Data published on Sunday by Dutch automotive association BOVAG revealed that sales of the Chinese premium brand Nio collapsed to just three units in January, a 78.6% plunge from a year ago.
The Shanghai-based group — including both the Nio and Firefly brands — registered 17 units last month, with three of them being from its main marque.
In January 2025, the Nio brand had registered 14 vehicles.
The figures also represented a sequentiall 96.5% drop from December, when 85 Nio vehicles were registered — the company’s strongest monthly result since it entered the Netherlands in late 2022.
Portfolio
The three units registered in January were ES8 SUVs — named EL8 in Europe due to a trademark with Audi.
The model is priced from €78,900 ($93,600) if opting for Nio‘s Battery as a Service (BaaS), which lets customers use the brand’s battery swap stations. With the battery included, the price goes up €12,000 ($14,200).
According to Nio‘s chargemap in Europe, owners have eight battery swap stations available in the Netherlands, in a total of 61 across the continent.
In the Netherlands, Nio‘s portfolio also includes the ET5 sedan, the ET5 Touring station wagon and the entry-level EL6 SUV (‘ES6’ in China).
Last year, Nio sold 36 EL6s, of which 26 were registered in December alone.
Additionally, it recorded 114 units of the ET5 and ET5 Touring models, with BOVAG data not distinguishing between the two iterations.
However, in January, no units of these models were registered in the Netherlands
According to the company’s Dutch website, it is offering “extra benefits on your BaaS subscription, a purchase discount, highly competitive financing options — or a combination of all three” on purchases of any of the three models up until March 31.
Without specifying the offers, Nio directs customers to “get in touch with our specialists.”
Throughout 2025, Nio has struggled to clear its inventory of the four models in Europe.
These models were built in 2023 and 2024, under its NT 2.0 platform. In the meantime, Nio has already moved on to its third-generation platform in China.
The ET5, ET5 Touring, and EL6/ES6 models were refreshed in their domestic market last May and are expected to receive further upgrades next year.
Late last year, the company launched the new EL8/ES8 in China, which quickly became its best-selling model in the fourth quarter.
In January, the ES8 accounted for nearly 85% of the premium brand’s deliveries.
EV Sales Decline
Electric vehicle registrations fell 35.4% to 7,165 units in the Dutch market in January.
The market share for battery-electric vehicles (BEV) dropped nearly ten percentage points year-over-year, from 34% to 25%. Hybrids represented 61% of new vehicle purchases.
The slowdown in EV adoption follows recent policy changes in the Netherlands, including the end of the tax exemption for zero-emission (ZEV) passenger cars and an increase in the “bijtelling” rate for leased EVs.
The best-selling models in the electric segment were SUVs priced between €30,000 and €40,000 ($35,600–$47,500).
The Kia EV3 ranked first, followed by the Tesla Model Y and the Volvo EX30.
Two compact city cars — the Renault 5 and the Hyundai Inster — rounded out the top five.
