Nio is targeting April 10 for the launch event of its ES9 flagship SUV, a few weeks before the Beijing Auto Show opens its doors, co-founder and president Lihong Qin said on Sunday.
The ES9 is one of three large SUVs the Nio Group — which includes the Nio, Firefly, and Onvo brands — is launching this year in China.
The Beijing Auto Show, where the ES9 willbe displayed, is scheduled for late April. The event attracted 892,000 visitors in 2024, setting a new record.
“We have tentatively scheduled the time around April 10 this year — around the transition from early to mid-month,” Qin said during a Q&A session in China. “Our ES9 product technology launch event will be held then.”
Deliveries are expected to begin later in the second quarter following the April debut.
The timeline aligns with remarks Qin made in May 2025, when he said the new flagship SUV would debut in the first half of 2026.
Nio founder and Chief Executive Officer William Li confirmed earlier this month that the ES9 had entered pre-production.
Nio’s Largest SUV
The ES9 will be Nio‘s largest and most powerful vehicle to date.
Regulatory filings published earlier this month by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) show the SUV measuring 5,365 millimetres in length, 2,029 millimetres in width, and 1,870 millimetres in height, with a wheelbase of 3,250 millimetres.
That makes it 85 millimetres longer, 29 millimetres wider, and 70 millimetres taller than the ES8, which has served as Nio‘s flagship SUV since becoming the brand’s first mass-produced vehicle in May 2018.
The ES9 will feature a dual-motor all-wheel drive system producing a combined 520 kilowatts (697 horsepower), with 180 kW at the front axle and 340 kW at the rear.
Top speed is rated at 220 kilometres per hour.
Technology
Li has said the ES9 will serve as the SUV counterpart to the ET9 sedan, which began deliveries in China in March 2025 after being unveiled at Nio Day 2024.
Like the sedan, the ES9 is expected to feature steer-by-wire, Nio‘s Cedar operating system, two Shenji NX9031 intelligent driving chips, and the SkyRide chassis system — representing the highest level of technology Nio has put into a vehicle.
“The ES9 is more geared towards business use,” Li said earlier this month at a media briefing during the company’s one-millionth vehicle ceremony in Hefei. “Compared to the purely executive ET9, the ES9 will have more diverse applications.”
Battery and Options
The SUV will be equipped with CATL-supplied nickel-cobalt-manganese ternary lithium-ion batteries with a capacity of 102 kWh.
CATL has been Nio‘s primary battery supplier since the company’s founding in November 2014.
The regulatory filing confirms the ES9 can be sold under Nio‘s battery-as-a-service model, which allows customers to purchase the vehicle without the battery and pay a monthly subscription instead.
Three curb weight variants are listed at 2,845, 2,870, and 2,915 kilograms, suggesting different battery pack or equipment configurations.
Available options include two-tone exterior paint, 21-inch, 22-inch, or 23-inch wheels, coloured brake calipers, electric running boards, and various blacked-out trim pieces.
