Nio‘s ET7 sedan sold just four units in China in October, down 94.4% from 72 a year earlier and below the 11 it recorded in May, according to China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) data released this week.
The figure makes the ET7, Nio’s first sedan and once the brand’s flagship, the second-worst seller in its nine-model lineup. Only its stablemate, the EC7 coupe SUV, sold fewer, with a single unit.
The four units equal about 0.02% of the 18,125 vehicles the Nio brand delivered in October, according to the company.
CPCA data show that the Nio brand’s China sales in October were dominated by its two newest large SUVs.
The ES8 three-row SUV led with 8,735 units, followed by the ES9, the brand’s largest electric SUV, with 6,690. Together they accounted for 85% of the 18,039 units the nine models sold, according to the CPCA figures.
The ET5 Touring wagon sold 1,174 units, the ES6 656, the ET5 sedan 425 and the EC6 280. The ET9 executive sedan, which displaced the ET7 at the top of Nio’s range in 2025, sold 74.
Nio reported brand deliveries of 18,125 in October, its lowest monthly total since February, while Nio Inc., including its Onvo and Firefly brands, delivered 34,246 vehicles, down 15.2% from a year earlier.
From 564 to Four
The October figure caps a decline that steepened through 2025 and has deepened further in 2026.
The ET7 sold 239 units in China in January 2025, according to CPCA data compiled by EV. Monthly sales then ran at 261 in February, 347 in March, 422 in April, 207 in May and 271 in June.
Nio then turned to steep discounts on its aging 7-series models. In July 2025, it was offering up to 190,000 yuan ($28,500) off the ET7 and EC7 to clear inventory, a person familiar with the matter told EV at the time.
The campaign produced a short-lived lift. ET7 sales rose to 564 units in July 2025, the model’s best month of that year, before falling to 391 in August and 137 in September.
Sales then slid to 72 in October, 57 in November and 78 in December, when the ET7 posted a 91% year-over-year decline. Full-year 2025 sales totaled about 3,046 units.
Volumes fell further in 2026. The ET7 sold 15 units in January, 20 in February, 17 in March, 22 in April and 11 in May, each more than 90% below a year earlier.
October’s four units are 99.3% below the July 2025 peak of 564.
The NT2.0 Debut
Nio unveiled the ET7 on January 9, 2021, at its annual Nio Day event in Chengdu, pricing it from 448,000 yuan ($67,100) before subsidies. Deliveries in China began in March 2022.
The sedan was the first model on Nio’s second-generation NT2.0 platform, which went on to underpin nearly every Nio model that followed, and the brand’s first car with LiDAR.
Nio’s U.S.-listed shares hit an all-time high of $66.99 in the month of the ET7’s unveiling, a peak they have not revisited since.
The ET7 later lost its flagship role to the ET9, the first model on Nio’s NT3.0 platform, which began deliveries in March 2025. Chinese buyers have also shifted toward SUVs, the segment where Nio has concentrated its recent launches.
No New Sedan in 2026
Nio has signaled that sedans are not a near-term priority.
“We will not launch a new sedan in 2026,” Nio Co-founder and President Qin Lihong said in September 2025, adding that the brand had placed sedans “slightly later” in its timing because SUVs remain a large and growing segment in China while sedans gradually decline.
A third-generation platform redesign for Nio’s entry models is expected in 2027, but the company has not confirmed a specific update for the ET7.
The ET7 has also stalled in Europe, where it was one of Nio’s first models when the brand entered Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden in late 2022.
In February, Nio introduced a risk-free trial of the ET7 in Germany as sales there collapsed. The brand registered no new cars in Germany in October, according to the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA).
Nio’s 7-series slump came in a weak month for China’s car market. Passenger-car retail sales fell 27.1% from a year earlier to 1.643 million in October, and new energy vehicle (NEV) retail sales fell 13.7% to 1.109 million, CPCA said.
Nio Inc. retailed 34,030 NEVs in China in October across its brands, the association said, placing it 11th among automakers that sold more than 20,000.
