and 31,829 in the third, according to Nio’s model figures.
The decline between the first and second quarters was 25.9%, and the slowdown between the second and third quarters was much smaller, as the arrival of the five-seat version coincided with monthly volumes returning above 10,000.
Nio will disclose October deliveries on the first day of November.
Nio’s Claims
Nio said on its poster that the ES8 “continues to set new delivery records for high-end pure-electric SUVs.”
It also said the ES8 ranked first by residual value among new energy SUVs priced above 350,000 yuan ($52,500), citing a September 2026 report by the China Automobile Dealers Association and appraisal firm Jingzhengu, which measured one-year-old vehicles across fully electric, plug-in hybrid and range-extender models.
That report put the ES8’s one-year residual value at 77.5%, according to Chinese media coverage of its release earlier this month.
Nio also cited a study by research firm Jielanlu on the first half of 2026 that ranked the ES8 first by net promoter score among fully electric models, a measure of customer satisfaction and loyalty.
The Xi’an buyers are a local couple who run a manufacturing business, and the ES8 has taken nearly 20% of the city’s large SUV market this year, ranking first, according to Nio.
Prices and Versions
The six- and seven-seat ES8 costs 406,800 yuan to 446,800 yuan ($61,000 to $67,000), or from 298,800 yuan ($44,800) with the battery rented under Nio’s battery-as-a-service plan.
A five-seat version launched on July 9 at 382,800 yuan ($57,400), or 274,800 yuan ($41,200) with battery rental, with deliveries from July 10.
In the association’s September retail ranking of large SUVs from Chinese brands, the ES8 placed fifth with 10,546 units, behind the TAI7, the Aion i60 EV, Xiaomi’s YU7 and a Li Auto model.
Its larger sibling, the ES9, recorded 7,706 retail sales in September, according to the association’s data.
Nio’s shares hit their lowest level since April 2025 this week, about 95% below their all-time high.
