Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
EV learned on Tuesday that the Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio has integrated the delivery channels of its main brand and sub-brand Onvo in a bid to reduce operational costs.
The move comes as Onvo struggles with slowing sales despite an earlier production capacity target of 16,000 units in January.
The sub-brand delivered fewer than 6,000 vehicles that month, with sales declining further to 4,049 units in February. For March, the company mentioned in late 2024 that it aimed to reach a production capacity of 20,000 units.
Onvo has faced increasing competition from recent launches, including Tesla’s Model Y SUV and Zeekr’s 7X. In its first week of vehicle deliveries of the refreshed Model Y, the company led by Elon Musk delivered 6,600 units.
Later this summer, tech giant Xiaomi is set to enter the market with the YU7, a five-seat SUV boasting a CLTC range of up to 820 km.
Responding to EV, Nio confirmed that “the delivery channels of Onvo have been unified with Nio.”
Regarding specific cities such as Harbin, Yinchuan, Urumqi, and Xining, the company stated that these locations “have not yet established their own stores and are currently managed by Nio’s regional companies.”
Nio reported on Saturday that it delivered 9,143 electric vehicles under its main brand last month. While figures of the main brand increased 12.4% from the 8,132 units registered a year ago, its sub-brand Onvo saw its deliveries fallling 31.5% to 4,049 units.
Nio Group deliveries increased 62% year over year to 13,192 vehicles.
This year, the company is relying on its two more affordable sub-brands, Onvo and Firefly, to help double sales from last year to approximately 440,000 units. Within the Nio brand, refreshed models with improved technology and interiors will soon be launched while the flagship executive sedan ET9 will start deliveries this month.
Stock Performance
As of the time of writing, Nio shares are trading 1% lower at $4.19. The drop followed comments from former U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday, confirming that 25% tariffs would be imposed on Canada and Mexico.
Although the new tariffs do not directly impact Nio, Trump also announced an increase in tariffs on Chinese goods, raising them from 10% to 20%. The escalation of trade tensions rattled global markets, prompting retaliatory measures from China and Canada, which took effect overnight.
Earlier this Tuesday, China and Canada announced retaliatory measures on Tuesday after U.S. tariffs took effect overnight.
The company reiterated last week that it will begin customer deliveries and test drives of its ET9 executive sedan this month (March)
To double last year’s sales, Nio needs to deliver nearly 413,000 vehicles over the next ten months — an average of 41,300 units. In December, the company reached a new monthly record with over 31,000 EVs delivered.
