Nio Inc.‘s US-listed shares plunged on Friday morning after the Shanghai-based EV maker reported global April delivery figures showing a sequential slowdown, with investors discounting the year-over-year improvement to focus on the 17.3% decline from March.
US-listed shares were falling 8.1% to $5.88 as of press tim, marking a fresh low since late March.
The decline brought Nio‘s one-month performance to -6.7%, though the stock remains up 25.1% over three months and 15.3% year-to-date.
April Numbers
Nio Inc. delivered 29,356 vehicles in April, a 22.8% increase year-over-year but a 17.3% decline from the 35,486 units delivered in March, the company reported on Friday.
The headline year-over-year comparison is distorted by the small Firefly base in April 2025, when the brand had only just begun deliveries on April 29 of last year and contributed just 231 units to the month.
Excluding Firefly from both periods, Nio Inc.‘s combined Nio-brand and Onvo deliveries grew approximately 3% year-over-year, from 23,669 in April 2025 to 24,376 in April 2026 — a more modest pace as the company expanded significantly outside China over the last twelve months.
The decline reflected sequential pullbacks across all three brands.
Nio‘s premium namesake brand delivered 19,024 vehicles, down 1.3% year-over-year and 15.4% from March’s 22,490 units.
The year-over-year decline in the flagship Nio-brand volume, despite the third-generation ES8 contributing meaningful incremental volume.
The family-oriented Onvo sub-brand delivered 5,352 vehicles, up 21.6% year-over-year but down 22.2% from March’s 6,877 units.
The Firefly small-car brand delivered 4,980 units, surging more than 20-fold year-over-year given the brand’s near-zero base in April 2025 — but down 18.6% from March’s 6,119 units.
ES8 Anchors the Brand
The third-generation Nio ES8 SUV remained the core volume driver, with 13,020 units delivered in April.
The model accounted for 44.4% of Nio Inc.‘s total deliveries for the month and 68.4% of the Nio brand’s volume.
Nio chief executive officer William Li personally delivered the model’s 100,000th unit in Beijing on April 23 — just 215 days after the first handover on September 21, 2025.
The ES8 has set a new record in China for premium vehicles priced above 400,000 yuan in both sales and delivery speed, the company said.
Cumulative YTD
In the first four months of 2026, Nio Inc. delivered 112,821 vehicles, a 71% increase year-over-year.
The company has targeted 40% to 50% delivery growth for full-year 2026, after delivering 326,028 vehicles in 2025.
The target range implies between 456,439 and 489,042 vehicles for 2026.
Onvo L80 x Stock Run
Nio opened pre-sales for the Onvo L80 large five-seat SUV on April 28 at a starting price of 245,800 yuan ($36,000), with the official launch scheduled for May 15.
The L80 pre-launch event failed to translate into a stock market rally — a notable departure from the market response to the pre-launch events for the ES8 and the L90, both of which had triggered investor enthusiasm earlier in the cycle.
Much of the L80’s design had already been disclosed through prior filings with China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, leaving fewer surprises for investors at the formal pre-sale event.
The founder used the event to detail the technology underpinning the L80 and the model’s main selling propositions — including interior space and the family-vehicle positioning — though the markets-relevant data points were largely already known.
ES9 Launch Pipeline
Nio debuted its new flagship SUV, the Nio ES9, on April 9 with pre-sales starting at 528,000 yuan, including the battery pack.
The official launch is expected in late May, with initial customer deliveries scheduled to begin June 1.
The six-seat SUV replaces the ES8 at the top of the lineup and is built on Nio‘s 900-volt architecture, sharing the SkyRide intelligent chassis and steer-by-wire system with the ET9 flagship sedan.
Nio co-founder and President Qin Lihong said earlier this month that the ES9 will generate the highest gross profit amount among all Nio SUVs.
Li said on the day of the ES9 pre-launch that orders from first-time buyers were already running at more than 1.5 times the ES8’s early pace.
Q1 Set the Bar High
The April sequential decline starts from a high base, with March’s 35,486 units having capped a strong first quarter.
Nio Inc. delivered 83,465 vehicles in the first quarter, up 98.3% year-over-year and exceeding the upper end of the company’s 80,000-83,000 guidance range.
The Nio brand alone delivered 58,543 vehicles in the first quarter, accounting for 63.4% of the group total.
CEO Li told employees last month to “seize” the second quarter, predicting that deliveries should steadily increase through May and June as the L80 launches mid-month and the ES9 ramps from June 1.
Nio is expected to report first-quarter financial results in early June.
