Nio’s family-oriented sub-brand Onvo will not begin deliveries of its L80 SUV this year as originally planned, with the launch now pushed to 2026, company executives said Friday at the Chengdu Auto Show.
In June, Onvo filed the L80 with China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, showing that only the seating layout will differ from the L90 allowing most components to be shared across both models.
Three months earlier, Nio‘s founder and CEO William Li had stated that L80 deliveries would begin in the final quarter of the year.
Nio co-founder and president Lihong Qin said the brand is prioritizing the rollout of the L90, its second model, over bringing a second vehicle to market.
“Onvo needs to concentrate on doing a small number of important things well. Recently, we have made the Onvo L90 the short-term top priority for the entire Onvo brand,” Lihong said.
The L80, a large five-seat SUV that shares most components with the 6/7-seat version L90, had been scheduled to start deliveries in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to the company’s plan outlined in March.
Some of the Wall Street analysts had recently mentioned the L80 launch as one of the catalysts for scaling Onvo sales in the final months of the year.
Stronger momentum from Onvo, along with the entry-level model from Nio’s Firefly brand, was expected to contribute to the group’s ambitious 2025 target of delivering about 440,000 vehicles across its three brands.
Yu Bin, Onvo’s Head of Product, told local media on Friday that the company intends to first “serve L90 users well” before setting a new timeline for the L80.
“We hope to first serve the needs of Onvo L90 users well,” he stated. “Please give us some time to consider the appropriate timing for the launch of the Onvo L80,”
The L90 was officially launched on July 31 and began deliveries on August 1 across more than 40 cities.
Earlier this month, Morgan Stanley estimated between 30,000 and 35,000 pre-orders in its first four days on sale.
The seven seat variant arrived at showrooms this week with deliveries planned to begin in late September.
On the opening day of the Chengdu Auto Show, Onvo delivered the 10,000th unit of the L90, confirming that August figures for the second model will surpass five digits.
As demand surges — and commenting on Nio’s plans to hire over 200 factory staff for its three factories in Hefei — Onvo’s chief Fei Shen said the sub-brand is also hiring with a focus on sales team leaders.
