Nio Inc. saw its average selling price climb to roughly 273,000 yuan ($40,100) in the first quarter of 2026, as strong demand for the high-volume ES8 SUV offset the drag from its cheapest model, the Firefly hatchback.
The figure, derived from Nio’s vehicle sales of 22,783.7 million yuan ($3,302.9 million) divided by the 83,465 vehicles delivered, rose 15.6% from 236,122 yuan in the first quarter of 2025 and 7.8% from 253,241 yuan in the fourth quarter of 2025.
The sequential increase is notable because it came even as quarterly deliveries fell 33.1% from the fourth quarter, underscoring how a richer model mix lifted per-vehicle revenue despite lower volume.
The shift helps explain why Nio’s vehicle margin rose to 18.8% in the first quarter, up from 18.1% in the fourth quarter and 10.2% a year earlier, even as the company slipped to a narrow net loss.
The ES8 Anchors the Mix
The third-generation ES8 was the single biggest driver of both volume and pricing.
The three-row SUV delivered 45,185 units in the first quarter, contributing 54.14% of Nio’s total deliveries.
Starting at 406,800 yuan ($59,800), the ES8 is one of the most expensive models offered by a domestic Chinese automaker, and its dominant share pulled the group’s average selling price upward.
The model only began deliveries on September 21, 2025, and reached 100,000 units in 215 days — a record for vehicles priced above 400,000 yuan in China’s passenger car market.
The Firefly Drag
Working in the opposite direction is the Firefly EV, the cheapest vehicle in Nio’s lineup.
Firefly starts at 119,800 yuan ($16,410) including the battery, less than a third of the ES8’s price.
The brand delivered 11,583 vehicles in the first quarter, or roughly 14% of the group total, and 4,980 units in April — meaningful volume that weighs on the average selling price.
The scale of the ES8’s higher-priced deliveries, however, more than offset that drag.
The ET9 Sells Few
At the top of the range, the ET9 — Nio’s executive flagship sedan and its most expensive model, starting at 788,000 yuan — sells in volumes too small to move the group average.
The ET9 began deliveries on March 29, 2025, and has delivered in the dozens to low hundreds each month, reaching 128 units in April.
The Onvo Shift
Within the family-oriented Onvo brand, which delivered 13,339 vehicles in the first quarter, the model mix has also shifted.
The L60, Onvo’s first model, which began deliveries in September 2024, has declined sharply in 2026 — falling between 25% and 67% year-over-year in the first four months, to 3,284 units in April.
The larger L90 three-row SUV, which began deliveries in August 2025, delivered 2,068 units in April. Onvo currently sells two models, the L60 and L90; a third, the L80, has not yet begun deliveries.
The ES9 to Lift the Mix Further in Q2
The upward pressure on Nio’s average selling price is set to intensify in the second quarter with the arrival of the ES9, the company’s new flagship SUV.
The ES9 goes on sale and begins deliveries on May 27 — five days earlier than the June 1 date management had previously signalled — with pre-sale pricing starting at 528,000 yuan ($77,300) for the whole-vehicle purchase including the battery, rising to 588,000 and 658,000 yuan for higher trims.
Under Nio’s battery-rental plan, prices start at 420,000 yuan.
Priced about 30% above the ES8 and roughly 31% below the ET9, the ES9 slots in as a high-priced, higher-volume flagship — positioning that, if it replicates the ES8’s success, would push the group’s average selling price higher still.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer William Li has recently said that pre-orders from non-Nio customers were running at more than 1.5 times the equivalent pace of last year’s ES8 launch.
Because deliveries begin only at the very end of May, the ES9 will have no impact on first-quarter figures and only a limited one in the second quarter, with its contribution building through June and the rest of the second quarter.
