Chinese EV maker Nio Group posted its weakest Norway sales month in three years in January, despite beginning deliveries of its cheaper sub-brand Firefly last August.
January figures follow a disappointing 2025 in which the Shanghai-headquartered Group missed its sales guidance by about 65%.
According to the Norwegian EV association Elbilstatistikk, Nio Group registered only eight vehicles in the first month of 2026.
The European vehicle registration data platform EU-EVs reports nine units registered by the Chinese EV maker.
January registrations fell to less than a third of the 28 units sold a year earlier, despite new incentives on Nio-brand models and the addition of the affordable Firefly sub-brand.
Last month, no Firefly vehicles were registered in the Norwegian market. All the eight units sold were Nio EL6, the brand’s entry level SUV.
In December, the premium Nio brand had registered 85 units, 56 of which were its more affordable sport utility vehicle.
The company currently offers the EL6 and EL8 SUVs, and the entry-level ET5 sedan and ET5 Touring wagon in the country.
Throughout 2025, the company struggled to clear inventory of 2023 and 2024 units of these models across Europe.
Norway Auto Sales Plunge
The Norwegian government has scaled back EV incentives after achieving 95% of all new vehicle sales being fully electric by the end of 2025.
Consumers face stricter rules for value-added tax (VAT) on EV purchases from the first day of 2026.
The deadline for incentives caused a surge in demand in December, which was followed by a sharp decline in January.
Auto sales across all powertrains fell to about one-third of the levels seen a year ago, accompanying the drop in EV registrations, as they still accounted for 94% of new car purchases.
Other Chinese automakers experienced similar drops in auto sales in early 2026, with XPeng tumbling from 1,099 vehicles in January 2025 to just 40 units last month.
BYD, which registered 1,731 units a year before, saw sales decline to just 50 cars.
Sales of the country’s best-selling brand last year — US brand Tesla — fell from over 5,600 units to just 83.
2025 Sales
Nio sold 451 vehicles in Norway last year, according to the data platform EU-EVs.
Despite reaching a new two-year high in December with 85 units sold by the Nio brand alone, the company has missed its annual target of 1,500 vehicles by about 65%.
In the first half of 2025, the company’s registrations stayed below 200 units, with June numbers declining to just 22 units — the lowest monthly figure since January 2023.
Including Firefly vehicles — since deliveries began in August — the EV maker sold approximately 520 vehicles, halving from the previous year.
2025 represented the company’s lowest annual registrations since it launched in the market in late 2021, excluding those first three months.
Norway was Nio’s first international market and its entry into the European continent, with the company launching there in late 2021.
The EV maker currently operates 20 battery swap stations in Norway — out of a total 61 in Europe — with the latest one having opened in November 2024.
Nio reached 250,000 battery swaps in Europe last month, with the Oslo station being the most popular among consumers, the company said.
