Nio is expected to post record deliveries for the second consecutive month in September, driven by strong demand for its newly launched ES8, according to Deutsche Bank estimates.
The bank’s analyst Wang Bin wrote in a research note on Tuesday that Nio Group would deliver around 35,000 vehicles in September, an increase of about 65% from a year earlier and 12% from August.
Deutsche Bank expects deliveries to be roughly 15,000 units each for the core Nio brand and Onvo, with the su-brand Firefly posting 5,000 units.
On September 2, Nio reported its second-quarter earnings results, posting its lowest net loss since late 2023 and reaffirming its goal of reaching its first profitable quarter in the final three months of 2025.
The Shanghai-based group guided for third-quarter deliveries of 87,000 to 91,000 vehicles, an increase of 40.7% to 47.1% from the same period a year earlier.
With 21,017 units delivered in July and 31,305 in August, the company expects September deliveries to range between 34,678 and 38,678 units, setting another monthly record.
Compared with the 72,056 vehicles delivered in the second quarter, Nio expects July-September deliveries to rise 20.7% to 26.3%.
The team estimated new order flow in September would climb 67% month-on-month to around 100,000 units, based on dealer feedback.
Orders are projected at about 80,000 for the Nio marque, 15,000 for Onvo and 5,000 for Firefly.
Deutsche Bank noted that Onvo faced battery supply shortages during the month, forcing the company to allocate packs from its L60 SUV to the new L90 model.
As supply improves, Onvo volumes could rise sequentially, the bank said.
Nio delivered 31,305 vehicles in August, its highest monthly total since the company’s founding eleven years ago, breaking the record set in December 2024.
Onvo more than doubled deliveries to 16,434 from 5,976 in July, helped by the launch of its second model, the L90 SUV.
Firefly rose to 4,346 from 2,366 as it began deliveries in several European markets. By contrast, the core Nio brand delivered 10,525 vehicles in August, down 47.8% from a year earlier.
The drop was the steepest this year and extended a string of monthly declines since May, despite facelifts of the ET5, ET5 Touring, EC6 and ES6.
At a media roundtable in Hangzhou on Sunday, co-founder and president Lihong Qin admitted the updated ES6 and EC6 had yet to meet expectations.
“Objectively, compared to the ES8, our other models face more challenges in the short term, for various reasons,” Lihong said. “Four months have passed, and they have not yet reached our expectations. We still need to work harder on this.”
He said both models had adopted third-generation platform components, improving profitability by cutting 10,000 yuan ($1,400) per vehicle.
He added that the ET5 Touring had unexpectedly become the brand’s recent best-seller. “Before the new ES8 launched yesterday, our recent monthly sales champion was the ET5 Touring,” Nio‘s co-founder said.
“This was somewhat unexpected, because most thought wagons are a niche in China, but ours performed quite well,” the executive added
On August 29, Nio announced it would equip all models with a 100 kWh long-range battery pack as standard while keeping starting prices unchanged, effectively lowering costs for buyers.
