Nio launched the ES9 on Wednesday, the most expensive and largest vehicle the Chinese automaker has built, with first deliveries in China scheduled for Thursday, May 28.
Prices for what the company calls China’s largest battery-electric SUV start at 498,000 yuan ($73,400) with the battery included.
Buyers who choose the company’s Battery-as-a-Service program, which lets customers lease the battery for a monthly fee and use Nio‘s nationwide network of swap stations, can start at 390,000 yuan ($57,500).
Both starting prices came in 30,000 yuan below the levels Nio set when the ES9 began pre-sales at its April 9 debut in Hangzhou, when the entry version started at 528,000 yuan with the battery or 420,000 yuan under BaaS.
The reductions extended across the range, with all three trims cut by 30,000 yuan from their pre-sale levels.
The mid Executive Signature now starts at 558,000 yuan ($82,300), or 450,000 yuan ($66,400) under BaaS, while the range-topping Horizon Special Edition starts at 628,000 yuan ($92,600), or 520,000 yuan ($76,700) with battery leasing.
Founder and Chief Executive William Li presented the model at the event with about 5,000 attendees, one of the largest product launches the company has staged.
Pitched Against the MPV
Li used the launch to position the ES9 as a roomier alternative to the multi-purpose vehicles favored by Chinese families.
He said the ES9 delivers an interior space experience that surpasses mainstream MPVs, claiming advantages in first-row headroom, second-row headroom and fully-loaded cargo capacity.
“Six people and 13 suitcases, no problem — every seat is an MVP. Forget about MPVs,” Li said, playing on the near-homophone between “MVP” and the MPV segment the ES9 is meant to challenge.
Li argued that the all-electric era for large three-row SUVs had arrived, saying such models had outsold extended-range, combustion and plug-in hybrid rivals for eight consecutive months since last September. He added that Nio‘s latest ES8 had been the best-selling model priced above 400,000 yuan for five straight months since December.
Yao Ming Fronts the Flagship
Nio said earlier Wednesday it had chosen basketball great Yao Ming to represent the ES9, without disclosing terms of the arrangement.
“Great eras shape legends and call for flagships,” the company wrote of the eight-time NBA All-Star and Hall of Famer, naming him a chief experience officer for the model.
Built for Fast Handover
Nio built the launch around a “launch-to-delivery” model, handing over the first vehicles on the same day the SUV went on sale rather than waiting weeks.
The company had built a pre-launch inventory of at least 6,000 ES9 units at its factory and delivery centers, according to local outlet ChinaEVHome, which cited people close to the company.
The company guided last week for second-quarter deliveries of 110,000 to 115,000 vehicles across its Nio, Onvo and Firefly brands, growth of roughly 53% to 60% year over year.
With 29,356 vehicles delivered in April, it needs between 80,644 and 85,644 in May and June combined, making the ES9 ramp central to the math.
Strong Pre-Orders
Pre-order momentum has been brisk, though Nio does not disclose specific reservation figures.
ChinaEVHome reported the ES9 had drawn more than 50,000 pre-orders, and that frontline sales staff estimated a conversion rate above 50%, implying firm orders could exceed 25,000 soon after the launch.
On the company’s first-quarter earnings call last week, Li said pre-orders had accelerated over the prior ten days and that the ES9 was lifting demand for the existing ES8 rather than cannibalizing it.
At a media session last month, he said orders from buyers outside the existing Nio community were running at more than 1.5 times the equivalent period after the 2025 ES8 launch. The ES8 became China’s top-selling large electric SUV for five consecutive months and reached its 110,000th delivery over the weekend.
Deutsche Bank expects average monthly ES9 sales to reach 5,000 units once production ramps in the second half of 2026.
The bank lifted its 2026 delivery forecast for Nio by about 5% to around 420,000 units, citing the ES9 as a key catalyst, though that still sits below Nio‘s own target of 456,000 to 489,000 vehicles, or 40% to 50% growth.
R&D and the Swap Network
Li framed the ES9 against the company’s long-running investment in technology and infrastructure.
Over 11 years, he said, Nio‘s cumulative research and development spending has exceeded 68.8 billion yuan, including more than 20 billion yuan on charging and battery-swap infrastructure.
As of Wednesday, the company operated 8,903 charging and swap stations, comprising 5,037 charging stations and 3,866 swap stations. Fifth-generation swap stations are due to begin deployment in the third quarter.
The Hardware
The ES9 is built on Nio‘s NT3.0 platform with a 900-volt architecture, and shares the SkyRide intelligent chassis with the ET9 flagship sedan.
The entry Executive Luxury version pairs a 520-kilowatt dual-motor powertrain with a 102-kilowatt-hour battery for a 0-to-100-kilometer-per-hour time of 4.3 seconds and a CLTC range of 620 kilometers. It features steer-by-wire and rear-wheel steering, a 216-liter front trunk and 31 perception sensors.
The model runs Nio‘s in-house Shenji NX9031 driving chip paired with three LiDAR sensors and the AQUILA sensing system. The top Horizon Special Edition steps up to two NX9031 chips and adds a 48-volt fully active suspension.
The pre-launch package included incentives that closed when the launch began: a refundable 5,000-yuan deposit that converted into 10,000 yuan toward the purchase, an effective 5,000-yuan discount, alongside a two-year zero-interest offer on a 60-month installment plan for customers who reserved before May 27.
