Nio is set to deliver the 90,000th unit of its third-gen ES8 “this week,” the company’s Head of User Operations Yang Bo said on Weibo this Tuesday.
“This week, we will celebrate the delivery of the 90,000th all-new ES8,” the executive wrote. “Thank you to all our users for your support — we will keep working hard and continue powering forward together!”
The third-generation ES8 was launched in September last year with a lower than expected price, leading to more than 100,000 firm orders in about 48 hours.
The timeline suggests that the Shanghai-based EV maker is on track to have delivered 10,000 ES8s within 11 to 16 days (until Sunday).
That would mark a return to the pace Nio maintained before disruptions slowed output in February.
Delivery Milestones
The previous milestone — the 80,000th ES8 delivery — was reached in 21 days, already an improvement over the 70,000-unit mark, which took roughly 30 days.
That earlier slowdown reflected the impact of the Chinese New Year holiday, which China’s Passenger Car Association (CPCA) noted was the longest on record this year.
Nio also disclosed late in February that a shortage of audio signal processing chips had forced it to make production adjustments.
By comparison, Nio needed only about 14 days to go from 50,000 to 60,000 ES8 deliveries — a benchmark the company now appears close to matching again.
Demand
When the model launched in late September, wait times reached 24–26 weeks — nearly half a year.
By mid-January, that figure had fallen to 13–14 weeks (just over 3 months), and by February 11, to 8–9 weeks.
In the two weeks that followed, the window was cut roughly in half again, dropping to 6–7 weeks, then 4–5 weeks in the first week of March.
Users who order the ES8 on Tuesday can expect delivery in roughly 3–4 weeks, according to the online configurator.
Nio last updated that estimate on March 9, suggesting production has since stabilized.
Monthly Figures
Nio delivered 11,260 ES8 vehicles in China last month, totaling 71,260 since the first unit was handed over on September 21, 2025.
Given that the 80,000th ES8 was delivered on March 20, Nio has already handed over at least 8,740 units this month.
As the company approaches the 90,000-unit mark, the model’s figures will surpass 10,000 — and reach a sequential rebound in monthly deliveries after a dip in February.
Throughout March, Nio offered a 10,000 yuan ($1,500) purchase tax subsidy, 7-year low-interest financing, and 5 years of free NOP+ (Navigate on Pilot Plus) usage to ES8 buyers.
Share within Nio
The 22,258 deliveries in December made the Nio ES8 China’s best-selling SUV in the 400,000 yuan ($58,200) segment by single-month volume.
Since production picked up in the last two months of 2025, the all-new Nio ES8 has represented the majority of the EV maker’s deliveries.
In January, the all-new ES8 accounted for 17,646 out of the 20,894 units delivered by the brand, representing a 84.5% share of the Nio brand’s registrations and 64.9% across the group.
Last month, the three-row SUV represented 74.3% of the brand’s deliveries and 54.1% of the Nio Group‘s total of 20,797 units.
The company announced earlier this month that it expects first-quarter deliveries to account for between 80,000 and 83,000 vehicles.
Considering the 47,979 vehicles registered in the first two months of the year, the numbers imply that the EV maker expects March deliveries to be between 32,021 and 35,021 units.
ES8 Margins
Nio confirmed earlier this month that it has achieved its first profitable quarter ever, and now marches towards achieving full-year profitability in 2026.
One of the key factors in the earnings report was the increase in the margin on vehicle sales, which co-founder and President Qin Lihong had already alluded to in late January, when he said the new ES8 has a gross margin of 20%.
According to figures provided by Lihong, Nio generates 80,000 yuan ($11,600) in gross profit per ES8 sold, indicating that the company has generated over 5.7 billion yuan ($826.5 million) in sales of the SUV alone.
Nio disclosed a 14.7% vehicle margin between July and September, which has jumped to 18.1% in the fourth quarter — a five percentage point increase year over year.
Portfolio Updates
Speaking about the contribution of the ES8 SUV, Li added that it will “still be playing a major part in our total deliveries in Q1, so that part is guaranteed with the product mix largely decided by the high margin products like the ES8.”
Nio is preparing to unveil its ES9 on April 9. The larger model will replace the ES8 as the company’s flagship SUV.
The EV maker is also scheduled to update its entry-level ‘5566’ models later this year.
Co-founder and President Qin Lihong revealed over the weekend that a five-seat version of the ES8 will also launch in early July.
It marked the first time Nio has mentioned a five-seat variant of the ES8.
The announcement came weeks after a new version of what appeared to be the ES7 was spotted being transported in China.
Lihong said then the model would debut in the third quarter, but his framing of it as a five-seat ES8 — rather than an updated ES7 — may suggest the ES7 nameplate has been shelved, following weak sales and its eventual discontinuation in China last year.
