NIO claims Q3 win over BMW, Mercedes and Audi, but only with ONVO and Firefly

NIO Inc. (NYSE: NIO; HKEX: 9866) says it outsold BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi in China in a quarter for the first time. Co-founder and president Qin Lihong said on October 17, 2026 that the company's three brands sold 111,638 vehicles in China in the third quarter, citing Wilson insurance-registration data. He put BMW including MINI at 107,210, Mercedes-Benz including Maybach and smart at 99,592 and Audi at 94,597.

That total spans all three of NIO's brands. The NIO brand itself delivered 20,008, 21,174 and 21,318 vehicles in July, August and September, or 62,500 for the quarter and 57.2% of the company's 109,178 deliveries, which rose 25.4% from a year earlier. ONVO delivered 27,728 and Firefly 18,950. Their combined 46,678 is more than ten times the 4,428-vehicle lead over BMW in the figures Qin cited.

The latest monthly sales data shows the same mix. NIO's company-wide retail sales rose 4.4% to 37,231 in September from 35,655 in August, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). Firefly's domestic sales rose by 1,482 to 7,200 from 5,718, while the NIO brand's flagship ES8 slipped to 10,539 from 10,991 and the ES9 rose to 7,706 from 6,474. Domestic sales across the NIO brand's nine models were nearly flat, at 21,277 against 21,135.

Growth is also slowing from a high base. NIO's deliveries rose 71.0% from a year earlier in July, 14.5% in August and 7.7% in September, when the company delivered 37,408 vehicles. The ES8, which reached 150,000 cumulative deliveries on September 20, and the ES9, which passed 30,000 on September 23, made up most of the NIO brand's September volume.

ONVO slipped after July. The brand delivered 10,155 vehicles in July, 8,810 in August and 8,763 in September, and that month domestic sales of its L60 SUV fell to 3,178 from 3,462 while the larger L90 rose to 2,661 from 2,201. That still left ONVO as NIO's second-largest brand by volume in the quarter, ahead of Firefly.

The ONVO L90, whose domestic sales rose in September as the smaller L60 slipped (ONVO)

The NIO brand's share of the company has been shrinking. Over the first nine months it accounted for 181,988 of NIO's 300,301 deliveries, or 60.6%, against 57.2% in the third quarter alone. Firefly's nine-month deliveries of 48,122 were up 136.7% from a year earlier, a faster rate than the NIO brand's 63.4% growth.

The three brands sell at different price levels. Qin said the NIO brand's average price holds above 400,000 CNY (c. $59,506), while ONVO has delivered 200,000 vehicles in two years and Firefly has passed 80,000. NIO describes Firefly as its brand for high-end smart electric compact cars and ONVO as its brand for families.

Firefly's deliveries for the first nine months of 2026 rose 136.7% to 48,122 (Firefly)

BMW's own count gives a different order. BMW Group (ETR: BMW) reported 114,355 BMW and MINI deliveries in its China sales region in the third quarter, down 24.8% from a year earlier. That is above both NIO's 109,178 deliveries and the 111,638 Qin cited, though BMW's provisional delivery figures and the data NIO used are compiled differently and are not directly comparable. BMW's China sales region total for the first nine months was 376,128, down 21.8%.

Mercedes-Benz is behind NIO on either basis. Mercedes-Benz Group (ETR: MBG) said sales by its Mercedes-Benz Cars division in China fell 31% to 86,800 in the third quarter and 29% to 297,000 over nine months, with the quarter also down 12% from the second. The division's figures cover Mercedes-AMG, Mercedes-Maybach and Mercedes-Benz models and do not include a smart line, while NIO's comparison figure for Mercedes did. The GLC and E-Class made up almost two-thirds of its China sales.

The German brands are losing ground in a shrinking segment. China's luxury car retail sales fell 29% from a year earlier to 170,000 in September, up from 130,000 in July and 150,000 in August, according to CPCA. Luxury combustion-engine retail fell 41% while luxury new energy vehicle (NEV) retail fell 8%, and luxury brands took 11% of the overall retail market, 0.2 percentage points less than a year earlier.

Qin used the same market data to argue that battery-electric cars are taking over. He put pure-electric penetration of China's passenger car market at 47.3% in September, alongside CPCA's 67.0% retail penetration for all NEVs, and called both figures records. NIO's statement, also citing CPCA, said BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi together held close to 70% of China's premium market in 2018 and less than 40% so far this year.

NIO also published a regional breakdown. By its count, the company outsold all three German makers in 8 provinces and 40 cities in the quarter and at least one of them in 12 provinces and 94 cities. Its monthly tallies grew from 2 provinces and 8 cities in January to 4 and 30 in April and 7 and 36 in June, and the 40 cities range from Beijing and Shanghai to smaller markets such as Shantou, Yichang and Hegang.

Both German makers are leaning on new local products for the rest of the year. BMW said the China version of its new iX3 will begin rolling out in November. Mercedes said the electric GLC L, launched in July, is ramping up, and it launched the locally produced GLE L SUV in mid-September.

Qin said the path to taking NIO upmarket has not been easy, and the quarter he chose to highlight shows how much of that climb now runs through ONVO and Firefly. With the NIO brand holding at roughly 20,000 to 21,000 deliveries a month since July, the open question for the fourth quarter is whether NIO can hold the lead it claims on Wilson's data once BMW's China-version iX3 reaches showrooms.

Conversion rate: 1 USD = 6.7220 CNY as of October 16, 2026.