Onvo, Nio Inc.’s mass-market brand, delivered 8,763 vehicles in September, down 42.5% from a year earlier and its fourth straight monthly decline since the launch of the L80 SUV lifted it to a 2026 high of 12,029 in May.
The fall from August’s 8,810 was 0.5%, the smallest of the four, and was Onvo’s second straight year-on-year decline, after a 69.9% rise in July.
Onvo delivered 27,728 vehicles in the third quarter, down 26.4% from a year earlier, and 70,191 in the first nine months.
Nine-month deliveries were up 1.0% from a year earlier, as a 33.3% rise in the first half was almost erased by the third-quarter fall.
A year earlier, Onvo had outsold the Nio brand in both August and September.
September deliveries were 49.5% below the brand’s record of 17,342, set in October 2025.
Onvo accounted for 23.4% of the group’s 37,408 deliveries in September, down from 43.9% a year earlier.
Founder and CEO William Li has said he expects Onvo to account for 55% of the group’s sales in the long term, with the Nio brand at 35% and Firefly at 10%.
Lineup Refreshed
Onvo launched or updated every model in its lineup between April and June.
The 2026 L90 began deliveries on May 9, priced from 265,800 yuan ($39,600), adding LiDAR and Nio’s own Shenji NX9031 driver-assistance chip on its higher trims.
The L80, a large five-seat SUV, was launched and began deliveries on May 15, Nio said.
It is priced from 242,800 yuan ($36,200), or 156,800 yuan ($23,400) under Onvo’s battery-rental plan.
The third-generation L60 followed on June 11, priced from 192,800 yuan ($28,800), 14,100 yuan ($2,100), or 6.8%, less than the model it replaced.
Li later said the new L60 still made a gross profit but that its margins were “pretty dire”. Onvo delivered its 110,000th L60 on August 28.
Insurance registrations of the L80 fell 31% in its second month.
The L90 passed 60,000 deliveries in its first year on sale, Li said on Nio’s second-quarter earnings call on September 1.
Packages to Lift Demand
Onvo added a Starlight design package to the L80 on September 11, with Xinghan Blue paint and 21-inch wheels.
It offered the package at 10,080 yuan ($1,500) for a limited time, against a regular price of 16,800 yuan ($2,500).
On September 23, it added a design package to the L90, combining a blue-and-gold exterior with a grey interior, at a limited-time price of 6,000 yuan ($900), against 10,000 yuan ($1,500) normally.
The Awareness Problem
Li has blamed Onvo’s slide on how few buyers know the brand, rather than on its cars.
“Right now, for the ONVO brand, the challenge is more about its overall brand awareness, where its current brand awareness is maybe comparable with NIO’s awareness around 5 to 6 years ago,” Li said on the call, through an interpreter.
He said on the same call that Onvo’s conversion rate from sales leads to orders led the industry.
Co-founder and President Qin Lihong was blunter at the opening of Nio’s first store in Macau on September 2.
“To be honest, Onvo still hasn’t done well enough,” Qin said.
“For Onvo right now, we’ve only just run the first 100 meters of that marathon, yet many friends already want to guess the final result,” he said, referring to Li’s description of the car industry as a marathon.
Nio is relying on new multi-brand stores to reach more buyers.
Qin said in July that Nio would open about 80 more Sky stores, which sell Nio, Onvo and Firefly cars under one roof, in the second half of 2026.
“With that, we are able to further expand our sales network and also to really introduce our ONVO brand to more users in the lower-tier cities,” Li said on the September 1 call.
A New Model in 2027
Onvo’s next new model will not arrive until next year.
“For the ONVO brand next year, we are going to introduce a major strategic new product that will also help to enrich our existing product lineup,” Li said on the call.
He did not name the model or say what kind of vehicle it would be.
A supplier document posted online in September showed a project called “Qinling Onvo L50”, which Chinese media described as a sedan priced below the L60, but Nio has not confirmed the model.
Morgan Stanley analyst Tim Hsiao wrote in January, after meeting Li, that Nio planned two to three more Onvo models priced between 150,000 and 200,000 yuan ($22,400 and $29,800) in the long term.
Europe Pushed Back
Onvo’s launch in Europe has slipped to 2028 or 2029, from the 2027 date Li had given in November 2025.
“We will take our next steps in Europe deliberately, with the necessary discipline and at a pace that enables sustainable growth,” Li said.
The L80’s first market outside China will be Armenia, where it will be sold through the dealer N-Motors.
