China’s Nio said pre-orders for the newly unveiled SUV under its sub-brand Onvo have met internal targets, according to executives speaking at a media briefing in Hefei held less than a day after the vehicle’s pre-sale launch.
The Onvo L90, a three-row electric SUV priced from 279,900 yuan ($39,000), is positioned to compete directly with Li Auto, the Huawei-backed brand Aito and BYD’s sub-brand Denza.
“Based on market feedback, we met our internal targets,” said Nio founder and CEO William Li, speaking alongside the company’s co-founder and President Lihong Qin and Onvo brand head Fei Shen.
The executives did not disclose reservation figures, in line with the group’s typical practice across all three brands.
Display vehicles are already in showrooms, with nationwide test drives to begin on July 23 and deliveries starting August 1.
Executives commented on Nio‘s decision to ship vehicles to stores before the pre-sale event, an inversion of traditional launch cycles.
“The key here is that we shipped the cars before holding the launch event,” Li said.
While declining to specify the margin figures, Li reiterated that the L90 was engineered for tight cost control, enabling competitive pricing without sacrificing margin.
“It definitely has gross profit,” he said, noting that Onvo had reused existing seating platforms and avoided overpowered drivetrains to optimize costs.
“At Nio, our financial calculations are precise. You can see the high technical content and competitive product strength,” he added.
“We’ve invested heavily in user experience but made trade-offs elsewhere. For example, we didn’t opt for overly large motors and reused seating platforms across the group.”
The L90’s pricing was initially set at a zero-margin baseline and later revised, according to Onvo brand head Fei Shen, who described the launch cadence as “deliberate and transparent” from debut through to delivery.
A seven-seat version is also planned, with timing to be confirmed at the model’s official launch later this month.
The L90 will soon support battery swap via Nio’s upcoming fifth-generation stations, which are designed to accommodate three battery sizes and offer higher automation and compatibility.
Limited volumes of a new 80-kWh pack will be available initially, with scale tied to user adoption.
The brand will “eventually offer more affordable models too.”
“Onvo’s long-term goal is to provide high-quality cars for families,” Fei Shen stated. “Today we have a flagship large SUV and a smart mid-size SUV, and we’ll eventually offer more affordable models too.”
Existing owners of the Onvo L60 Founders Edition will receive 50,000 reward points after delivery, while returning customers from the Onvo, Nio, or Firefly brands will receive 30,000 points.
