Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio reached 10,000 deliveries of its third-generation ES8 SUV just 41 days after launch, as the company accelerates production to meet ambitious year-end targets.
The milestone, announced Friday on Weibo, comes as the Shanghai-based EV maker works to triple production capacity for the seven-seat SUV to 15,000 units per month by December.
CEO William Li confirmed the expansion plans last week as Nio targets 150,000 total deliveries across its three brands—Nio, Onvo and Firefly— in the final quarter of 2025.
Overwhelming Demand
The third-generation ES8 debuted September 20 at Nio‘s annual event in China, attended by more than 7,000 people.
Deliveries began the following day, with prices starting at 406,800 yuan ($56,000) or 298,800 yuan under the company’s battery-as-a-service rental program.
By September 22, the company announced a six-month waiting period for new orders, though that timeline has since narrowed to 22-23 weeks as production ramps up.
The ES8 was Nio‘s first production model when originally launched in 2018.
The company released a major refresh in December 2022, transitioning the vehicle to its NT 2.0 platform. This year’s version represents the model’s third generation.
Production Expansion
To meet demand, Nio has reportedly begun production at its third factory in Hefei and requested provincial government support to hire roughly 1,000 workers by the end of October.
The company is prioritizing production of both three-row SUVs — the ES8 and the Onvo L90 — through year-end.
The Onvo L90, a six-seat SUV that began deliveries August 1, reached 30,000 units last week, just 86 days after launch.
The model contributed 10,575 deliveries in its first month, making it the company’s fastest vehicle to surpass 10,000 units.
Nio Group set consecutive monthly delivery records in August with 31,305 vehicles and September with 34,749 units, driven largely by the Onvo and Nio brand’s strong performance.
Xia Qinghua
Images shared on Weibo celebrating the ES8 milestone showed longtime executive Xia Qinghua among the Nio employees attending the vehicle delivery.
Xia returned to the Nio brand in April after a stint at the sub-brand Onvo, taking over as Regional General Manager of Nio‘s Shanghai operations following the departure of Onvo brand head Alan Ai.
