Chinese electric car company Nio announced May 27, 2026, that former NBA player Yao Ming (R) would be a representative for the brand as it launches the ES9 SUV, a car that CEO William Li Bin (L) touted as the largest SUV in China.
BEIJING — Chinese electric car company Nio is trying to raise the bar for premium vehicles in a fiercely competitive market.
Shares of Chinese electric carmaker Nio jumped as much as 10.45% in Hong Kong trading on Thursday after the company officially launched its ES9 SUV a day earlier. Its U.S.-listed stock closed 9.32% higher overnight, extending gains for 2026.
The ES9 starts at 390,000 yuan ($57,470) under Nio's battery subscription model, which separates the cost of the vehicle from monthly battery payments.
It reflects the ongoing race to the bottom in China's electric car market, despite Beijing's efforts to curb excessive competition, often called involution. Sales of new energy vehicles for the first four months of the year have dropped by 17% in China, according to the country's passenger car association.
The Chinese car market has already passed its years of fastest growth as most potential car buyers have already purchased one, Nio CEO William Li told reporters Thursday.
As technological features converge across EV models, Li said brand and targeted premiumization will be key to survival.
When Nio launched its flagship ET9 sedan in late 2023, prices started at 800,000 yuan. But before deliveries started in the first quarter of 2025, consumer electronics company Xiaomi had launched its first electric car — at 215,900 yuan.
With the new ES9, which Nio claims is the largest SUV in China, deliveries start Thursday.
CEO Li showed off an array of features at a launch event in Beijing, from advanced driver-assist systems that can respond to road signs to passenger seats with wood-colored tables that unfold similarly to those on an airplane. The ES9 also supports an in-car water boiler that lets passengers brew tea.
Nio signed on several brand promoters, including Robin Zeng, the CEO of CATL, the industry's battery giant, who affirmed in a marketing video that about 2,000 of his employees had bought Nio cars.
Li also emphasized how the ES9 proactively protects passengers with "smart safety" systems that can detect and minimize impact from dangerous scenarios, and got China's state broadcaster CCTV to livestream a crash test and other safety features.
Nio delivered 83,465 cars in the first quarter, nearly twice as many as a year ago, but a 33% drop from the fourth quarter. The figure also includes vehicles from Nio's lower-priced brands Onvo and Firefly, which the company launched in the last two years to remain competitive in China's sluggish consumer market.
Tesla's Model Y was the top-selling SUV in China last month by deliveries, according to industry data site China AutoHome. Elon Musk's automaker last week received Beijing's approval to launch driver assist in the country after years of waiting.
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Nio's ES8 ranked 10th in April deliveries across both electric and traditional gasoline-powered cars.
Foreign automakers are also revamping competition in China's premium market at lower prices.
Audi on May 8 started presales for its E7X electric SUV with prices starting at 289,800 yuan, and is set to officially launch the car Friday morning. The car is the second model under the German automaker's new China-focused brand, co-developed with Shanghai's SAIC, that replaces the four-rings logo with the AUDI letters.
Like BYD and other Chinese automakers, Nio has pursued overseas expansion. But Li said Thursday that the automaker decided last year to shift its focus back to China.
He cited geopolitical tensions, including EU tariffs and the Russia-Ukraine war, as well as the far higher cost of investing in battery services overseas relative to China. Nio has largely focused much of its overseas expansion on Germany and Norway.
Underscoring Nio's renewed domestic focus, Li said that the far-western Chinese region of Xinjiang represents a market twice the size of Norway's
