Nio is moving to appease customers facing extended delivery delays for its newly launched ES8 model, offering daily perks and financial incentives as the company seeks to avoid losing orders.
Yang Bo, Nio’s sales director, said in a Weibo post Thursday that “starting today, every day we will push a ‘waiting blind box’ to users who are still waiting to pick up their cars.”
“There will be surprise grand prizes every day,” he added. “Don’t forget to log in to the app daily to claim them.”
The measures follow Nio’s launch of the third-generation ES8 last weekend in Hangzhou, where co-founders William Li and Lihong Qin delivered the first batch of vehicles to customers.
The new daily perks begin days after Nio has introduced a program for ES8 buyers to offset potential losses from changes to China’s vehicle purchase tax policy in 2026.
The scheme, announced Sunday and called “peace-of-mind,” grants each order locked in before December 31 a voucher covering any additional purchase tax if invoicing and delivery slip into next year due to production or logistics delays.
Automakers in China risk losing customers to rivals that can guarantee year-end deliveries, as Nio’s sub-brand Onvo experienced in December 2024.
The sales chief added on late Thursday that some customers will wait too long for deliveries this year due to the number of locked-in orders.
“For users who cannot receive delivery this year, we will cover the difference in next year’s purchase tax. After waiting 57 days, waiting-bonus red envelopes will start to be issued,” Yang wrote.
Nio’s 40,000-unit production capacity for the SUV this year was sold out within nine minutes of reservations opening.
The company said earlier this week in a livestream that orders locked within the first nine minutes of the launch are expected to receive vehicles this year, suggesting roughly 40,000 units were secured in that timeframe.
Priced from 406,800 yuan ($56,000), or 298,800 yuan under Nio’s battery-as-a-service rental program, the ES8 is a large six- and seven-seat SUV aimed at China’s premium family segment.
Orders placed today are subject to delivery waits of between 24 and 26 weeks, with some vehicles not expected until March 2026.
Nio has said it will not reset delivery queues for configuration changes made before September 30.
The Shanghai-based company is ramping up production of both the ES8 and its sub-brand Onvo’s L90, with output for each expected to reach/exceed 15,000 units a month by year-end.
Nio’s US-listed shares jumped as much as 5% Thursday, nearing their highest level since January 2024, before paring gains.
The stock was last down 2.3% at $7.30 in New York.
The advance earlier in the session followed a series of price-target increases from Wall Street analysts, reports that production had begun at the company’s third plant in China, and management’s reaffirmation of its profitability goal.
