Nio began rolling out a new over-the-air update for its European vehicles, Banyan 2.4.6 EU, with changes to navigation, entertainment and driver assistance and a renaming of its ECO drive modes to comply with EU rules, the company announced on Thursday.
The release comes 199 days after the previous European update, Banyan 2.4.3, which Nio’s Norwegian unit announced on April 27. That is the longest gap between European Banyan releases since at least August 2024.
“With Banyan 2.4.6 EU, numerous new features await you in the areas of navigation, entertainment and driver assistance,” Nio Germany wrote. “Discover all the new features of Banyan 2.4.6 EU in the NIO App.”
Nio did not explain the jump in version number from 2.4.3, and no public announcement of versions 2.4.4 or 2.4.5 in Europe could be found.
What the Update Adds
The release brings “10+” enhancements and new features, according to the release notes.
On highways with an active route, the navigation now shows upcoming rest areas, with the remaining distance and the types of points of interest available, such as restaurants and charging stations. The feature is off by default and has to be turned on in the map settings.
Drivers can also search for chargers from data partner Eco-Movement by typing keywords for charger types, such as “DC charger” or “Power swap station,” or operator names such as Ionity, Fastned and Allego.
Nio integrated a new version of Telenav’s software development kit, which it said brings monthly map data updates and improved auto-zoom. Traffic delays shown in turn-by-turn guidance now draw on both real-time and historical data, and base-map colors in dark mode were updated for legibility.
TIDAL, Spotify and SoundCloud now let users sort tracks, playlists and artists by criteria such as alphabetical order, date added and date played. TIDAL gains an “EP & Singles” tab and can play videos in sound-only mode, and passengers can now scan a QR code to log in to TIDAL and SoundCloud while the car is moving.
Automatic emergency braking now “responds more appropriately to crossing vehicles,” and Pilot Assist reacts more accurately when faster vehicles cut into the lane, according to the release notes.
Lane departure warning, lane keep assist and emergency lane keeping now activate only at 65 km/h (40 mph) and above “to help prevent unintended lane departures,” the notes said.
The automatic high beam now switches on less often when passing street lights in city driving below 60 km/h (37 mph), while remaining available when passing large illuminated billboards on highways above 105 km/h (65 mph).
The update also renames the “ECO” and “ECO+” drive modes to “Range” and “Range+” to comply with the EU’s Directive 2024/825 on “Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition.” Nio called it “a naming change only.”
“Every update helps to keep developing your vehicle and tailor it even better to your needs,” Nio Germany wrote.
Nio’s Danish website lists the update on its software pages for the ET5, ET5 Touring and EL6. Nio did not say how long the rollout will take. The previous release, 2.4.3, excluded the first-generation ES8, which runs on the older Aspen platform.
Delivering May’s Promises
Several of the changes match what Nio told European owners to expect at a meeting in May, according to an attendee’s account obtained by EV.
At that session, led by Chris Chen, head of Nio’s Global Business department, owners were told the next major update was expected in the fourth quarter, with highway rest-stop information, navigation contrast adjustments, TIDAL playlist sorting and incremental improvements to phantom braking.
Thursday’s release notes include the rest areas, the playlist sorting and the new dark-mode map colors. They do not mention phantom braking by name.
Owners at the meeting were also told that updates would fall to one or two a year under current budgets, the attendee told EV.
Slower Releases
Nio’s European software has moved on a slower clock than in the past.
When it released Banyan 2.4.2 in October 2025, Nio said it was the 19th firmware-over-the-air update since Banyan’s European debut in late 2022, with nearly 450 optimizations in total. That works out to roughly one update every two months over that period.
The recent major releases have come further apart. Banyan 2.3.5 arrived in Europe on August 8, 2024, adding one-pedal driving, followed by 2.4.0 on January 8, 2025, 153 days later, with more than 50 new features and improvements, including a new driving mode for the ET5 and ET5 Touring.
Version 2.4.1 followed on May 21, 2025, after 133 days, bringing the Nio App Store, SoundCloud and on-street parking information to Europe along with smoother Pilot Assist. Then came 2.4.2 on October 15, after 147 days, which expanded the GPT-based NOMI assistant, improved communication with Alpitronic fast chargers and added a wash mode.
The gaps then widened. Version 2.4.3, which added Hungarian, Czech, Polish and Romanian to the interface and fixed a smart-charging bug, came 194 days after 2.4.2. It also added French and Portuguese text-to-speech to NOMI and removed unnecessary navigation alerts. Thursday’s 2.4.6 came 199 days after that.
The five gaps since August 2024 averaged 165 days, but the two most recent ran to 194 and 199 days.
The releases have also become smaller. Banyan 2.3.5 brought 50 improvements and 2.4.0 more than 50, while the 2.4.6 release notes count “10+” enhancements and new features.
A Separate Software Line
Nio’s European cars run a version of Banyan built for Europe, separate from the software the company ships in China.
In China, Nio’s older NT 2.0 models run on Banyan 3.x, and the company introduced closed-loop reinforcement learning to its Nio World Model (NWM) assisted-driving system there with Banyan 3.3.0 in January. Its refreshed models run on ‘Cedar S’, which reached version 1.6.0 in September, about three months after 1.5.0.
European owners drive NT 2.0-generation models. Nio does not expect to bring NWM to Europe until around 2030, and has told European teams there will be no model updates until late 2027, according to information obtained by EV.
Nio’s own small-car brand works differently. Firefly released Aster 2.0.0 to international owners in September, 41 days after the same version began rolling out in China.
Rival XPeng runs a single international XOS build across markets. After it prepared version 5.9.5 for international markets in June, XPeng’s Swiss newsroom said on August 7 that the update had been “rolled out worldwide in 64 markets.”
A Shrinking Market
The update reaches a small and shrinking European fleet. Nio Inc. registered 171 vehicles across eight European markets in October, down from 238 in September, and its stock in Germany and other markets consists of NT 2.0 cars built in China between 2023 and 2024.
Germany, where Nio announced the update, is now one of its weakest markets.
Nio registered no new vehicles there in October, the first month without a registration since at least January 2023, and it closed its Cologne and Weiterstadt hubs at the end of September, leaving Munich as its only German hub.
In China, by contrast, Nio is preparing its next software step. The company is due to unveil new AI cockpit and assisted-driving products on November 25.
