Nio‘s Norwegian unit issued a statement on Thursday defending the company’s commitment to Europe and announcing a new battery swap station.
The statement came two weeks after EV exclusively reported that the carmaker told European customers no model updates would arrive until late 2027 and no new swap stations were planned.
In the release, published on the Norwegian website, Nio said recent media coverage gives “an unnuanced picture” of its situation in which developments “appear more dramatic than there is basis for,” insisting its European commitment “is not being slowed down, but further developed.”
“Europe is and remains a central part of Nio’s global commitment, and Norway is one of the markets where we have the strongest foundation,” said An Ho, general manager of Nio Norway, in remarks translated from Norwegian. “What we are doing now is about prioritizing correctly to build long-term value.”
Nio Inc. registered about 520 vehicles across both brands in Norway in 2025, missing the 1,500-unit target Ho set early that year by roughly 65%, despite a year-end push.
Addressing reporting on the company’s product plans for the region directly, the statement said coverage of “future software and functionality in Europe” is “largely based on unconfirmed information.”
“It is important to distinguish between speculation and a factual basis. We communicate when we have concrete plans, and not before,” Ho said.
The statement did not deny any specific claim.
Nio‘s Norwegian unit amplified the message in a LinkedIn post on Thursday while sharing the release, writing that parts of the coverage “paint a more dramatic picture than there is basis for” and listing what it called facts worth noting — including that “the commitment in Europe is being further developed — it is not stopping.”
EV reported on May 27, citing a person who attended a customer event in the Netherlands, that Nio‘s European management told owners the region would receive no model updates until late 2027 and no new battery swap stations — as frustration mounts among early adopters in the company’s first overseas markets.
A Station Announcement
The most concrete item in Wednesday’s release is a new battery swap station planned for the Oslo West/Bærum area.
If built, the facility would be Nio‘s first new swap station in Norway in several months and one of very few additions anywhere in Europe since the network’s expansion stalled.
The company opened its 59th European station in December 2024 and closed its only Danish facility last year, the first shutdown on the continent, leaving 60 stations across Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium and Norway.
Norway remains the technology’s strongest European proof point. The country hosts 20 of the stations, usage is among the highest in the region, and the most-used swap station in Europe is located in Oslo, with the network completing its 250,000th European swap earlier this year at an average pace of about 10,000 per month.
“Norway is a market where we see that the model works well. That gives us a solid foundation for further development,” Ho said.
The release also pointed to a shipment of 105 vehicles produced for the Norwegian market arriving in July.
The EU Picture Behind the Pushback
That defense arrives against registration data that explains the coverage the company calls dramatic.
Nio registered 45 vehicles across its ten European markets in April, according to preliminary data compiled by EV in mid-May — seven units fewer than a year earlier, when the company operated in only five European countries and sold the premium brand exclusively.
The expansion into Belgium, Portugal, Austria, Greece and Hungary through distributor partnerships has so far failed to offset weakening demand in the established markets, with Germany down to a single registration in April and the premium brand failing to register a single vehicle in the Netherlands for the first time since entering the country in October 2022.
Group exports from China hit 44 vehicles in April across all three brands, the worst month since Nio restarted overseas shipments, according to China Passenger Car Association data.
Behind the volumes sits the product drought at the center of EV‘s May report: the premium brand has gone without an updated model in Europe since the second-generation EL8 launched in 2024, and the third-generation ES8 introduced in China last September has not been announced for the region — leaving the lineup structurally exposed as European rivals refresh theirs.
The pressure has reached personnel.
As EV exclusively reported, Nio Germany chief David Sultzer was ousted earlier this year amid a broader restructuring of the European operations, followed by the exit of the country’s sales and operations head Sven Conrad.
Co-founder and President Qin Lihong has said the company aims to sell “several thousand” EVs overseas in 2026, with a larger-scale push planned over the next two to three years.
Norway is the strongest piece of that European map — the country has surpassed Germany as Nio‘s top European market by volume, helped by sitting outside the EU and its tariffs on China-built EVs — which is precisely why the company’s defense of the region is being mounted from Oslo.
A True Claim on a Shrinking Base
Wednesday’s headline sales claim — that May was Nio‘s strongest month in Norway so far this year — is accurate, but the registration data shows why the company needed to make it.
Group registrations reached 43 vehicles in Norway in May across its two brands present in the market, up from 29 a year earlier, according to data from registration tracker Elbilstatistikk — following months of 9, 15, 24 and 26 units to open the year.
Composition tells the sharper story. Firefly, the budget city-car brand launched last August, accounted for 28 of May’s units — its best month in Norway and nearly double its entire 2025 launch-period total before December — while the premium Nio brand registered 15 vehicles, down 48% from May 2025.
Through five months, the group has registered 117 vehicles in Norway, down 28% from 162 in the same period last year. The Nio brand alone stands at 73 units, a 55% decline.
Firefly‘s May surge follows a 0.99% financing campaign launched in April, with the company marketing battery swap access as a core advantage after Norway cut its VAT exemption threshold for EVs from 500,000 to 300,000 kroner on January 1 — a change Nio said “significantly impacted the total price” of its models.
The July shipment of 105 cars, presented in the release as evidence of momentum, equals roughly 90% of everything the group has registered in the country in five months.
The Target That Framed the Retreat
That run rate — roughly 280 units annualized — sits far below even last year’s result, which itself was a historic miss.
Nio Inc. registered about 520 vehicles across both brands in Norway in 2025, missing the 1,500-unit target Ho set early that year by roughly 65%, despite a year-end push.
“1,500 cars with a reasonable margin would make me pretty happy,” the executive told local media at the time, predicting “an exciting year.”
The premium brand finished 2025 at 451 units — less than half of 2024’s 890 and its lowest annual total since Nio chose Norway as its first market outside China in 2021. Firefly ended its launch year at 69 units against a target the company had already cut from 500 to about 200.
Wednesday’s release is also not the first of its kind. In late March, the Norwegian unit distributed a statement titled “Nio develops globally — Norway still the key market,” making the defense of the company’s local commitment a recurring exercise this year.
Profitability
Nio reported its first quarterly GAAP net profit in the fourth quarter of 2025, and its first-quarter 2026 results, released May 21, showed an adjusted operating profit of 66.8 million yuan ($9.7 million) — the second consecutive quarter of non-GAAP operating profitability — on revenue that more than doubled to 25.5 billion yuan and a four-year-high gross margin of 19.0%.
On an unadjusted basis, however, the first quarter swung back to a loss, with a net loss attributable to shareholders of 496 million yuan ($71.9 million).
The argument reflects the strategic shift the statement itself describes: “When the market matures, strategies must mature too. Our ambition stands firm, but how we realize it evolves in step with the market,” Ho said.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer William Li has maintained the company’s plan to be present in 40 countries and regions by the end of 2026, with newer markets served through distributors requiring far less capital than the direct-sales model Nio built in Norway.
