Nio president said the ES7 launch will be held after the lockdown in Shanghai is lifted.
(A picture of the Nio ES7 shown in a regulatory filing.)
As the lockdown in Shanghai continues, Nio's (NYSE: NIO, HKG: 9866) original plan to unveil its new SUV ES7 at the end of this month may be further postponed until next month.
In an article on its app yesterday, Nio announced that it will participate in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Auto Show (Auto Shenzhen 2022), which will officially open at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center on Saturday, May 28 and run through June 5.
In the comments section of the article, a large number of users asked when the ES7 would be unveiled.
In response to a user's question about whether the ES7's unveiling was going to be further delayed, Nio co-founder and president Qin Lihong said, "Yes, based on what's happening in Shanghai."
In response to another user, Qin said that Nio will hold the ES7 launch as soon as the lockdown in Shanghai is lifted.
As of now, the number of new Covid cases in Shanghai has dropped to just a few hundred per day, but the city's lockdown remains, although residents in a few communities have been able to travel in limited areas.
China added 141 confirmed cases of Covid and 498 asymptomatic infections on Monday, including 58 confirmed cases and 422 asymptomatic infections in Shanghai, according to health authorities.
So, when will Shanghai's lockdown be lifted? The city provided a timeline last week.
Shanghai's next Covid prevention and control will be divided into three phases, with the goal of fully restoring normal life and company production to order from June 1 to mid-to-late June, local officials said at a May 16 briefing.
That means the release of Nio ES7 is likely to be delayed until the second half of June, when the lockdown in Shanghai could be fully lifted.
Qin said on February 15 that Nio would unveil the new model ES7 in April, without providing a specific date.
On February 19, a Weibo car blogger said that Nio might hold the launch of ES7 at CSSC Pavilion in Shanghai around April 15.
However, with the increase in Covid cases, Shanghai, the location of Nio's global headquarters, began a phased lockdown on March 28, resulting in a disruption of the ES7 launch schedule.
The CSSC Pavilion was also used as a temporary quarantine and treatment site for Covid cases, and ended that role on May 16.
The launch of the model was first confirmed to be postponed on March 30 when Qin replied to an Nio user that the Nio ES7 would be unveiled at the end of May.
In addition, according to local media, Nio had also planned to release the 2022 model in late May, which will feature major upgrades to the smart hardware. But now it seems that this will be postponed as well.
