Nio, a relatively young Chinese manufacturer of higher-end EVs, has reached an important milestone. Recently, the company celebrated having built 100,000 cars, almost three years after it started manufacturing. Nio also achieved a delivery record in the past quarter.
Things are going pretty fast at Nio. The brand has not yet reached the annual figures of Tesla, but in just three years the Chinese have produced 100,000 cars. Last July there were 50,000, which means that the brand has considerably increased production in a year. Nio’s 100,000th car is an ES8, the seven-seater SUV that was also the brand’s first model. The smaller ES6 followed in 2018 and the EC6, a coupé SUV, in 2019. Production of the recently unveiled sedan ET7 has yet to get underway.
Nio does not say how many numbers of each model were produced, but the sales figures for the past month show that the ES6 with 3,152 units delivered is the most popular, followed by the EC6 with 2,576 cars. The more expensive ES8 is clearly less popular with 1,529 delivered cars. Compared to March last year, sales numbers have grown by no less than 373 percent, which represents a new delivery record for the Chinese. Viewed over the entire first quarter, the growth compared to 2020 is even higher at 423 percent. In the first three months of the year, Nio delivered a total of 20,060 cars.
At the end of last year, Nio announced that it also wanted to supply in Europe. Halfway through this year, the brand should make the crossing to our continent, but it has become pretty quiet around those plans. So it remains to be seen whether and, if so, when Nio will come here.