Nio Inc. executives said on Wednesday that the upcoming Onvo L80 will target what they described as “unmet needs” in the five-seat fully electric SUVs currently availabled in the Chinese market.
Speaking at a media roundtable on Wednesday, Nio‘s founder and CEO William Li and Onvo‘s head of product (Eric) Yu Bin outlined the brand’s approach to its third model.
The L80 will be unveiled at the upcoming Beijing Auto Show, according to the company’s co-founder and President Qin Lihong.
Onvo has set May 15 for both the official launch and first deliveries, a date that coincides with the brand’s second anniversary and World Family Day.
Yu said the brand’s user research had revealed growing demand for vehicles that accommodate a wider range of daily scenarios.
“In recent years of user research, we’ve found that more and more users are expanding into diverse life scenarios while trying to balance work and life,” he noted.
According to the head of product, “there are still many unmet needs. So in the L80, we will focus on delivering a more refined product experience in this area.”
Li was more direct.
The founder argued that traditional large five-seat SUVs have failed to deliver on their promise of practicality — drawing a parallel with the six-seat category that preceded them.
“To put it simply, the traditional large five-seat vehicles haven’t really been that practical — just like how the previous six-seat models weren’t truly practical either,” Li said.
After facing weaker-than-expected demand for its sedans throughout 2024 and 2025, the Shanghai-based EV maker opted to focus on SUVs in 2026, with the L80 being one of three it plans to launch this year.
This includes both facelifts of existing models, such as the ES6 and EC6, and new models — such as the ES9, which became China’s largest SUV.
The launch followed the success of the six-seat ES8 late last year — which the ES9 has replaced as Nio‘s flagship SUV — and the Onvo L90 last summer.
“We believe that although some large five-seat SUVs today already offer decent second-row space and decent trunk space, from the perspective of real user needs, there are still many unmet requirements.”
The CEO said he hopes the model will “become a vehicle that truly meets the needs of users who choose large five-seat configurations.”
“We want to address all the unmet needs, because technological innovation can once again bring users joy,” he added.
First Details on the L80
The L80 is a five-seat version of the Onvo L90 three-row SUV.
A regulatory filing published in June 2025 first revealed that the two vehicles are variants of the same platform rather than separate models, with “L80” listed as an optional rear badge on the L90’s specification sheet.
The model was originally planned for the fourth quarter of 2025.
However, it was postponed as Nio prioritized the production ramp-up of the L90.
Lihong said at the Chengdu Auto Show last August that the brand needed to focus on serving L90 customers before committing to a launch date for the five-seat variant.
Onvo brand chief Shen Fei confirmed earlier this year that the L80 will be available in both pure-vision and LiDAR versions — matching the approach now taken with the refreshed L90.
Qin said last month that the L80’s pricing will slot between the L60 and L90.
The L60 starts at 149,900 yuan ($21,700) with Nio‘s Battery as a Service, while the L90 is priced from 179,800 yuan ($26,000) under the same program.
A Q2 Priority
Li identified both the ES9 and the L80 as the company’s top priorities for the second quarter during an internal meeting earlier this month.
“There will be a new product effect in May and June, and deliveries should steadily increase,” Li told employees at the time. “These are all high-margin large vehicles. The next two months are critical.”
The Nio Group delivered 83,465 vehicles in the first quarter — up 98.3% year over year and exceeding its guidance range of 80,000 to 83,000 units.
The company is targeting 40–50% delivery growth for the full year, implying between 456,000 and 489,000 vehicles across its three brands.
Onvo started 2026 with its two weakest monthly results since deliveries began in September 2024, hit by the reduction in China’s purchase tax exemption for new energy vehicles.
Deliveries rebounded to 6,877 units in March, more than doubling from February.
Revamped L90
The roundtable event was held after Onvo officially launched the 2026 L90 on Tuesday — the first model under the sub-brand to feature LiDAR sensors.
The refreshed three-row SUV replaces the Nvidia Orin-X chip with Nio‘s in-house Shenji NX9031 autonomous driving processor.
The model also introduces the latest version of the Nio World Model, which the company describes as China’s first embodied driving model for autonomous driving.
LiDAR-equipped variants (Max and Ultra) are sold alongside the existing vision-only version (the base Pro version), which will continue to receive over-the-air updates.
Onvo also announced a major Coconut OS 3.0 software update planned for July, covering driver assistance, cabin, and chassis intelligence improvements.
The L90 reached 50,000 cumulative deliveries on April 3 — eight months after sales began in August 2025.
Beijing Auto Show
The Beijing Auto Show runs from April 24 to May 3.
The Nio Group will showcase all three of its brands — Nio, Onvo, and Firefly — at a single shared booth for the first time, after Onvo had a separate stand at the Shanghai Auto Show last year.
A press conference by Li is scheduled for 10 a.m. local time on the opening day.
Besides the L80, Nio will display the ES9 — its new flagship SUV and China’s largest sport utility vehicle — for which pre-orders opened on April 9 at a starting price of 528,000 yuan ($77,200).
Deliveries of the ES9 are planned to begin on the first day of June.
