Nio‘s mass-market sub-brand Onvo has supplied its L60 SUV to Shanghai’s municipal government for official use, the latest in a widening run of public-sector deals for the Chinese EV maker.
A delivery ceremony for Shanghai municipal-level government vehicles was held on Wednesday at Nio‘s Nanxiang delivery center, with photos shared on the social media platform Weibo after the event.
Officials from several bodies attended, including the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Government Offices Administration, the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Market Regulation.
Part of a Broader Fleet Push
The Shanghai order follows other government and law-enforcement adoptions of the L60.
Earlier this month, Nio added the L60 to the law-enforcement fleet of the Laoshan District People’s Procuratorate in Qingdao, Shandong province, as EV reported.
That deployment was also used to pilot Nio‘s Battery-as-a-Service model, which separates vehicle and battery ownership, in a government setting.
The company had earlier delivered eight ES6 SUVs to the same Qingdao district for public-security use in November 2021.
The Regulatory Tailwind
The push aligns with a policy shift that favors domestic electric vehicles in government procurement.
China’s State Council issued a regulation in late September 2025, effective January 1, 2026, directing government departments to use locally produced vehicles and to prioritize new-energy vehicles when centrally procuring official cars.
Products made or substantially processed in China receive a 20% price-evaluation advantage in competitive government procurement under the framework.
Nio builds the L60 in Hefei, Anhui province, where it operates three EV plants.
The Model and Its Slowing Sales
The L60 is Onvo‘s debut model, a midsize SUV launched in September 2024 to compete with the previous generation Tesla Model Y.
Almost all of its deliveries come from China.
Onvo is present in only a handful of other markets and is not due to reach Europe until next year, leaving the brand heavily reliant on its home market.
There, the L60 has been losing momentum as Onvo debuts another five-seat SUV named Ll80.
Deliveries of the model fell every month through the first four months of 2026 against a year earlier, dropping to 1,981 units in January, 1,664 in February, 3,517 in March and 3,284 in April, down between 25% and 67% year over year.
The roughly 10,400 L60s delivered in the first four months were down about 46% from the same period of 2025, when the model accounted for some 64,000 deliveries across the full year.
The wider Onvo brand has grown even as the L60 has cooled, delivering 5,352 vehicles in April, up about 22% year over year, as volume shifts toward the newer L90.
Nio founder William Li has previously said the lower-priced Onvo models were hit hard by the expiration of Chinese purchase subsidies.
Onvo’s Long-Term Ambition
Founder and Chief Executive William Li said in a recent media briefing that he expects Onvo to become the group’s biggest seller, eventually accounting for 55% of vehicle sales under a long-term 35-55-10 split across the Nio, Onvo and Firefly brands.
He stressed the ratio refers to volume only, not revenue or profit.
Onvo is far from that mark.
Over the first four months of 2026, it accounted for about 16.6% of the group’s 112,821 deliveries, well short of its eventual 55% target, while the Nio main brand made up nearly 69%.
Li has acknowledged that Onvo, which began deliveries only in September 2024 and added the L80 this month, still has a brand-awareness problem.
Government and law-enforcement fleets offer one route to the visibility and volume the sub-brand needs to close that gap.
A String of Special Editions
To prop up demand without overhauling the car, Onvo has rolled out a series of limited and themed L60 variants in recent months.
It launched the Black Knight Edition in December, limited to 666 units and priced about 2.4% above the base model, then followed days later with the Violet Edition, also capped at 666 units and roughly 3.9% dearer.
In January, it added a horse-themed “Ma Dao Cheng Gong” edition for the Lunar New Year, priced about 5.8% above the standard car.
The Black Knight returned in March as a permanent option rather than a limited run, a move Onvo tied to reviving spring sales after a soft stretch.
The cadence reflects a strategy of frequent special editions to lift visibility and sales at low cost while the model awaits its full facelift.
A facelifted L60 adding a LiDAR sensor and Nio‘s in-house Shenji NX9031 driving chip is due to enter pre-sales around the Shenzhen auto show, which opens Friday, with an official launch expected in June.
