- Nio is set to see the delivery of its 80,000th third-generation ES8 SUV this week as orders recover following the Chinese New Year.
- The ES8 drove Nio to its first-ever quarterly profit and contributed more than half of the company's total deliveries in February.
Nio Inc will see the delivery of its 80,000th third-generation ES8 this week, as sales momentum for the electric sport utility vehicle (SUV) continues.
Based on the recent delivery pace, the company will reach this milestone this week, Yang Bo, Nio's head of user operations, said in a Weibo post on Monday.
Previously on February 27, Nio just completed the delivery of the 70,000th third-generation ES8. The latest target implies that the revamped SUV is on track to continue seeing deliveries exceed 10,000 units in March.
The milestone follows the company's historic financial turnaround. Nio reported last week an operating profit of 807.3 million yuan ($117 million) under GAAP standards for the fourth quarter of 2025.
This was the company's first quarterly profit since its inception, a result significantly driven by robust deliveries of the high-margin third-generation ES8.
Nio guided in the earnings report that vehicle deliveries for the first quarter of 2026 will be between 80,000 and 83,000 units, representing that it expects to deliver 32,021 to 35,021 vehicles in March. The company delivered 27,182 and 20,797 vehicles in January and February, respectively.
On March 11, the day after Nio released its earnings, Nio co-founder and president Qin Lihong said in response to a question from CnEVPost at a small media communication in Shanghai that the third-generation ES8 would reach its 80,000th delivery late this month.
The recovery of new orders for the ES8 has been very good following the end of the Chinese New Year holiday in late February, Qin said at the time.
Despite seasonal headwinds, retail sales of the third-generation ES8 still reached 11,260 units in February, ranking first in China's large SUV market for three consecutive months, Nio said earlier this month.
The third-generation ES8 contributed 54.14% of the company's total deliveries in February, underscoring its key position in the product matrix, data compiled by CnEVPost showed.
To maintain sales momentum, Nio rolled out a series of aggressive promotional measures in March, which included a limited-time purchase tax subsidy of 10,000 yuan for the all-new ES8.
In addition, the company last week introduced a new M42 Nebula Red exterior color option, priced at 10,000 yuan, to attract more potential buyers.
While boosting short-term sales, Nio is preparing to launch the ES9, an all-new flagship SUV model, in the second quarter of 2026 to further consolidate its position in the premium market.
($1 = 6.8962 yuan)
