Nio Inc. has accelerated the delivery start date of its new flagship ES9 SUV by five days to May 27, the same day as the model’s official launch event, the head of user operations Yang Bo said on Wednesday.
The acceleration comes as the Shanghai-headquartered EV maker contends with a 1.3% year-over-year decline and 15.4% sequential drop in Nio-brand deliveries in April — the first year-over-year decline despite the third-generation ES8 ramp.
“The ES9 will open user test drives on May 11, with the official launch and start of deliveries on May 27,” Yang wrote in a Weibo post.
The previous delivery start was scheduled for June 1, with the launch event slated for May 28.
Q2 Product Offensive Tightens
The ES9 acceleration tightens Nio‘s back-loaded Q2 product offensive, with the Onvo L80 mass-market SUV scheduled to officially launch on May 15 — only 12 days before the ES9 follows.
Nio founder and chief executive officer William Li has told employees to “seize” the second quarter, positioning the back-to-back launches as the foundation for a sales recovery after the April delivery weakness.
The ES9 is one of three large SUVs the company is launching in 2026, with the third-generation ES8 having been the top-selling large SUV in China for three consecutive months earlier this year.
Same-day launch and delivery starts are uncommon in the Chinese EV industry, where multi-week or multi-month gaps between official pricing and first customer handovers are typical.
Pre-Launch Event
Nio held the ES9 pre-launch event in Hangzhou on April 10, days before the start of Auto China 2026 in Beijing — where the model became one of the most-discussed luxury three-row SUVs during the show’s media day, to which EV attended.
Several Chinese rivals also unveiled premium SUVs at what was the world’s largest auto show, including the Zeekr 8X, the Aito M9, and the XPeng GX.
Nio says the ES9 has tapped into an unmet market need for a premium intelligent electric executive vehicle, with orders from non-Nio customers running at more than 1.5 times the equivalent pace of last year’s ES8 launch, Li said at a media session the morning after the pre-launch event.
The company has not disclosed absolute pre-order figures.
The EV maker has recently defended the ES9’s hidden door handle design following compliance concerns raised after Chinese regulators tightened safety requirements on retractable handles in April.
BMW X7 and Mercedes GLS
Li explicitly named the BMW X7 and the Mercedes-Benz GLS as the vehicles the ES9 is designed to compete against — executive-class SUV owners rather than the broader “all-scenario” buyers the ES8 targets.
“Executive SUVs, or SUVs for executive-style use, that market is actually not small,” Li said.
“Originally there wasn’t a good supply of intelligent EV products, or there wasn’t a good supply of high-tech-content products that fit China’s new consumption needs. I think the ES9 fills exactly this gap,” Li added.
He described the ES9 as “the creator of the intelligent electric executive SUV category.”
“We don’t think there has been such a product in this market before,” Li said.
The ES9 is the second model from the flagship 9-series of the premium Nio brand, following the ET9 executive sedan, which has missed expectations with lower-than-expected demand.
The ES9 was pre-launched with a more aggressive price point than the ET9.
Demand Signal
Li said orders from buyers outside the existing Nio community were running at more than 1.5 times the equivalent period after last year’s ES8 product and technology launch, without disclosing absolute figures.
“We were specifically discussing this number at breakfast this morning,” Li said. “What does this number say?”
The founder disclosed that ET9 executive sedan owners had placed orders for the ES9 at the launch event.
“People feel that having both 9’s is great — different uses, different scenarios,” Li said.
Li also said the secretary-general of an entrepreneurs’ club had contacted him the night before the media session to survey demand among its members.
“This kind of demand really is something we’ve rarely seen before,” Li said.
ES9 Pre-Sale Pricing
The ES9 opens pre-sales in three trims sharing a 520 kW dual-motor powertrain and a 102 kWh CATL battery with up to 620 km of CLTC-rated range.
The Executive Luxury Edition starts at 528,000 yuan with the battery included, or 420,000 yuan under Nio‘s Battery as a Service leasing scheme.
The Executive Signature starts at 588,000 yuan, or 480,000 yuan with BaaS.
The range-topping Horizon Special Edition starts at 658,000 yuan, or 550,000 yuan with BaaS.
Both six-seat configurations — center-island and aisle layout — are available across all trims.
The official launch price, due at the formal debut on May 27, is expected to be slightly lower than the pre-sale pricing in line with previous Nio launches
ES9 Will Boost ES8 Sales
Li said the ES9 would lift ES8 sales rather than cannibalize them, as the two vehicles serve different buyer segments.
The ES8 is positioned as Nio‘s “all-scenario flagship SUV” while the ES9 targets executive-class buyers upgrading from combustion-engine luxury SUVs.
The third-generation ES8 sold out its entire 2025 production capacity within 36 hours of launch last September, accumulating more than 100,000 orders within 48 hours.
Li also drew a clear distinction between the ES9 and competitor models marketed with a “9” designation.
“There are some others selling well, but I think more of what they talk about is ‘all-scenario.’ I think they’re often closer to the target user definition of our ES8 — because the ES8 is positioned as our all-scenario flagship SUV,” Li said.
Qin reinforced the point, referring to a widely circulated comparison chart of nine competing flagship SUVs.
“If you take the ES9 out and put the ES8 in, it feels more harmonious,” Qin said.
Expectations
Bank of China International last month hiked its Nio price target to a Street high, expecting the ES9 to stabilize at monthly deliveries of 3,000 to 4,000 units, driving combined ES8 and ES9 sales above 10,000 units per month.
Qin said at the April 10 media session that the pre-sale pricing already accounts for raw material fluctuations.
“In our pre-sale pricing, including our expectations for a reasonable profit margin, we have already taken into account, within our capability boundary, the possible impact of raw-material price fluctuations,” Qin said.
“We’ve made the corresponding preparations,” Qin added.
No Four-Seater Planned
Li ruled out a four-seater ES9 variant.
“In the SUV category, we currently have no plans for an ES9-plus or ES4 — no such product is planned,” Li said.
He said the ES9’s 816 liters of storage space covers 95% of cargo needs, making a dedicated four-seater unnecessary.
The six-seater third row, in either aisle or center-island configuration, serves as a natural partition and what Nio markets as a “mobile dressing room.”
“The question is whether our current six-seater version isn’t actually better than a four-seater,” Li said. “As long as the third row isn’t folded down, isn’t it actually a better partition?”.
