NIO Stock Rises Premarket: EV Maker Pulls In NBA Icon Yao Ming Ahead Of New ES9 SUV Launch

• The EV maker appointed NBA legend Yao Ming as its chief experience officer for its new ES9 flagship SUV.
• The ES9 entered pre-sales in April with a starting price of 528,000 yuan ($77,800).
• The ES9 is the first vehicle equipped with Nio’s updated Nio World Model smart-driving platform.

U.S.-listed shares of Nio Inc. (NIO) climbed nearly 1% in premarket trading on Wednesday after the Chinese EV maker unveiled NBA legend Yao Ming as the face of its new ES9 flagship SUV just hours before the model’s official launch.

Nio’s U.S.-listed stock rose over 1% on Tuesday, but shares are on track to record their worst month since November. 

Nio Brings In Yao Ming For ES9 Push

Nio on Wednesday said it has appointed Yao Ming as the chief experience officer for the ES9, marking one of the company’s biggest celebrity partnerships in recent years. The automaker said Yao’s influence extends beyond basketball and called him a symbol of “Chinese height” and a bridge between Eastern and Western cultures, citing his global career and public image, CnEVPost noted.

The former Houston Rockets superstar became the first international player selected first overall in the NBA Draft and later emerged as an eight-time NBA All-Star and Hall of Famer. The announcement came hours before the ES9’s official launch event scheduled for Wednesday evening in Beijing.

ES9 Anchors Nio’s Premium Market Strategy

The ES9 represents one of Nio’s most important vehicle launches in recent years as the company attempts to boost its position in China’s premium SUV segment amid ongoing pricing pressure and softer consumer demand across the broader auto market. The executive SUV entered pre-sales in April with a starting price of 528,000 yuan ($77,800), including the battery pack. 

Nio is currently offering limited-time incentives, allowing buyers to use a 5,000 yuan deposit to offset 10,000 yuan from the final vehicle purchase price.Customers will be able to formally lock in orders after Wednesday night’s launch event, at which point the promotional offer expires.

CEO William Li recently said that Nio expects deliveries in May and June to improve steadily, driven largely by the ES9 launch alongside the recently introduced Onvo L80. Nio has apparently already built an initial 6,000-unit ES9 inventory ahead of the launch, with vehicles reportedly arriving at showrooms across China in preparation for rapid deliveries.

Nio AI Driving Tech Takes Center Stage

Nio is heavily hyping up the ES9’s tech stack as part of its launch campaign. The SUV is the first vehicle equipped with the latest version of Nio World Model, or NWM, the company’s updated smart-driving assistance platform.

According to Nio, the new system eliminates the traditional “sampled trajectory” method commonly used in driver-assistance software and instead allows the system to directly control steering, braking and acceleration inputs. The company said that the approach improves driving smoothness and control precision.

Nio also said that the platform uses a three-layer training framework that combines a world model, supervised fine-tuning and closed-loop reinforcement learning. The software additionally includes overhead road-sign recognition without relying on high-definition maps, improving lane-selection accuracy in more complex road environments.

The ES9 is also equipped with Nio’s in-house developed 5-nanometer Shenji NX9031 driver-assistance chip and the company’s SkyRide active suspension system.

Nio Refocuses On China Growth

The ES9 launch also comes as Nio pivots back toward domestic growth, while slowing the pace of its overseas expansion strategy. Li recently said that the company would become more cautious about overseas investments and rely more heavily on local distribution partnerships outside China.

Nio has already begun shifting away from direct sales operations in several European markets, including Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden, as part of a broader move toward a lighter operating structure. Instead, the EV maker now sees larger growth opportunities within China itself, particularly across lower-tier regional markets.

The pivot comes after Nio’s financial performance has recently improved. The company reported its second straight quarter of non-GAAP profitability in the first quarter of 2026, with revenue surging 112% from the previous year to 25.53 billion yuan and adjusted operating profit hitting 66.8 million yuan. Nio attributed much of the improvement to strong demand for higher-margin premium SUVs, particularly the ES8 lineup. 

How Do Retail Traders Feel About NIO?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for NIO was ‘extremely bullish’ amid a 176% jump in 24-hour message volumes.

One user said, “Yao Ming is the best basketball player in china. Nio is the best ev player in china too. Perfect match”

Another user said, “$NIO You can't lose if you buy and hold at these bargain prices. The institutes are doing it, and they are the ones causing the good pricing.”

U.S.-listed shares of Nio have risen 38% over the past year.

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.

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