Sales of new Nio vehicles in Germany fell 64.2% in April, official registration data shared by the Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (KBA) on Tuesday showed.
The company sold 19 electric vehicles in the largest European car market, down from the 53 units registered a year ago. Nio’s vehicle registrations in Germany fell 46.5% year-to-date, with 83 units sold between January 1 and April 30.
Currently, Nio is offering two years of free charging when using the company’s battery swap program where customers lease the vehicle’s battery instead of buying it outright.
According to the German website, customers acquiring a Nio ET5 or Nio ET7 before the end of June, all the battery swaps or charging sessions at one of the 20 battery swap stations will be free of charge. The offer is limited to 60,000 km at no cost, according to the EV maker.
The company entered Germany in October 2022. Leadership has since changed hands multiple times. Former Volvo executive Ralph Kranz, who initially led the expansion, was replaced two and a half years later by Marius Hayler, previously Nio’s head in Norway. Hayler left after eight months to join Polestar, and was succeeded by David Sultzer, promoted to country manager in June 2024.
German media outlet Automobilwoche reported earlier this week that Nio plans to launch its Firefly sub-brand in Germany this fall. As of Tuesday, the brand has only announced the Dutch and Norwegian markets with test drives starting “this Summer.”
Chinese carmakers Leapmotor, XPeng and Polestar sold 314, 207 and 303 vehicles, respectively. Tesla sales fell 45.9% year over year to 885 units, following the trend across all other key European markets.
In April, Nio sold 52 vehicles across five European markets, down from 86 units in March, according to official national data and the EU-EVs platform. Sales included 29 vehicles in Norway, 19 in Germany, two each in the Netherlands and Sweden, and none in Denmark.
In Germany, battery electric vehicle registrations rose 53.5% year-on-year in April to 45,535 units. Nearly one out of five vehicles sold in the market was fully electric.
Plug-in hybrid (PHEV) registrations saw stronger growth, rising 60.7% year-on-year in April to 24,317 units, accounting for 30.7% of the market.
Last week, Nio opened a new battery swap station in Germany, marking the 20th in Europe’s largest car market and the 60th in Europe. Nio is now preparing to open two new stations in the country, one in Hamburg and another in Staufenberg-Lutterberg.
With last week’s opening, Germany now matches Norway as the market with the highest number of stations, with 20 each.
As of the time of writing, Nio shares are trading 3.2% lower at $3.85 during Tuesday’s pre-market session.
