Vehicle deliveries of Nio‘s sub-brand Onvo reached nearly 6,000 units in January, followed by 4,049 in February and 4,820 in March. These figures remain well below the targets the family-oriented brand had set late last year—16,000 units for January and 20,000 for March 2025.
In April, despite ramped-up incentives, deliveries declined by 9% month-on-month to 4,400 units.
On Monday, popular Chinese automotive blogger 电动星球小新 (“Electric Planet Xiaoxin”) shared a screenshot on social media showing a message posted by an employee using a verified Onvo corporate WeChat account.
The employee wrote: “There used to be a meme about ‘selling like crazy,’ but now… let’s check the first-week sales rankings of May 😉” — referring to the weekly registration figures shared every Tuesday on Chinese social media.
Fei Shen, a longtime Nio executive who recently took over as head of the Onvo brand, swiftly responded to the post, saying the employee “has already been seriously criticized.”
“No matter how good or bad the situation is, there’s no need for everyone to guess or speculate anymore,” Shen wrote on Weibo.
“The classmate who made that post has already been seriously criticized. Casually setting flags and making exaggerated statements—these are definitely not in line with Onvo’s values. While we’re still reviewing lessons, others have already completed their bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD.”
Onvo was launched by Nio in May last year and began deliveries of its debut model on September 28.
“Let’s recognize our shortcomings, stay grounded, and keep our heads down and work hard step by step,” Shen added.
Weekly sales data for the start of May were expected to be released early Tuesday. However, due to China’s Labour Day holiday, which ran from May 1 to 5, no figures were published on Chinese social media platforms.
As of Tuesday, it remains unclear whether registration figures for the week of April 28 to May 3 will be released later this week or bundled with data from the second week of the month.
According to the most recent available data, Onvo’s weekly registrations more than doubled in the final full week of April. The brand registered 1,470 vehicles between April 21 and 27, up from 770 the previous week. In the three prior weeks, weekly figures hovered around 700 units—700, 735, and 770, respectively.
Speaking at the Beijing Auto Show in late April, Nio Group co-founder and President Lihong Qin told reporters: “We did not reach the goals we had previously set for ourselves, and we also did not meet the expectations that the outside world had for us.”
However, the Group’s co-founder said sales were not “actually doing that bad” mentioning a monthly average of 6,000 units sold.
The remarks echoed earlier comments made by Nio CEO William Li in March, when he acknowledged that Onvo’s early sales performance had fallen short of internal expectations in the first months of the year.
In April, Onvo CEO Alan Ai stepped down, and the brand’s number-two executive, Xia Qinghua, transitioned to a new role within the broader Nio Group. As first reported by EV, Shen Fei was appointed as Ai’s replacement after nearly a decade leading Nio’s Power division.
