- Nio will officially launch and begin delivering the ES9 on May 27, slightly ahead of its management's previously mentioned plan to start deliveries on June 1.
- Nio will open test drives for the ES9 on May 11 and has initiated a 10,000-kilometer shortest-time driving challenge.
Nio Inc (NYSE: NIO) is scheduled to officially launch its new flagship sport utility vehicle (SUV), the ES9, on May 27, with deliveries starting on the same day.
The Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker announced the plan on Weibo on Wednesday. The delivery start date is slightly earlier than the June 1 timeline previously mentioned by the company's management.
Nio also said today that the ES9 will officially open for user test drives on May 11.
Nio ES9 made its official debut and began pre-sales on April 9, with a starting pre-sales price of 528,000 yuan ($77,457) for the whole vehicle purchase including the battery pack.
If consumers choose the battery rental plan, the model's starting pre-sales price is 420,000 yuan.
As is customary in the Chinese market, the official launch price of a new car is usually lower than the pre-sales price.
To build momentum for the new car's launch, Nio initiated a 10,000-kilometer shortest-time driving challenge for the ES9 on May 6.
The challenge relies on Nio's battery swap network across Chinese highways. The fleet will pass through more than a dozen provinces and municipalities, eventually finishing at a soon-to-be-operational Nio battery swap station in Dunhuang, Gansu province in northwest China.
This marks the first time a full-size pure electric SUV in China has undertaken such a challenge. The last time a similar challenge was conducted was by the L60 SUV under Nio's sub-brand Onvo.
On July 8, 2025, the L60 set a record for pure electric models by driving 10,000 kilometers continuously in just 98 hours, 6 minutes, and 42 seconds.
The early delivery of the ES9 highlights the importance Nio's management attaches to this flagship model.
In an internal meeting in mid-April, Nio founder, chairman, and CEO William Li viewed the ES9 and the upcoming Onvo L80 as key to countering industry headwinds in the second quarter.
He expects that, driven by the ES9 and Onvo L80, Nio's deliveries in May and June are expected to grow steadily.
Nio is trying to replicate the success of the ES8 pure electric SUV in the higher-end market. The ES9 is priced significantly lower than the ET9 sedan, which is equipped with similar technology, in an attempt to brand it as a value-for-money option.
Similar to the ET9, the ES9 is equipped with Nio's latest generation of core research and development achievements, including the in-house developed 5-nanometer Shenji NX9031 driving assistance chip.
The model is also equipped with the SkyRide chassis system and a 15.6-inch AMOLED floating center console screen with the built-in SkyOS vehicle operating system.
Notably, the entry-level model does not include the SkyRide active suspension system. The signature edition, which includes SkyRide and starts at 588,000 yuan, is 23.44% lower than the ET9.
($1 = 6.8167 yuan)
