Source: NIO

Chinese electric-vehicle maker NIO Inc (NYSE: NIO) announced that deliveries of its third-generation ES8 SUV had surpassed 10,000 units only 41 days after launch, marking the fastest achievement of that threshold for a pure-electric vehicle in China priced above CNY 400,000.

Source: NIO

NIO confirmed that November production capacity for the ES8 will rise by 70% over October’s output, and the company expects to reach 15,000 units per month by December 2025.

The annual production capacity of the ES8 was initially set at 40,000 units, and this was reportedly sold out within two days of the model’s market launch. The company also indicated that customers placing orders now may face delivery waits into April 2026.

More than 30 per cent of ES8 buyers are reported to be former customers of luxury-brand vehicles upgrading into EVs. In September 2025, NIO’s pure-electric three-row SUVs out-sold plug-in-hybrid and gasoline competitors in China, underlining demand for large EVs in the domestic market.

The all-new ES8 was officially unveiled on September 20, 2025, with deliveries commencing the following day, September 21. The model is offered in three trims at CNY 406,800–446,800 (c. USD $57,200–62,700) for vehicle plus battery purchase, or CNY 298,800–338,800 (c. USD $42,000–47,600) under the company’s Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS) rental variant.

The ES8 is built on NIO’s NT 3.0 electric vehicle platform, succeeding the NT 2.0 architecture. It offers two seating configurations (six- and seven-seat), with exterior dimensions of 5,280 × 2,010 × 1,800 mm and a wheelbase of 3,130 mm, making it one of China’s larger full-electric SUVs. The drag coefficient is reported at 0.256 Cd.

The powertrain features a dual-motor all-wheel-drive setup (front motor 180 kW, rear motor 340 kW) for a combined output of 520 kW and 700 Nm of torque. The 0-100 km/h acceleration time is 3.97 seconds, and top speed is 220 km/h. Battery capacity is 102 kWh, with a CLTC-rated range of 635 km (c. 395 miles), and reported energy consumption of 16.6 kWh/100 km.

Source: NIO

Charging and battery system support a 900 V architecture, peak charging power up to 600 kW/765 A, with a 5C charging rate enabling more than 250 km of range added in five minutes. The vehicle also supports full battery swapping in approximately three minutes.

Ride and chassis features include dual-chamber air suspension, external-valve CDC adaptive dampers and a turning radius of 5.7 m.

Exterior design features a “Sharknose” front, hidden window-trim water-cut, flush glass sides and six colour options. Lighting includes a dual-layer “Double Dash” crystal LED daytime-running-light system (333 optical facets per side) and a three-layer tail-lamp unit of 600 LEDs + 480 SuperRed LEDs.

Inside the cabin, usable area is 6.2 m² with a space-utilisation rate of 81.5 per cent. Second-row legroom is 1,407 mm; zero-gravity seats support up to 26-way adjustment and 151° recline.

Display and infotainment hardware include a 38-inch AR HUD, a 15.6-inch horizontal central screen and optional 21.4-inch MiniLED rear entertainment screen. The in-vehicle software system is NIO’s SkyOS, with in-house NX9031 5 nm chip and the NOMI Mate 3.0 AI assistant supporting six independent sound zones.

Safety and driving-assist technology combine a triple-LiDAR setup (one long-range, two wide-angle), 4D imaging radar and a total of 31 sensors, marketed as the Aquila Super Sensing System. Autonomous driving hardware is powered by dual 5 nm “Shenji” NX9031 SoCs.

Conversion rate: 1 USD = 7.117 CNY as of October 31, 2025