Shanghai (ZXZC)- NIO announced on Friday its new vehicle deliveries reached 9,985 units in March 2022, jumping 37.6% year on year.

In the first quarter of 2022, NIO delivered 25,768 vehicles in total, representing a 28.5% year-over-year growth and gaining growth for the eighth consecutive quarter.

As of March 31, 2022, NIO's cumulative deliveries amounted to 192,838 vehicles.

Photo credit: NIO

Starting from this year, NIO plans to upgrade the smart hardware of the three existing models, namely, the ES8, the ES6, and the EC6 (collectively called “886”), and provide users with after-sale upgrade services correspondingly, William Bin Li, chairman and CEO of NIO, said last week at a quarterly earnings call. Those upgrades may come with proper price adjustments. However, before that, the company will not raise prices of current products.

ET7; photo credit: NIO

The scale delivery of the ET7, NIO's fourth production model, officially began on March 28. The model shares the production lines with the "886" models at NIO's first factory, which also needs to prepare for the production of the ES7, said Mr. Li. Thus, the ramp-up progress of the ET7 is probably going to be a little bit slower compared with that of the ET5, which will be manufactured at a separate new factory.

The startup plans to launch its sixth mass-produced model, the ES7, at the end of May this year, according to Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of NIO. The full-sized five-seater SUV is to vie with the China-made BMW X5L. Li Bin said the ES7 would be a new sales driver of NIO rather than affecting the sales of current “886” models.