Source: NIO

NIO Inc. (NYSE: NIO, HKG: 9866, SGX: NIO) opened its first showroom in the Americas on March 26, 2026, inaugurating a NIO House in San José, Costa Rica, in partnership with Horizontes Cielo Azul — the country's largest electric vehicle distributor.

The opening marks NIO's debut in the Western Hemisphere and sets Costa Rica apart as the first overseas market in which the company has deployed all three of its brands simultaneously.

The store is the first overseas NIO location to put all three brands — NIO, Onvo, and Firefly — under one roof, making Costa Rica the company's first overseas market entered with a three-brand strategy. Located at Combai Mercado Urbano in the Escazu canton, the space serves as a combined retail and experience centre.

Local consumers can now experience and purchase the NIO ET5 Touring, EL6, and EL8, alongside the Onvo L60 and Firefly. The EL6 and EL8 correspond to the ES6 and ES8 in the Chinese market respectively. The Onvo L90 large SUV is scheduled to begin pre-sales at the annual EXPOMOVIL auto show on April 16.

Source: NIO

NIO first announced its intention to enter Costa Rica in August 2025, alongside Singapore and Uzbekistan. The partnership with Horizontes Cielo Azul Movilidad marks NIO's first venture into the Americas, with the distributor holding an established track record of taking Chinese automotive brands from market entry to local leadership in Costa Rica.

NIO has shifted to the national general distributor model over the past few years, moving away from the asset-heavy direct sales approach used in its early overseas markets. NIO officially entered the international market in October 2021 with Norway, subsequently adding Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden through direct sales before pivoting to partners for newer markets.

Costa Rica is a deliberate choice for a first Americas foothold. The country recorded a 15.4% pure-BEV share of new car sales in 2024 — the highest in the Americas for the third consecutive year, driven by import duty exemptions and consumption tax relief that brought Chinese-built EVs level with combustion alternatives on price. Chinese brands account for roughly 70% of EVs in circulation in the country.

Source: NIO

By the end of 2025, NIO was present across 20 markets including China. CEO William Li stated in an internal letter at the start of 2026 that the company plans to be in 40 countries and regions by year-end, using Firefly as its pioneering brand for global market entry.

That sequencing is explicit company policy. During NIO's Q3 2025 earnings call, management confirmed it is switching from a direct-sales model to a partnership-based approach globally, with Firefly leading the way. Costa Rica is the first market outside China where NIO, Onvo, and Firefly are all simultaneously available.

NIO's global push is backed by its strongest operating results to date. For the full year 2025, NIO delivered 326,028 vehicles across all three brands, up 46.9% year-on-year, and reported its first-ever quarterly net profit in Q4 2025. Q1 2026 delivery guidance projects 80,000 to 83,000 units — roughly double the same period a year earlier.

Source: NIO

The Costa Rica opening follows a sequence of international firsts in the weeks prior. Firefly launched in Thailand on March 5, 2026, its second right-hand-drive market after Singapore in February 2026. Australia and New Zealand are confirmed for the second half of 2026.

The Costa Rica market carries its own near-term complications. By mid-2025, tax exemptions were partially rolled back — a 7.5% selective consumption tax came into effect alongside other charges, producing a cumulative price increase of around 10% for buyers. NIO's premium lineup sits far above the affordable Chinese mass-market models that made Costa Rica an EV adoption outlier, making the country as much a brand-building exercise as a volume opportunity — and an early indicator of how much runway the distributor-led model has in markets where the infrastructure for premium EVs is still forming.