Many Weibo users have shared messages they recently received from Nio saying that the expected delivery date of their ET5 will be delayed due to Covid.

(Image credit: CnEVPost)

Nio's highly anticipated ET5 sedan is experiencing delivery delays due to Covid, as the outbreak continues to disrupt carmakers' production.

Multiple Weibo users have shared recent messages they received from Nio saying that the expected delivery date of their ET5 will be delayed due to Covid.

The text message, shared on October 29 by @吴颖碎碎念, a car blogger with 940,000 followers on Weibo, shows that a consumer who ordered an ET5 and was expected to get delivery in October will see delivery postponed to November.

Nio will offer Nio credits compensation to consumers whose vehicle deliveries are delayed, according to the blogger.

Another car blogger @电动星球蟹老板, who has 1.26 million followers on Weibo, also shared a text message with the same content on October 29.

The Nio ET5 was unveiled at Nio Day 2021 last December, and on the first day of the Chengdu auto show on August 26, the company's co-founder and president Qin Lihong said he expected monthly sales of the ET5 to surpass those of the gasoline-powered BMW 3 Series in China within a year.

The Nio ET5 is being produced at the company's second plant in the NeoPark in Hefei, Anhui province, and Qin said at the time that he was confident that the model's capacity would climb faster than other models.

William Li, Nio's founder, chairman and CEO, said during the second-quarter earnings call on September 7 that Nio is well prepared for ET5 deliveries of more than 10,000 in a single month in December, with a higher internal target.

The company started its first ET5 delivery on September 30, and it released figures on October 1 showing 221 units of the sedan were delivered in September.

But the Covid concerns that led to the early end of the Chengdu auto show appear to have intensified after China's National Day holiday earlier this month.

Six new asymptomatic infections were reported in Anhui province between 00-24 on October 30, and no new confirmed cases were reported, according to data released today by local health authorities.

But many neighborhoods went into a brief lockdown because of Covid concerns. A report in the People's Daily on Sunday evening showed that three medium-risk areas in Hefei were downgraded to low-risk, with the first batch of more than 190 neighborhoods in Yaohai district set to be lifted from lockdown.

The report did not mention how many medium-risk and high-risk areas there are in Hefei, or how many other neighborhoods are in temporary lockdown.

In another Weibo post on October 30, @吴颖碎碎念 implied that Nio has produced more than 2,660 ET5s, corresponding to pre-orders placed at 22:00 on Nio Day 2021.

The production schedule of Nio ET7 has accelerated and consumers who order now can get delivery in about 4-6 weeks, according to the blogger.

On October 21, CnEVPost reported that the wait times for both versions of the Nio ET7 become 6-8 weeks, a significant reduction from the previous 11-13 weeks.

CnEVPost's latest check shows that the Nio App displays the ET7's wait time as still 6-8 weeks.