Nio founder and chief executive William Li said staff at the company’s showrooms have extended test drive hours late into the night in response to strong demand for the upcoming SUV of the Onvo sub-brand.
In a Weibo post on Sunday, Li shared that employees at one of the Shanghai stores remained on-site until 2 a.m. to provide test drives for the new six and seven-seater L90 model.
“I’ve been quite moved over the past couple of days watching some of the Ledo L90 test drive content,” Nio’s chief wrote.
“In one video, our colleagues at the Shanghai MixC store stayed after closing at 10 p.m. to conduct scenario-based test drives for three groups of users, working non-stop until 2 a.m.,” Li added.
The three-row SUV under Nio’s family-oriented Onvo brand is scheduled to launch later this week — on July 31 — with first deliveries beginning August 1.
Test drives began nationwide last week, and Nio has deployed nearly 600 test vehicles across more than 400 Onvo locations in 140 Chinese cities.
The L90 opened for presale at 279,900 yuan ($39,000) for the full purchase version and 193,900 yuan ($27,000) under Nio’s battery rental program.
According to Li, some highly interested users have been unable to secure test drive appointments during the day and prefer not to wait until the following day, pushing demand into late evening hours.
“Since the Onvo L90 test drives began, demand has been extremely high at stores across different cities,” the CEO wrote. “Many highly interested users couldn’t get a slot during the day but didn’t want to wait until the next day, so test drives were scheduled into the late night hours.”
The Onvo L90 is Nio’s second model under the new brand and will have the new six-seater Tesla Model Y and the Li Auto i8 as main rivals. As done in previous model launches, the company has not disclosed any pre-sale figures.
Last week, Onvo recorded its highest weekly insurance registrations since late February with 1,720 vehicles, a 50.9% jump from 1,140 the previous week.
In addition to the previously announced 85 kWh battery pack, a 60 kWh standard-range option will also be offered, according to recently leaked images.
The start of test drives coincided with a sharp uptick in weekly insurance registrations, suggesting a potential rebound in demand.
Onvo registered 1,720 vehicles during the third week of July, a 50.9% increase from 1,140 the previous week, according to data shared on Weibo.
It was the brand’s strongest weekly performance since late February and ended two consecutive weeks of declines. It remains unclear whether the nearly 600 L90 units prepared for test drives were included in the latest insurance data.
Earlier this month, Morgan Stanley analyst Tim Hsiao reported that Onvo secured between 30,000 and 35,000 pre-orders for the L90 within four days of its pre-launch event held in Hefei.
The L90’s six-seat version offers up to 605 km of range under the CLTC cycle. It measures 5,145 mm in length, 1,998 mm in width, and up to 1,786 mm in height, with a 3,110 mm wheelbase.
A five-seat variant, which will be named L80, is planned to be launched in the fourth quarter.
