Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
Nio Group saw its weekly vehicle registrations in China increase for the second consecutive week between March 17 and 23, on the same day its founder and CEO William Li reiterated the company’s target of doubling sales in 2025.
After China’s auto association, CAAM, urged carmaker Li Auto to stop publishing weekly new energy vehicle sales figures, the Beijing-based manufacturer shared only its weekly registration numbers this Tuesday.
However, weekly figures for competitors were still released by several automotive bloggers and local media outlets, showing that Nio Group — which includes both the Nio and Onvo brands — recorded 3,600 vehicle registrations between March 17 and 23.
In the previous two weeks, the group had registered 3,000 and 3,300 units, respectively.
Last week’s figures included 1,200 units of the Onvo L60 SUV (down from 1,300 week-over-week) and 2,400 Nio-brand vehicles (up from 2,000).
The company said last Friday that it is maintaining its target of doubling vehicle deliveries this year hinting at over 442,000 units across the three brands of the Group.
“As for the full year, our target is still the same — to double the sales volume from last year,” said William Li, founder and CEO of Nio Group. “And there are several drivers behind this.”
“The first is the Nio car effect. As we’ve mentioned, this year we are going to introduce nine Nio products under three brands. Starting next week, we are going to deliver the ET9. And with the launch and delivery of these nine new models, we will be able to fill up our sales volume for the year,” Nio management said during the earnings call.
Also on Friday, Li acknowledged that sales of the Onvo brand — which was launched in September 2024 — are not meeting the company’s expectations in 2025.
Onvo delivered over 10,000 vehicles in December but saw deliveries drop to 5,912 in January and 4,049 in February. For March, insurance data shows 2,370 units sold between March 3 and 16 — substantially below the communicated target of 20,000 units for the month.
For the second consecutive week, Tesla posted its best performance of the year, with 17,000 vehicles registered (up 11% from 15,300), as it continues ramping up production of its refreshed Model Y.
BYD recorded 58,500 vehicle registrations (including both fully electric and hybrid models), down 7% from the second week of March.
Starting from April and throughout the year end, the Group will start delivering several new models and refreshed versions across the three brands Nio, Onvo and Firefly.
The ET9, Nio’s most expensive sedan, and Firefly, a compact car (and the cheapest model ever) under its upcoming third brand, will start deliveries in April. The sub-brand Onvo will launch two new SUVs later this year with the first one — L90 — scheduled to be launched at the Shanghai Auto Show, which takes place in the second half of April.
In February, Nio delivered 9,143 vehicles, while Onvo recorded 4,049 units, bringing the Group’s total to 13,192—up 62% from a year earlier. Onvo’s February deliveries fell 31.5% sequentially from the 5,912 units recorded in January.