Nio Group‘s main brand posted a new weekly sales record for the year for the second consecutive week between April 14 and 20.
According to weekly registration figures released early Tuesday on Chinese social media, the Shanghai-based premium brand registered 5,400 vehicles last week — a 54.3% jump from the second week of April.
After nine consecutive weeks of selling fewer than 3,200 units in China, the Nio brand — founded and led by William Li — has seen a sharp rebound in weekly registrations, surpassing direct competitors like Zeekr, which recorded only half as many units last week.
Nio introduced earlier this month a limited-time car purchase policy for April for its main brand, offering five years of free battery swapping, 0% interest financing, and additional benefits to buyers of its 2024 models, as it prepares to unveil refreshed versions later this week at the Shanghai Auto Show.
When adding Nio’s sub-brand Onvo, the Group’s total weekly sales reached 6,200 vehicles, up from the 4,200 registered in the previous week.
Adding the 1,800 vehicles registered between March 31 and April 6 and the 3,500 units in the second week of the month, the Nio brand sold about 10,700 units in China between March 31 and April 20.
In the final quarter of the year, Nio is planning to unveil its largest and most luxurious SUV yet — to be named ES9. The information was initially shared by several automotive bloggers on Chinese social media and confirmed by EV last week with people familiar with the matter.
Nio Group delivered 15,039 vehicles in March, a nearly 27% year-on-year increase. However, sales of the Nio brand fell 13% from a year ago to 10,219 units.
Nio established on Monday a new EV company named ‘Beijing Weileying Automobile Sales and Service Co., Ltd,’ data from the Chinese business platform Tianyancha showed.
The company name “Weileying” appears to be a combination of the Chinese characters from Nio (蔚来), its first sub-brand Onvo (乐道), and Firefly (萤火虫), its second sub-brand.
Taken together, the characters 蔚 (Wei), 乐 (Le), and 萤 (Ying) form “蔚乐萤” (Weileying), which phonetically resembles the Chinese phrase “为了赢”—meaning “for the win/ in order to win.”
Li Auto, which mainly sells extended-range EVs led the ranking among China startups with 8,800 units sold last week. The Stellantis-backed brand Leapmotor ranked second with 8,600 vehicles registered.
Tech giant Xiaomi sold 7,200 SU7 sedans last week as the company prepares to officially launch its first SUV in “June/July.”
