On April 18, non-camouflaged photos of the upcoming NIO ES6 facelift based on the NT2.5 platform surfaced on Chinese social media.

The photos appear to be taken during a commercial shoot of the vehicle ahead of its expected debut in May.

The ES6 NT2.5 will be launched alongside the upgraded NIO EC6. Meanwhile, the NT2.5 NIO ET5/T will debut later in June.

From an exterior design change perspective, the 2025 version ES6 features slightly sharper daytime running lights (DRLs), similar to the flagship sedan NIO ET9.

What is more of a noticeable change is the shape of the headlights, which take a slimmer and more vertical layout.

The new front grille is also taller and narrower, creating a more aggressive and sharper front fascia.

The new ES6 also appears to use a glossy black cladding as opposed to the old matte black one seen on most SUVs.

From a hardware standpoint, NIO is expected to replace the old NVIDIA chip with its in-house driving chip called Shenji NX9031.

The NX9031 is built on a 5nm process and features 50 billion transistors. NIO claimed that the new chip can replace four NVIDIA Orin X chips, which deliver 254 TOPS each, or a total of 1,016 TOPS.

Currently, only the NIO ET9, built on the NT3.0 platform, is equipped with the NX9031. The ET9 flagship sedan began delivery on March 29, 2025.

The new ES6 will also feature a horizontal central screen, similar to the company’s latest vehicles: NIO ET9, Onvo L60, and Firefly.

From a sales standpoint, the NIO ES6 is the company’s best-selling model. However, the ES6 sales have struggled in early 2025, selling 3,260 units in March, compared to 3,729 units in 2024.

In 2024, NIO sold a total of 75,433 ES6, accounting for approximately 1/3 of all vehicles sold last year.

However, the cumulative deliveries as of March 2025 (9,150 units) are behind both 2024 and 2022’s YTD results.

The facelift should in theory bolster demand as NIO relies currently on aggressive purchase incentives to drive demand for its old models.