When launching the third generation ES8 last month, Nio‘s founder and CEO William Li said the goal was to produce 40,000 units until the end of 2025.
“If initial order users don’t receive their cars by the end of 2025, we’ll cover the purchase tax for the following year,” Nio‘s chief added back then, as China is set to lower purchase incentives for new energy vehicles (NEV) starting from January 1.
Five weeks later, in a Q&A session held on Saturday, Li reaffirmed that the Shanghai-headquartered company will raise its production capacity for the three row SUV in December to 15,000 units.
The EV maker recently began production at its third manufacturing plant, also located in Hefei, in China’s Anhui province.
During the second quarter earnings call, Nio management said the new ES8 would reach a monthly production capacity of 10,000 units in October and 15,000 units by December.
Global delivery figures for the month of October will be published next Saturday, on the first day of November.
Days later, the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) is expected to release sales by model giving a concrete figure of ES8’s output.
In September, Nio delivered 2,803 units — according to CPCA.
The new ES8 has a production capacity of 40,000 units for the remainder of this year, with 15,000 units slated for December, the company had said amid its annual event held on September 20.
Despite the EV maker not disclosing the number of pre-orders or locked in orders it received, the figures have surpassed 100,000 units based on the six month delivery waiting time shown in the Nio App on September 22.
“We never publish the number of locked-in orders, but everyone can refer to two things,” Li started by saying.
“One is that if you place an order now, the estimated delivery time is around April next year,” the chief executive added.
As reported by EV earlier this week, the delivery waiting time has slightly reduced to 22-23 weeks, down from the previous range of between 24 and 26 weeks.
As of Sunday, the delivery waiting time remains at 22-23 weeks.
“The background here is that in December this year, we will raise production capacity to 15,000 units,” Li stated.
“So, under that premise, if you order a car today, it can only be delivered around April next year. Everyone can do the math,” he added.
Commenting on the launch of the ES9 — a bigger and more luxurious version of the ES8 — Li revealed the launch is planned for the second quarter of 2026.
“As for when the ES9 will be released — it will be launched in the second quarter next year, that is, between April 1 and June 30.,” the CEO stated. “We’ll take that as the target for now.”
“If there’s no production scheduling by then — if the ES9 is released, I think there definitely won’t be any problem.”
“But I can’t answer too early right now; if the market response in both directions turns out to be different, we’ll see how to handle it. But there shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Looking ahead to the fourth quarter of this year and beyond — if we want to stay at the table in the future, how can we strengthen our mental resilience? We will definitely stay at the table.”
The company is targeting to post its first profitable quarter in Q4 driven by a significant reduction in investments and R&D together with a sharp increase in sales.
The target for this quarter is to deliver 150,000 units across the Nio, Onvo and Firefly brands.
“Think about it: we went through 2019 and the past three years — how could we possibly be pushed away from the table? We will definitely stay at the table,” Li stated
In 2019, the company faced stagnant funding, the departure of founding shareholders, and the resignation of senior executives.
These challenges, coupled with product issues such as fires and recalls and the withdrawal of subsidies for new energy vehicles, brought the company to the brink of bankruptcy.
Several months later, it received 7 billion yuan ($983 million) in state-backed investment from the city of Hefei.
