Nio Group‘s vehicle registrations in the Netherlands dropped to single digits in February, data from the Dutch automotive association BOVAG showed on Sunday.
The Chinese EV maker expanded to the Dutch market in October 2022 with its main premium brand.
Despite having begun deliveries of the significantly cheaper Firefly sub-brand in August 2025, the company founded and led by William Li continues to struggle for traction in Europe.
Only two of the seven registrations were Nio-branded vehicles — one EL6 SUV and one EL8 — making it the premium brand’s third-weakest month since entering the Netherlands, behind June and November of last year when just one unit was registered in each.
The remaining five were from Firefly.
February
The Nio brand’s February figure represented an 83.3% decline from the 12 vehicles registered in the same month a year ago.
At the group level, registrations fell 41.7% year over year despite Firefly — which had no presence in the market in February 2025 — contributing the majority of the month’s volume.
No ET5, ET5 Touring, or ET7 models were registered during the month, continuing a pattern from January when the premium brand recorded just three registrations, all EL8 SUVs.
Year-to-date, the NIO group has registered 24 vehicles in the Netherlands, with Firefly accounting for 19 of them — nearly 80% of the total. The premium brand has managed just five registrations in the first two months of 2026.
Inventory
The results come as Nio is actively working to clear aging inventory across its Dutch operations — including pre-owned vehicles.
The company is running official stock clearance promotions on the ET5, ET5 Touring, and EL6 through March 31, offering discounted battery subscriptions, purchase price reductions, and financing incentives.
The vehicles currently available in Europe were built in 2023 and 2024 under Nio‘s NT 2.0 platform.
The company has since moved on to its third-generation platform in China, where refreshed versions of the ET5, ET5 Touring, and ES6 launched last May.
The new ES8, introduced in China late last year, quickly became Nio‘s best-selling model domestically, accounting for nearly 85% of the premium brand’s deliveries in January.
2025 across Europe
Across its five original European markets — Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark — Nio brand registrations fell 31% in 2025 to 1,129 vehicles.
In January of this year, the group registered just 56 vehicles across the continent, with Germany posting a single registration.
Nio Vice President Mark Zhou said earlier this week that the company made “fundamental miscalculations” in its European expansion, including bringing vehicles that were too large for local preferences and underestimating regulatory complexities.
The company faces a 20.7% countervailing duty on top of the EU’s standard 10% import tariff since October 2024, bringing total levies on its vehicles to 30.7%.
