Nio's Firefly passes 90,000 deliveries after record September

At a handover ceremony in Zhengzhou, Henan province, on October 16, 2026, Firefly delivered its 90,000th vehicle. The small electric car from Nio Inc had started deliveries on April 29, 2025, so it reached this total in less than 18 months. It had passed its 80,000th vehicle in late August, about 1.5 months earlier.

The pace of September is what stands out. Firefly delivered 7,327 vehicles that month, up 26.9% year-on-year and above the previous record of 7,084 set in December 2025. That was 19.59% of Nio Inc's deliveries in September, the highest share since the brand began. The trend has not been smooth: deliveries rose to 6,946 in June, dropped to 5,771 in July, then recovered for two consecutive months. Over the first nine months of the year, Firefly delivered 48,122 vehicles, or 16.02% of the group's total.

Firefly is the group's bet on smaller cars and lower price segments, aimed mainly at younger buyers and urban commuters. Its body and wheelbase were too short for the fourth-generation battery swap stations, which is why it gained access to the fifth-generation network only on August 7. The brand has also widened its range with special editions, the latest being the Club Spiaggia, limited to 666 vehicles and launched on August 28.

The larger ES8 follows a similar path. Its third generation reached 150,000 deliveries on September 20, the first anniversary of its launch, and Nio's head of user operations, Yang Bo, announced on Weibo that the 160,000th unit is due this week. The previous 10,000 took 30 days. The ES8 delivered 10,546 vehicles in September, the third month in a row above 10,000, and accounted for 49.47% of the Nio main brand's deliveries that month.

And so, concretely? For a buyer, a brand that reaches 90,000 cars in under 18 months is proof that a smaller, cheaper electric car finds customers in cities. For Nio, Firefly's share of the group's volume is now large enough that its monthly swings move the overall figures. The numbers still depend on monthly demand: the brand has had weak months this year, and the ES8 has already slipped 4.14% from August to September. What the next few months will show is whether the September record holds, a question the 90,000 milestone alone cannot answer.