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Chinese electric automaker Nio is gaining some ground in its home market.

The automaker, which went public on the NASDAQ on September 12th, is on pace to sell more than 10,000 examples of its ES8 fully-electric SUV before the end of 2018. It delivered an impressive 3,268 examples of the seven-passenger SUV in Q3 of this year, beating its own estimates of 2,900-3,000 vehicles by a considerable margin. The company said it moved 1,766 ES8s in September 2018 alone.

Nio was on fire in Q3, but the fledgling automaker is lowering expectations for Q4. It’s expecting deliveries for the final fiscal quarter of 2018 to take a hit as it undergoes maintenance at a production facility. China’s National Day holiday, which runs for the first seven days of October, will also force a decline in Q4 production.

“Growing our monthly deliveries from 381 in July to 1,766 in September demonstrates our steady production ramp, strong demand from users and the initial acceptance of NIO as a premium brand,” NIO founder and CEO William Li said in a statement.

“While the planned production transition will slow our deliveries for October, it paves the way for accelerated production ramp in the future and we remain on track to achieve our delivery goal of 10,000 ES8s for the second half of 2018,” added Nio CFO Louis Hsieh.

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The ES8 has two electric motors that have a combined output of 644 hp and 620 lb-ft of torque. A 70 kWh battery pack provides an estimated range of around 220 miles (or 354 km) on the NEDC cycle and can be charged from flat to full in one hour using a DC fast charger. Prices start at a competitive 448,000 RMB ($69,790 USD), but Nio also sold a well-equipped ‘Founders Edition’ that included all options and added about $16,00 onto the vehicle’s asking price.

While Nio gains ground in China, Tesla is taking a serious look at producing cars there. Reports surfaced recently indicating that the American electric vehicle maker is preparing to build a manufacturing site in Shanghai, which would serve as its first factory outside of its home market.

While there are currently no official plans to sell the ES8 in the United States, it’s understood that Nio hopes to one day expand to the US and sell its vehicles here. An SUV like the ES8 would be well-suited to the US consumers’ tastes, though – especially if it were priced at $70,000 or so like it is in China.

[Source: NASDAQ]