Firefly Sets October Delivery Record, Nears 100,000 Milestone

NIO’s small electric car brand posts 7,738 monthly sales as a larger battery option targets new buyers and supports further growth 

Firefly, the small electric vehicle brand under NIO, delivered a record 7,738 vehicles in October, up 30.89% from 5,912 a year earlier and 5.61% from the previous record of 7,327 set in September. 

Firefly accounted for 22.6% of NIO’s 34,246 October deliveries, up from about 19.6% in September and the highest share since the brand began deliveries in April 2025. Before September, its share had never exceeded 17.2%, reached in March. 

October was the third month in which Firefly delivered more than 7,000 vehicles, after 7,084 in December 2025 and 7,327 in September. 

Firefly has delivered 55,860 vehicles in the first ten months of 2026, more than double the 26,242 it delivered from its April 2025 launch through October last year, when it had been on sale for only seven of those months. That is already well above its 2025 total of 39,414 vehicles. 

Firefly’s cumulative deliveries reached 95,274 at the end of October. Firefly is now 4,726 deliveries short of 100,000, a goal set by Firefly President Daniel Jin. Jin first set the target in September 2025, when he said the brand was aiming for 100,000 customers “by this time next year”. 

Jin told reporters on October 22 that Firefly would reach 100,000 in November. Jin said he did not expect deliveries to fall or plateau in the final months of the year. “It definitely won’t turn downward, and it shouldn’t be flat either, so most likely it will keep climbing,” he said. 

“In the coming months, everyone will see that Firefly’s sales can actually exceed 7,000,” he added. “As for where we finish the year, let’s wait and see. There should be a small surprise for everyone.” 

Jin said orders locked in by customers had exceeded deliveries in almost every month this year and that Firefly still had a sizable order backlog. The plant can build 10,000 to 11,000 vehicles a month when running at full efficiency, he said, and a battery supply bottleneck would be fully resolved by the end of October, according to the account. 

“In a year and a half on the market, there’s basically no one whose volume and price have both risen,” Jin said. The model’s average transaction price has risen by 7,000 yuan ($1,100). Firefly’s share of China’s market for cars priced above 100K yuan ($15K) has climbed from 27% in January to 46%. 

NIO founder, chairman and CEO William Li previously said the model had captured 74% of the premium small-car market. Jin also showed a list of the cities where Firefly sells best. When consumers shop for a car priced above 100K yuan ($15K), he said, Firefly is “bound to be in their shopping cart.” 

Jin acknowledged that Firefly faces very different market conditions at home and abroad. In China, part of the brand’s success comes from its association with NIO, which has spent 12 years establishing itself as a premium automaker. 

“When my car is sold in a NIO showroom, it naturally benefits from that premium positioning, and customers recognize it,” he said. Overseas, the situation is different. Firefly has yet to establish comparable brand awareness or reputation, making its Chinese-market pricing difficult to justify to foreign customers. 

“It is difficult for overseas consumers to accept such a premium from an unfamiliar Chinese brand,” Jin said. He illustrated the difference with a comparison: “In China, we are 80% to 100% more expensive than a certain rival. Overseas, even a 40% premium makes people ask, ‘Why is this so expensive?’ They don’t understand.” 

Firefly launched a larger battery option on October 23, offering a 60-kilowatt-hour ternary lithium pack alongside its standard 42-kilowatt-hour lithium iron phosphate battery. 

The larger pack raises the car’s range to 560 kilometers (348 miles) from 420 kilometers (261 miles) on China’s CLTC test cycle. Acceleration and curb weight are unchanged, the company said. 

Jin said the larger pack was meant to win new buyers rather than replace the 42-kilowatt-hour version. About 80% of 42-kilowatt-hour owners bought the car as a second household vehicle, the remaining 20% rely on it as their household’s only car. he said. 

“This isn’t because the 42 has range anxiety, but because I need to get new customers,” Jin said. With a rated driving range of 560 km, the 60-kWh version is intended to attract more of that second group, including drivers who regularly travel between Suzhou, Changzhou, Changshu and Shanghai. 

“Both the 42-kWh and 60-kWh versions offer freedom, but in different ways. We call the 42-kWh version ‘City Freedom’ and the 60-kWh version ‘Long-Distance Freedom,’ Jin said. The goal is to expand the overall customer base and shift the ratio of buyers purchasing Firefly as a second car versus their first or only car from roughly 8:2 to 7:3. 

NIO Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer William Li told analysts on the company’s second-quarter earnings call in September that Firefly will “keep this single model strategy,” adding special editions and technology upgrades rather than new models. “So for Firefly, it’s a bit like taking the iPhone approach where it will stay in this same product, but with new additions,” Li said on the call.