The co-founder and president of the Chinese EV maker Nio Lihong Qin admitted ongoing weakness in the company’s core brand, saying some of the models have not yet reached expectations despite the recent updated versions.
Nio reported on the first day of September a new record for global monthly deliveries in August, but the milestone was largely driven by its two mass-market sub-brands — while the premium core marque logged another steep decline.
The Nio brand delivered 10,525 vehicles in August, down 47.8% from 20,176 a year earlier.
The decline was the steepest this year, extending a string of monthly falls since May even after the group rolled out four facelifts.
At a media roundtable in Hangzhou on Sunday, held a day after the company’s annual Nio Day, EV asked founder William Li and president Lihong Qin how management viewed the slump in core brand sales when excluding the strong reception for the newly launched ES8.
Lihong started by saying the brand’s other models faced greater short-term difficulties.
“Objectively, compared to the ES8, our other models face more challenges in the short term, for various reasons.”
He added that the updated ES6 and EC6 had improved profitability by adopting third-generation platform components, including chips that cut 10,000 yuan ($1,400) per vehicle.
“So across our lineup, profitability is better in the second half than the first. But aside from the ES8, the short-term sales challenges are greater,” he said.
Lihong admitted that the 2025 ES6 and EC6 had yet to meet expectations since their launch in May.
“Four months have passed, and they have not yet reached our expectations. We still need to work harder on this,” the co-founder stated.
He noted that the ET5 Touring had become the brand’s recent bestseller, a surprise outcome given perceptions that wagons are a niche in China.
“Before the new ES8 launched yesterday, our recent monthly sales champion was the ET5 Touring. This was somewhat unexpected, because most thought wagons are a niche in China, but ours performed quite well,” Lihong said.
“This makes us reflect on understanding users more deeply and stripping away some trend-driven ideas,” he added.
On August 29, the company announced it will equip all of its models with a 100 kWh long-range battery pack as standard while keeping starting prices unchanged, effectively lowering costs for buyers.
The executive said the ES6 remained a critical model despite its underperformance.
“The ES6 is still our most balanced product, even including the new ES8. It should have bigger volumes, but competition in the 300,000-yuan mid-size SUV segment is fierce. We need to improve further, and we think ES6 should do better,” he said.
Asked about broader product strategy, Lihong said Nio had been prioritising SUVs in line with market demand.
“Recently, we have been putting more emphasis on the SUV lineup, because SUVs remain a large segment that is still growing in China, while sedans are gradually declining,” he said.
“Other body types like MPVs and crossovers are small but stable. SUVs are the momentum, so we need to seize this strategic window and launch suitable products,” Lihong added.
He confirmed that no new sedan will be introduced in 2026. “Sedans we also plan, but in terms of timing priority, we have placed them slightly later. We will not launch a new sedan in 2026,” Lihong said.
Deliveries of the third-generation ES8 began on Sunday across China.
The brand currently has a waiting list of 24-26 weeks — equivalent to six months — for new ES8 orders.
This year, it aims to produce 40,000 ES8s and deliver a total of 150,000 EVs across the three brands of the group.
