Chinese electric car company Nio announced on May 27, 2026 that former NBA player Yao Ming (right) will represent the brand and launch the ES9 SUV, which CEO William Li Bin (left) touted as China’s largest SUV.
Zhang Lintao | Getty Images News | Getty Images
BEIJING — Chinese electric car company Nio is raising the bar for luxury cars in a fiercely competitive market.
The U.S.-listed stock soared 9% on Wednesday after Nio officially launched its ES9 SUV at a price as low as 390,000 yuan ($57,470) with battery power paid separately per month, putting the stock on a more favorable path heading into 2026.
This reflects continued downward competition in China’s electric vehicle market, despite the Chinese government’s efforts to curb excessive competition, often referred to as entanglement.
When Nio launched its flagship sedan ET9 at the end of 2023, the price started at 800,000 yuan. But before deliveries began in the first quarter of 2025, consumer electronics company Xiaomi launched its first electric car for 215,900 yuan.
Deliveries of the new ES9, which Nio claims is China’s largest SUV, will begin on Thursday.
At a launch event in Beijing, CEO William Li showed off features ranging from advanced driver-assistance systems that can react to road signs to a passenger seat with a wood-grain table that unfolds like an airplane. The ES9 also supports an on-board water heater for passengers to make tea.
Nio has signed on with several brand promoters, including Robin Zeng, CEO of battery industry giant CATL. He asserted in a marketing video that about 2,000 employees have purchased Nio cars.
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Li also highlighted that the ES9 proactively protects passengers with a “smart safety” system that can detect dangerous scenarios and minimize the impact, and live-streams crash tests and other safety features on China’s state broadcaster CCTV.
Nio delivered 83,465 cars in the first quarter. That’s nearly double the year-ago period, but down 33% from the fourth quarter. This figure also includes vehicles from Nio’s lower-priced brands, Onvo and Firefly. The brands have been launched by the company over the past two years to stay competitive in China’s sluggish consumer market.
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Tesla’s Model Y was the best-selling SUV in terms of deliveries in China last month, according to industry data site China Autohome. Last week, after years of waiting, Elon Musk’s automaker received approval from the Chinese government to launch driver assistance in China.
Nio’s ES8 ranked 10th in April deliveries for both electric and conventional gasoline vehicles.
Foreign automakers are also reinventing low-price competition in China’s premium market.
Audi will begin pre-orders for its electric SUV “E7X” on May 8th, starting at a price of 289,800 yuan, and plans to officially launch it on Friday morning. The car is the second model of the German automaker’s new China-specific brand, developed in collaboration with Shanghai’s SAIC, and replaces the four-ring logo with the letters AUDI.
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