“Golden Era” of Chinese Auto Industry Probably Over, NIO CEO Says

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China’s auto industry grew like gangbusters for several years, and its electric vehicle industry did the same in the past few years. However, the era of hyper-fast growth may well be over in the country’s auto industry. That’s not a grumpy outsider saying so, but the CEO of NIO, a fully electric Chinese auto company that was growing rapidly until … well, even last month its sales grew 23% year over year. The company seems to be warning, though, that growth is getting harder and harder and people should be prepared for a stagnant or even declining Chinese auto industry.

Funny enough, this comes right as the company is launching its next model, the ES9, which seems to be a hit.

NIO CEO William ​Li notes that the Chinese auto industry’s “golden era” is probably over. This follows the industry seeing declining domestic sales for the seventh straight month. There’s a reason so many Chinese automakers are working hard to sell more and more cars abroad….

Li noted that, nonetheless, NIO is focused on its domestic market. Part of that is because they see more challenges for full-electric cars abroad than for plugin hybrids, and NIO doesn’t sell any hybrids, only full electrics.

Auto sales in China are not expected to grow this year compared to last, and plugin vehicles are not expected to see strong growth, but plugins are still expected to grow. (Which, yes, means non-plugins are expected to drop.)

NIO itself is surely going to see sales growth in 2026, especially if the ES9 is as big of a hit as it looks to be.