Nio’s best-selling model, the ES8, saw order intake reach its highest level since launch in the first 20 days of May, reversing months of shrinking delivery wait times as buyer traffic for the upcoming ES9 flagship spilled over to the larger SUV’s stablemate.
As reported by EV in late April, the wait time for the third-generation ES8 had dropped to just one to two weeks in China, the company’s configurator page showed on April 27 — the shortest interval since the model launched in late September 2025.
That figure represented a roughly 92% compression from the 24-to-26 weeks customers faced when the model debuted on September 20, as Nio cleared an initial backlog of more than 100,000 firm orders.
The trend reversed in May, according to founder and Chief Executive William Li’s comments during Thursday’s first-quarter earnings call.
As of Thursday morning, the ES8 delivery wait time in China stood in a two-to-three-week range, up from one to two weeks in late April.
CEO Comments
“Since the pre-launch of the ES9, we have not seen it diluting or cannibalizing the attention or orders for the ES8. Instead, it is generating a positive impact on the attention and order intake for the ES8,” Li said.
“Especially after the pre-launch and the start of test drives for the ES9, we have welcomed a lot of in-store visits and traffic. Many visitors may not have known about the Nio brand or our products before,” the founder added. “After coming into the store and experiencing and comparing the ES9 and the ES8, some find that the dimensions and use cases of the ES9 may be a better match for them.”
Li said the effect showed up directly in orders.
“In the week after test drives started on May 11th, ES8 order intake increased by 30% week-over-week. In the first 20 days of May, order intake for the ES8 reached a new high since October, when the ES8 launched last year,” he said.
“As we have been digesting the order backlog on the ES8, we have maintained a stable and strong order intake on the model without compromising the strong order intake for the ES9.”
Li framed the two models as complementary rather than competing. “By having strong order performance for both models, we can see that the positioning of the two products is quite differentiated from each other,” he said.
“The ES9 is more of a flagship executive SUV, competing more with conventional combustion-engine executive flagships like the BMW X7 or Mercedes GLS, while the ES8 is more of an all-around SUV catering to both business and family purposes. The two products complement each other, while their pricing is well differentiated. We are happy to see that both products are well received in their respective segments.”
The 31-Week Compression
After launching at 24-to-26 weeks in late September, the timeline contracted to 22-23 weeks by late October, 20-21 weeks in early December, 17-18 weeks in early January, and 13-14 weeks by January 20.
The reductions accelerated through February, with an estimated wait of 8-9 weeks by February 11 and 6-7 weeks by February 25, falling into single digits by early March.
By March 9, the wait stood at 3-4 weeks. It dropped to 2-3 weeks by April 17 and to 1-2 weeks by April 27 — effectively meaning new orders were being scheduled at the cadence of Nio’s production line, before May’s reversal pushed the timeline back out.
A First-Quarter Volume Anchor
The three-row SUV delivered 45,185 units in the first quarter, contributing 54.14% of Nio’s total deliveries.
Starting at 406,800 yuan ($59,800), the ES8 is one of the most expensive models offered by a domestic Chinese automaker, and its dominant share pulled the group’s average selling price upward.
The model only began deliveries on September 21, 2025, and reached 100,000 units in 215 days — a record for vehicles priced above 400,000 yuan in China’s passenger-car market.
Monthly Deliveries and Production Ramp
Monthly delivery data tracks the underlying production reality.
Nio delivered 2,803 ES8 units in the partial first month of September, ramping to 6,703 in October, 10,689 in November, and a peak of 22,258 in December — making the ES8 China’s best-selling SUV in the 400,000-yuan ($58,500) segment that month.
Average daily deliveries reached approximately 824 units in December, up from 280 at the start of the ramp.
January 2026 deliveries fell 21% sequentially to 17,646 units, then dropped a further 36% to 11,260 in February as the Chinese New Year holiday and an audio signal processing chip shortage weighed on output.
March recovered to 16,255 units — a 44% rebound from February but still 27% below the December peak.
The continued compression of wait times despite the March production rebound was the clearest evidence that Nio’scapacity had caught up with order flow — until May’s order surge began pushing the timeline back out.
The March Incentive Response
Nio launched a substantial incentive package on the first day of March.
For ES8 buyers, the company offered a 10,000-yuan ($1,400) purchase tax subsidy, seven-year low-interest financing, and five years of free Navigate on Pilot Plus assisted-driving usage.
Customers who purchased an ES8 in January or February received a retroactive reward of 100,000 Nio Points — equivalent to 10,000 yuan.
Deutsche Bank wrote in an early-March research note that Nio weekly orders reached approximately 3,500 units in the first three days of March, the highest single-week level for the group so far in 2026.
The brokerage attributed the rebound to the new incentives and characterized the wait-time compression as evidence that “production was outpacing incoming demand.”
Upcoming Nio ES9
The ES9 begins customer deliveries on May 27 across China with international markets still not confirmed.
The pattern of pre-launch order deferrals would mirror what happened with Nio’s ET9 flagship sedan and the Onvo L90, both of which saw demand for incumbent models compress sharply in the months before new models reached customers.
The ES9 uses a full-domain 900-volt high-voltage architecture, drawing power from a 102-kilowatt-hour ternary lithium-ion battery supplied by CATL.
The system delivers a CLTC-rated range of up to 635 kilometers and supports ultra-fast charging that can add 255 kilometers of range in five minutes when paired with Nio’s 600-kilowatt hyperchargers.
Pricing and Variants
The third-generation ES8 launched on September 20, 2025, priced more than 100,000 yuan below its predecessor.
The six-seat Executive Signature Edition starts at 446,800 yuan ($65,400). The Executive Luxury Edition — available in both six-seat and seven-seat configurations — starts at 406,800 yuan ($59,500).
With Nio’s Battery-as-a-Service rental model, the entry price falls to 298,800 yuan ($43,700).
The model is produced at Nio’s third plant in Hefei, Anhui province, which manufactured 43,668 ES8 units in 2025 — exceeding the company’s target by approximately 3,700 vehicles.
