NIO Shares Jump 9.3% as ES9 Orders Beat Expectations

On May 27 U.S. time, NIO Inc (NYSE: NIO) shares closed up 9.32% at $5.75, with daily trading volume reaching $521 million, significantly above the company’s three-month average.

The broader U.S.-listed Chinese EV sector was relatively weak on the same day, with Li Auto and XPeng both closing slightly lower, while NIO stood out with a sharp countertrend rally.

The primary catalyst behind the rally was the official launch and delivery rollout of NIO’s flagship ES9 SUV.

As one of NIO’s most important new models this year, the ES9 is positioned as a large flagship SUV.

The SUV starts at RMB 498,000 ($73,260) with battery included, while the entry price drops to RMB 390,000 ($57,370) under NIO’s Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS) leasing model.

Compared with the previous pre-sale pricing, the final launch price was reduced by RMB 30,000 ($4,410), a move that exceeded many investors’ expectations.

NIO CEO William Li had previously stated during a media briefing following the ES9 pre-sale launch that the ES9 delivers the strongest gross profit contribution among NIO’s SUV lineup.

In terms of deliveries, the six-seat “island console” version officially began nationwide deliveries on May 28, while the six-seat aisle-layout version is expected to start deliveries in mid-July.

Current order momentum has also reportedly surpassed market expectations.

According to earlier reporting by ChinaEV Home, the ES9 had already secured at least 50,000 pre-orders before its official launch, with frontline sales staff estimating an order conversion rate exceeding 50%.

William Li also said during a media group interview on May 28 that the ES9 has become one of the strongest-performing full-size “9-series” SUVs recently, both in terms of orders and locked-in purchases.

From a fundamentals perspective, NIO’s latest stock rally was driven not only by enthusiasm surrounding the new model, but also by improving profitability metrics.

In the first quarter of 2026, NIO’s total revenue surged 112.16% year-on-year, while vehicle gross margin reached 18.8%. The company also achieved Non-GAAP profitability for a second consecutive quarter.

Driven by the gains in U.S. trading, NIO’s Hong Kong-listed shares (9866.HK) also climbed sharply in early trading on May 28, rising more than 7% to HK$44.76.