Recently, NIO co-founder and president Qin Lihong said recently that NIO’s third production car, the NIO ES3, will begin mass delivery in the third or fourth quarter of 2020, it or will be officially released in 2019, the new car is positioned in a 5-seat compact SUV, to compete with the Audi Q3 or BYD Tang EV after launch.

In addition, he also said that NIO ES3 will be still based on NIO’s first-gen SUV platform. NIO insists on doing high-end products and will not enter the market segment of 100,000-200,000 yuan (~US$13,998 – US$27,996). In other words, the price of the third SUV will be higher than 200,000 yuan (~US$27,996).

According to the naming rules of the previous two production SUV models and the existing trademark registration, the third car of NIO will be named ES3. From the perspective of the numerical size of the naming, the overall size of the car is expected to be between the traditional mainstream A-class to B-class SUV.



The new car was finished registeration.



From the perspective of market positioning, the car is positioned as a compact 5-seat family SUV, which will be similar to the new generation of BYD Tang EV, the current selling price of BYD Tang EV ranges from 259,900 to 359,900 yuan after subsidy.

BYD Tang EV

Judging from the range of the NIO ES6, the NEDC range of ES3 or will exceed 500km.

The first two models of NIO ES8 and ES6 were produced by JAC Motors, and from ES3, the follow-up models of NIO are expected to be put into production at the self-built factory. According to the internal data of NIO, the ES3 model is expected to sell 80,000 units in 2020, and will increase to 150,000 units in 2021, accounting for 1/3 of the company’s total sales volume, becoming the most popular product of NIO.