Nio's William Li returns to Europe to reassure owners, with Onvo debut eyed for 2028-2029

Nio founder and CEO William Li is on his first European trip since November 2025, sitting down with local owners, business partners and staff as the Chinese EV maker reworks how it runs the region. The company has been moving away from a purely direct-sales setup toward greater use of local distributors, and Li used the visit to argue that the overhaul reflects deliberate restructuring rather than withdrawal.

At a Tuesday media briefing, Nio said its European operating changes are not an exit and that it will keep running directly in selected markets while adding distributor partnerships. It pledged continued after-sales service, warranty coverage, parts and connected services, and said feedback from European users, partners and local teams will now feed into product definition and business decisions earlier. International plans may unfold at a different pace than first expected, but the company will prioritize market fit and a sustainable business case over expansion speed. Li also stressed Nio's identity as a "User Enterprise" as central to its overseas approach.

On the product front, Nio confirmed that its family-oriented Onvo brand will go global, targeting a European arrival in 2028-2029 — a firmer timeline than the non-committal evaluation offered in May. Opportunities in Europe for the Nio and Firefly brands are still being weighed. Distributor tie-ups are already widening the footprint: the first Greek Nio House opened in Athens in June with local partner Motodynamics.

Elsewhere on the trip, Li delivered a keynote at World Trade and Tech Day at the WTO's Geneva headquarters on September 14, calling for harmonized testing methods and mutual recognition of results to lower the cost of deploying technologies like smart driving abroad. He argued automakers should build global compliance into product development from the start, and that widely trusted smart-driving tech could improve mobility for billions well beyond the car itself.