Nio delivered its 110,000th new ES8 in China on Saturday, the company said, adding another milestone for its best-selling model just a month after it set a record for the fastest large premium vehicle to reach 100,000 deliveries.
The handover took place in Nanjing, Nio said in a post on Weibo.
The 110,000-unit figure follows the record run that took the third-generation ES8 to 100,000 deliveries in 215 days, which the company said was the quickest for any model priced above 400,000 yuan in China’s passenger-car market.
A Conquest Sale
Since the third-generation ES8 launch held in September 2025, Nio has emphasized that the model is pulling buyers out of established premium combustion brands rather than only competing within the electric segment.
Founder and Chief Executive William Li made the same argument on the company’s first-quarter earnings call on Thursday, positioning the ES8 as an all-around SUV for business and family use and the incoming ES9 as a flagship competing with cars such as the BMW X7 and Mercedes GLS.
The ES8 delivered 45,185 units in the first quarter, accounting for 54.14% of Nio‘s total deliveries in the period.
Starting at 406,800 yuan ($59,800), it is among the most expensive models offered by a domestic Chinese automaker, and its dominant share has pulled the group’s average selling price higher.
The Cadence Tells a Subtler Story
The pace of those milestones reveals a model that surged through late 2025 before settling into a slower, choppier rhythm this year.
The ES8 took 41 days from the start of deliveries to reach 10,000 units on October 31, then accelerated sharply.
The 30,000th unit arrived on December 18, and the 40,000th just 11 days later on December 29, the fastest 10,000-unit stretch of the entire run and a reflection of the December production peak of 22,258 units.
The cadence then slowed and grew uneven.
The gap to 70,000 units stretched to 27 days by February 27, as the Chinese New Year holiday and an audio signal processing chip shortage cut into output.
The most recent stretch was the slowest in months: the 110,000th unit on Saturday came 30 days after the 100,000th on April 23, nearly three times the December pace.
The slowdown in raw delivery cadence sits alongside a rebound in orders.
Li said this week that ES8 order intake reached its highest level since the October launch in the first 20 days of May, and that the delivery wait time had begun lengthening again after compressing for months, a sign that demand is once more running ahead of the production line.
The founder shared the regional figure in a Weibo post Saturday — “I’m pleased to report that the all-new Nio ES8 completed its 110,000th delivery in Nanjing today.”
“To add one more data point: in the Yangtze River Delta large-SUV market, the all-new ES8’s penetration rate is now approaching 50% — meaning that for every two large SUVs sold, one is an all-new ES8. Thank you all for your support. We’ll keep working hard – let’s charge up together!” — Li added.
ES9 Next
The 110,000th delivery lands days before Nio begins customer deliveries of the ES9 on May 27.
Li said this week that ES8 order intake rose 30% week-over-week after ES9 test drives began on May 11, and that the first 20 days of May produced the model’s strongest order intake since its October ramp.
He said the ES9 was lifting ES8 demand rather than cannibalizing it, with showroom traffic from the flagship’s pre-launch drawing buyers who then chose the smaller SUV.
