NIO (NYSE: NIO) delivered 29,356 vehicles across its three brands in April 2026, a 22.8% increase year-over-year. The result pushes NIO’s cumulative deliveries past the 1.1 million mark.
The growth rate, however, represents a significant deceleration from Q1 2026, when NIO posted a 98.3% year-over-year surge across 83,465 deliveries — and March alone hit 35,486 units with 136% growth.
April breakdown by brand
The NIO premium brand accounted for 19,024 of April’s deliveries, ONVO contributed 5,352 units, and Firefly added 4,980. All three sub-brands saw sequential declines from their March figures of 22,490, 6,877, and 6,119 respectively.
Year-to-date, NIO has delivered 112,821 vehicles, up 71.0% compared to the same period in 2025. If the company sustains this pace for the rest of the year, it would comfortably surpass its 2025 full-year total of 326,028 deliveries.
The company also hit a notable milestone in April: the All-New ES8 reached 100,000 cumulative deliveries within 215 days of its launch, setting a record for premium vehicles priced above RMB 400,000 (~$55,000) in China.
New models aim to reignite momentum
NIO is betting on two new launches to drive the next leg of growth. On April 9, the company opened pre-sales for its flagship ES9 executive SUV, priced from RMB 528,000 (~$77,000) with the battery or RMB 420,000 (~$61,000) under NIO’s Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS) rental model. Deliveries are expected to begin June 1.
Then on April 28, ONVO launched pre-sales for the L80, a large five-seat SUV starting at RMB 245,800 (~$36,000). The L80 undercuts Tesla’s Model Y in China by roughly RMB 17,700 and boasts 605 km of CLTC range.
NIO CEO William Li has acknowledged that Q2 will face pressure, but has pointed to the ES9 and L80 as key volume drivers for the second half of 2026.
How NIO compares to Chinese EV rivals in April
NIO’s 22.8% year-over-year growth actually stands out against an increasingly difficult competitive landscape in China. BYD sold 321,123 new energy vehicles in April but posted its eighth consecutive month of year-over-year declines, down 15.5%. XPeng delivered 31,011 vehicles, down 11.5% year-over-year despite a 13% sequential improvement from March. Li Auto was essentially flat at 34,085 deliveries.
The broader China EV market is experiencing a hangover from aggressive promotions and price wars throughout 2025, making year-over-year comparisons tougher across the board. NIO’s positive growth in this context is worth noting, though the deceleration from triple-digit Q1 growth to 22.8% in April signals that the easy gains are behind it.
NIO’s multi-brand strategy — premium NIO, family-oriented ONVO, and compact Firefly — remains its core differentiator. But ONVO and Firefly both struggled in April, with ONVO dropping 22% sequentially and Firefly falling 19% from March. NIO’s battery swap infrastructure, which hit a record of nearly 176,000 swaps in a single day earlier this year, continues to be a unique advantage in the Chinese market.
Author: Fred Lambert
Source: Electrek
Reviewed By: Editorial Team
