Nio Inc. will use HERE Technologies’ streaming maps across its entire European range. The expansion comes 14 months after the mapping company began supplying the group’s Firefly brand, and while Nio’s own-brand registrations in its original European markets have nearly vanished.
The two companies said on Wednesday that the collaboration now extends “beyond Firefly” to the ET5, ET7, EL6, EL7 and EL8.
Nio is adopting HERE’s streaming map capability. It delivers continuous updates on road network changes, traffic regulations and points of interest across European markets, instead of periodic map packages.
The release gives no financial terms, contract length or start date, and does not say which markets get the update first.
“By deepening our collaboration with HERE, we are providing drivers with more up-to-date map experiences today while strengthening the foundation for future innovations in intelligent navigation and assisted driving across Europe,” said Chris Chen, Vice President of Nio Global Business Development.
Deon Newman, Senior VP and General Manager for Asia Pacific at HERE Technologies, said Chinese brands expanding globally “need reliable, fresh and scalable location intelligence.”
From Firefly to the Whole Range
The relationship began with Firefly on July 8, 2025.
HERE agreed to supply the compact brand with map data for navigation and driver assistance. It also supplied speed-limit data to meet the European Union’s Intelligent Speed Assistance requirement, which new cars need for type approval.
In-car navigation and live traffic for Firefly came through Telenav, HERE’s navigation partner, rather than from HERE directly.
“To bring Firefly to Europe, we needed to collaborate with a partner who understands the complexities of global mobility,” Chen said at the time.
Firefly’s first European customer deliveries followed on August 14, 2025.
Wednesday’s release refers to “the successful deployment of HERE’s industry-leading location technologies in NIO vehicles.”
AD Is Still Exploratory
The companies framed the deal around Navigation on Autopilot (NOA), Nio’s assisted-driving feature on mapped roads.
They said the collaboration will “deliver the evolution of NOA” for European roads. But the concrete commitment is looser: HERE and Nio “will continue exploring” how fresh map data could support the Nio World Model, the company’s end-to-end AI driving architecture, and NOA.
Neither company gave a timeline for NOA in European cars.
Nio told its European organisation in May that the region would get no model updates until late 2027 and no new battery swap stations, an owner who attended the meeting told EV back then.
The model list also leaves gaps. It names the EL7, which has had no registrations in Norway this year, according to Elbilstatistikk. It does not name the ET5 Touring, which accounts for 21 of Nio’s Norwegian registrations this year on the same data.
The sedan variant, named ET5, has registered eleven units between January 1 and Wednesday, September 23.
The Sales Behind the Deal
The map upgrade covers a range that is barely selling in Nio’s original European markets.
In the Netherlands, Nio Inc. registered 4 vehicles in August, all of them Firefly, down from 24 a year earlier, according to BOVAG figures.
Registrations in the first eight months fell 47.4% to 51 from 97.
The Nio brand accounted for 8 of those, down 90.5% from 84. It registered nothing in April, May or August.
Firefly contributed 43, or 84.3% of the Dutch total. Of the five Nio models named in the release, only the EL6 and EL8 have registered in the Netherlands this year.
Firefly’s 2025 comparison is thin. The 13 Dutch registrations in the first eight months of last year include 7 recorded in June and July, before customer deliveries began.
Germany shows the same pattern without Firefly, which is not sold there.
Nio registered 1 vehicle in Germany in August, according to the Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt, taking the eight-month total to 19. That is down 90.1% from 191 a year earlier.
Nio is closing its Cologne hub by the end of September, leaving one in Germany. In March it moved European sales to a distributor model.
Monthly registrations understate how many cars Nio places, because its subscription model has distorted European sales data since 2022.
HERE’s China Push
For HERE, Nio adds another Chinese brand family to an export client list it has been building for over a year.
HERE said in April that all of the top 10 Chinese automakers by 2025 export volume were its customers, based on third-party estimates.
It said its platform runs in 238 million vehicles, and that more than 90 brands from over 40 automakers use its maps for the EU’s speed-assistance rule.
At Auto China the same month, it launched an integrated navigation and Highway NOA system for markets outside China with Lotus. HERE called it the first such system from a Chinese automaker.
It also signed memoranda with Baidu Maps on navigation and assisted-driving maps for automakers worldwide. A separate memorandum with neueHCT, the venture between Horizon Robotics and AUMOVIO, covers NOA outside China.
Lotus already has HERE-backed Highway NOA on sale outside China. Nio, for now, has a map supply agreement and a commitment to explore.
