Nio will deliver the 30,000th ES9 this week, Yang Bo, the company’s Assistant VP of User Operations, said on Weibo on Monday, a day after the third-generation ES8 reached 150,000 on the first anniversary of its launch.
“Yesterday the all-new ES8 delivered 150,000 on its first anniversary. This week we will welcome the 30,000th ES9 delivery. The golden era of the large three-row battery-electric SUV has arrived,” Yang wrote. He gave no date.
The milestone would come between 116 and 122 days after deliveries began on May 28, depending on the day.
Nio handed over the 10,000th unit on June 26, 29 days in, and the 20,000th on August 8, 43 days later, which Nio called the fastest a 500,000-yuan-class fully electric model has reached that mark in China.
The third 10,000 will have taken 44 to 50 days, about the pace of the second.
The Volume Behind It
Nio does not include the ES9 in its monthly delivery release, so the China Passenger Car Association’s model-level series is the only monthly record available for all models sold in the country across all brands.
It shows 3,108 in May, 8,595 in June, 6,311 in July and 6,474 in August, a cumulative 24,488 through the end of last month. Exports were four cars in July and five in August, and Nio has announced no overseas plan for the model.
Reaching 30,000 by the end of this week implies about 5,500 deliveries in the first three and a half weeks of September, a run rate in line with July and August rather than a return to June’s peak.
June was the month the launch backlog was worked through.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer William Li told the second-quarter call on September 1 that July “was still consuming some preorders” and that incremental orders grew from July to August, which is the company’s account of the 27% July decline.
What the Configurator Says
The milestone lands as the wait for the car’s two most expensive versions has fallen to its shortest since launch.
Nio’s Chinese configurator quoted 11 to 12 weeks for the Executive Signature and Horizon Special Edition on Thursday, down from 16 to 17 weeks on June 1, 15 to 16 on July 8, 13 to 14 on August 8 and 12 to 13 on September 8.
The entry Executive Luxury has shown 3 to 4 weeks on every check since June.
That split has held for four months. The Executive Signature, at 558,000 yuan ($83,200), costs 60,000 yuan ($8,900) more than the entry car and waits roughly three times as long. The Horizon Special Edition, at 628,000 yuan ($93,700), waits the same as the Signature.
The entry trim starts at 498,000 yuan ($74,300) with the battery or 390,000 yuan ($58,200) with battery leasing.
Li said on the call that demand was strongest “especially for the Horizon Edition and the Signature Edition,” which are the two trims that queue, and that customers ordering then would wait “three months or nearly four months.”
The Signature and Horizon carry fully active suspension and 22-inch wheels.
The Executive Luxury has dual-chamber air suspension with continuous damping control instead, and keeps the steer-by-wire, rear-wheel steering, the twin 16-inch executive screens and the dual zero-gravity rear seats.
Who Is Buying
Li said about three quarters of ES9 buyers had not previously owned a Nio, up from the 70% of the first 10,000 that Yang gave in late June.
That is the company’s answer to whether the ES9 takes sales from the ES8, whose own buyers were 50.3% trade-ins by a first-half brand study, 41.7% of them from luxury brands.
Li also said the ES9 led all passenger vehicles with transaction prices above 500,000 yuan in June and July, regardless of powertrain.
Nio’s vehicle margin for the second quarter, across the whole company, was 18.5%, and management has said the ES8 and ES9 both sit above 20%.
The Deadline
The launch benefits on the ES9, extended once from July 31, expire on September 30 for orders locked by that date: a zero-deposit finance plan with two of its five years interest-free, the Feihang executive seat package, a delivery gift box and five years of NOP+ assisted driving at no charge.
The package leaves the sticker price untouched, and it gives buyers nine days from Monday to lock an order.
It remains unclear whether the Chinese brand will extend the offer on the first day of October.
