Basketball Hall of Famer Yao Ming took delivery of his Nio ES9 in Shanghai on August 5, 2026, more than two months after locking in his order on the night the flagship SUV launched. Xia Qinghua, general manager of Nio's Shanghai regional operations, handed over the vehicle in person, and Yao described feeling the SkyRide fully active suspension system's live demonstration at the handover before praising the ES9's space and ride comfort.

Nio ES9 Delivery Ceremony, China · Shanghai." (Nio)

Nio (NYSE: NIO) founder, chairman and CEO William Li explained the delay on Weibo, noting that Yao placed his order on the evening of the May 27, 2026 launch event but locked it in a few minutes after the order window opened, pushing him behind faster buyers in the queue. Despite serving as the ES9's chief experience officer since the eve of its launch, Yao waited in line with ordinary customers, underscoring the scale of the order backlog facing Nio's largest SUV to date.

Nio named the 2.29-meter (7-foot-6) former NBA All-Star as the ES9's chief experience officer on May 26, 2026, tying his global profile and famously oversized frame to a vehicle built around cabin space. At the launch event, Li showed footage of Yao test-riding the ES9 with his legs comfortably crossed in the second row, and Yao said the model was the rare unmodified car he could sit in without alterations.

The ES9 is Nio's largest pure-electric SUV, measuring 5,365 mm long, 2,029 mm wide and 1,870 mm tall on a 3,250 mm wheelbase. The second row features two zero-gravity executive seats with what Nio calls the segment's longest integrated leg rest, extending to 2.3 meters, while a 216-liter front trunk adds cargo capacity beyond the six-seat cabin.

Nio launched the ES9 on May 27, 2026, pricing the base Executive Luxury trim at 498,000 CNY (c. $73,800) with the battery pack included, or 390,000 CNY (c. $57,800) under Nio's battery-as-a-service (BaaS) rental plan. The Executive Signature trim starts at 558,000 CNY (c. $82,700), or 450,000 CNY (c. $66,700) with BaaS, and the range-topping Horizon Special Edition starts at 628,000 CNY (c. $93,100), or 520,000 CNY (c. $77,000) with BaaS. Final pricing across all three trims landed 30,000 CNY (c. $4,400) below the pre-sales prices Nio announced on April 9, 2026.

Every ES9 trim shares a 900-volt architecture and a dual-motor all-wheel-drive layout combining a 180-kilowatt front motor with a 340-kilowatt rear motor for a combined 520 kW (697 hp) and 700 Nm of torque, enough for a 4.3-second 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) sprint. A standard 102-kWh CATL (HKEX: 3750) battery delivers a CLTC-rated range of up to 620 km (385 miles) on the base trim and 600 km (373 miles) on the higher trims, alongside support for three-minute battery swapping and up to 600 kW peak DC charging.

The base Executive Luxury trim carries a single in-house 5-nanometer Shenji NX9031 autonomous-driving chip, while the Executive Signature and Horizon trims add a second chip and standard SkyRide fully active suspension, a feature absent from the base model. The entire lineup includes rear-wheel steering, giving the full-size SUV a 5.4-meter turning radius, along with three Tandem dual-layer AMOLED displays and a 47-speaker audio system rated at 3,020 watts.

Other ES9 owners collected their vehicles at the same Shanghai delivery ceremony that day. (Nio)

Nio positioned the ES9's pricing well below its ET9 flagship sedan, which starts at 768,000 CNY (c. $113,800), betting the lower entry point can replicate the commercial success of its ES8 SUV, which starts at 382,800 CNY (c. $56,700). William Li has repeatedly argued the ES9's interior space can substitute for a minivan, prompting pushback from General Motors' Buick brand after he made similar comments at the ES9's April pre-sales event.

Deliveries began May 28, 2026, and demand has outpaced Nio's ability to build the SUV. The 10,000th ES9 was delivered on June 26, and Nio is on track to reach its 20,000th ES9 delivery this week, meaning the second batch of 10,000 units took roughly six weeks against about ten weeks for the first. Deutsche Bank estimated in June that the ES9 had already accumulated more than 25,000 non-cancelable orders and raised its full-year 2026 delivery forecast for the model to 56,000 units.

Waiting times for the higher-end Executive Signature and Horizon trims, which include the SkyRide suspension, once stretched to 16-17 weeks before easing to a current 13-14 weeks, while the base trim's lead time has fallen to three to four weeks. The order backlog has helped lift Nio's average transaction prices, with the core Nio brand reaching 443,000 CNY (c. $65,600) in June and 434,600 CNY (c. $64,400) in July as the ES8 and ES9 anchor its premium push.

Nio delivered 35,934 vehicles in July 2026, up 71% year-on-year, bringing its total for the first seven months of the year to 227,057 vehicles, up 68% year-on-year. Deutsche Bank has projected the company could reach non-GAAP breakeven in the second quarter of 2026 on the strength of its higher-margin large SUVs.

Yao's endorsement marks his first commercial automotive tie-up since retiring from the NBA and his first paid endorsement since stepping down as chairman of the Chinese Basketball Association, a break from his historically selective approach to sponsorships. Whether Nio can sustain the ES9's order momentum once the initial wave of pent-up demand clears will shape how much of that halo effect translates into lasting sales.

Conversion rate: 1 USD = 6.7490 CNY as of August 5, 2026.