NIO: owner, models, markets and what the name means
Facts checked United States status as of 4 September 2026
- Electric-native
- NYSE NIO
- HKEX 9866
- SGX NIO
NIO is the senior brand of NIO Inc., founded by William Li in November 2014 and selling battery-electric saloons, estates and SUVs at the upper end of the Chinese market. Its first car was not a production model at all: the EP9, an electric track car unveiled on 21 November 2016 and built in small numbers. The first car customers could buy was the ES8, a seven-seat SUV shown in December 2017 with deliveries from June 2018.
What distinguishes NIO from the rest of this cohort is battery swapping. Instead of only plugging in, a NIO drives into a Power Swap Station and has its pack exchanged mechanically in a few minutes; the company also sells cars without a battery, leasing the pack separately under an arrangement it calls Battery as a Service. NIO said it had 3,790 Power Swap Stations in service worldwide on 6 February 2026, the day it recorded its hundred-millionth swap.
Norway was NIO's first overseas market, from 2021, followed by Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, where deliveries of the EL7 SUV and the ET5 saloon began in early 2023. It has since added markets outside Europe through local distributors — Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan — and announced Costa Rica as a first step into the Americas.
Across all three of NIO Inc.'s brands, 326,028 vehicles were delivered in 2025. Onvo accounted for 107,808 of those and Firefly for 39,414; the company did not publish a separate full-year figure for the NIO brand itself in the sources checked here.
NIO is the senior of the three marques run by NIO Inc.; Onvo and Firefly sit below it.
Key facts
| Chinese name | 蔚来 “way-LYE” 蔚 wèi describes something luxuriant and, in the compound 蔚蓝, the deep blue of a clear sky; 来 lái is 'to come'. The company reads the pair as 'Blue Sky Coming'. |
|---|---|
| Also written | Nio and NIO Auto |
| Owner | NIO |
| Founded | 2014 |
| Headquarters | Shanghai, China |
| Origin | China |
| First car | NIO EP9, 2016 |
| Vehicles | Cars |
| Segment | Electric-vehicle start-up |
| United States | Never sold in the United States — No NIO car has ever been offered for sale to buyers in the United States. NIO Inc.'s American depositary shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange, which is a listing and not a sales presence; the company has also maintained engineering staff in California since its early years, but the current size and status of that operation is not verified in this record. |
| Official site | www.nio.com |
| Group deliveries 2025 | 326,028 vehicles across NIO, Onvo and Firefly, up 46.9% on 2024; NIO-brand deliveries in December 2025 alone were 31,897 |
| Battery swap network | 3,790 Power Swap Stations worldwide as of 6 February 2026; first station opened 2018; 100 millionth swap recorded that day |
| First production car | ES8 seven-seat SUV, shown December 2017, deliveries from June 2018; the EP9 track car of 2016 came first but was built in small numbers |
| First overseas market | Norway, from 2021; European deliveries of the EL7 and ET5 began in the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Sweden in early 2023 |
| Markets list | Compiled from the sources cited here. NIO reports further markets not itemised in those sources, and Belgium and the United Kingdom appear in secondary accounts without confirmation in this record |
| Recent market entries | Azerbaijan (distributor deal announced November 2024, deliveries from the second quarter of 2025), the UAE (first MENA swap station February 2025), Uzbekistan (first store February 2026) and Costa Rica (announced) |
Who owns NIO?
L'imad owns CYVN Holdings at 100% since January 2026.
L'imad wholly owns CYVN Investments, the entity that holds the NIO shares, following the January 2026 reorganisation of Abu Dhabi's holdings.
CYVN Holdings holds a stake in NIO at 20.1% since 27 December 2023.
CYVN Investments RSC Ltd of Abu Dhabi built its holding through an investment of about US$1.1 billion completed in July 2023 and a US$2.2 billion share subscription that closed on 27 December 2023 under an agreement dated 18 December 2023. Its Schedule 13D/A filed on 28 February 2024 reports 418,833,157 NIO Class A ordinary shares as of 26 February 2024 — 21.7% of the Class A shares and about 20.1% of all ordinary shares outstanding — with sole voting power over all of them. CYVN appointed two directors to NIO's board on 7 February 2024.
The full ownership page for NIO · Is NIO Chinese?
NIO models
| Model | Name in China | Body | Powertrain | Range | Price in China |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 蔚来ES8ES8 | 蔚来ES8 / NIO ES8 | SUV | Battery-electric | 630 km CLTC | CNY 406,800 as of |
| 蔚来ES6ES6 | 蔚来ES6 / NIO ES6 | SUV | Battery-electric | 450 km CLTC | CNY 358,000 as of |
| 蔚来ET5ET5 | 蔚来ET5 / NIO ET5 | Saloon | Battery-electric | 585 km CLTC | CNY 298,000 as of |
| 蔚来ET7ET7 | 蔚来ET7 / NIO ET7 | Saloon | Battery-electric | 550 km CLTC | not published |
| 蔚来ET9ET9 | 蔚来ET9 / NIO ET9 | Saloon | Battery-electric | 650 km CLTC | CNY 788,000 as of |
Where NIO is sold
Recorded in 10 market s: CN, Norway, Germany, Netherlands, DK, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, Israel, AZ and UZ. Where a company publishes only its principal markets, that is a floor and not a complete list.
| Country | Code | Market page |
|---|---|---|
| China | CN | no page yet |
| Norway | NO | Chinese cars in Norway |
| Germany | DE | Chinese cars in Germany |
| Netherlands | NL | Chinese cars in the Netherlands |
| Denmark | DK | no page yet |
| Sweden | SE | Chinese cars in Sweden |
| United Arab Emirates | AE | Chinese cars in the United Arab Emirates |
| Israel | IL | Chinese cars in Israel |
| Azerbaijan | AZ | no page yet |
| Uzbekistan | UZ | no page yet |
NIO: questions people ask
- Is NIO Chinese?
- Yes. NIO Inc. is registered in the Cayman Islands and listed in New York, Hong Kong and Singapore, but it was founded in China in 2014, is headquartered in Shanghai, builds its cars in Anhui province and sells the great majority of them in China.
- What does NIO mean?
- The Chinese name is 蔚来 (Wèilái), which the company glosses as 'Blue Sky Coming' — 蔚 for the deep blue of a clear sky and 来 for 'coming'. NIO states that phrase as its mission in its own financial results releases.
- Who owns NIO?
- No one shareholder controls it. The largest is the Abu Dhabi state fund L'imad, which absorbed CYVN Investments in January 2026; CYVN had reached about 20.1% of all ordinary shares by early 2024. Founder William Li and Tencent are long-standing holders, and Chinese state investors hold a minority of the China operating subsidiary rather than of the listed parent.
- Can you buy a NIO in the United States?
- No. NIO has never sold a car in the United States. Its shares trade in New York, but its cars are sold in China, parts of Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia.
- What is battery swapping?
- Instead of charging, the car drives into a station where machinery removes the depleted battery pack and fits a charged one. NIO has built its network around this since 2018 and reported 3,790 stations worldwide and 100 million completed swaps as of 6 February 2026.
Related
Sources for NIO
- CnEVPost, Nio Dec 2025 deliveries: Nio brand 31,897, Onvo 9,154, Firefly 7,084. Read . Gives December and full-year 2025 figures by brand, including Onvo at 107,808 and Firefly at 39,414 for the year.
- NIO, NIO Achieves 100 Million Battery Swaps. Read .
- Wikipedia, Nio (company). Read . Finding aid for the EP9 and ES8 dates and for the list of European markets.
- CnEVPost, Nio begins EL7 SUV deliveries in Europe. Read . Read via the publisher's search listing: deliveries starting in the Netherlands with Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway following.
- CnEVPost, Nio plans expansion into Singapore, Uzbekistan and Costa Rica. Read . Names the local distributors and which brands and models go to each market.
- NIO Inc. / U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, NIO Inc. Reports Unaudited Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Financial Results (Form 6-K, Exhibit 99.1). Read .