Chinese EV firm Nio has revealed its first saloon car, the ET7, which is due to go on sale in the country in 2022 with a range of more than 600 miles and offering autonomous driving features.
The firm, founded by Chinese tech entrepreneur Williams Li, currently offers a range of electric SUVs and crossovers aimed at the fast-growing Chinese premium market. It also has aspirations to eventually expand globally, including to the UK. While Nio, which floated on the New York Stock Exchange, has struggled for funding, it secured a major investment last year and has experienced a surge in sales in China. The firm sold 36,721 vehicles last year, a 111 per cent year-on-year increase.
As with its existing models the new Tesla Model S rival, revealed at the firm’s annual Nio Day event, is built on a lightweight steel and aluminium chassis, and is powered by two electric motors.
A front-mounted permanent magnet motor produces 241bhp, with an induction motor on the rear axle offering 402bhp. The two units have a maximum combined output of 644bhp, and also offers 627lb ft of torque. That gives the ET7 a 0-62mph time of 3.9 seconds.
Nio says more a more efficient electric drive system, lightweight chassis and a drag coefficient of 0.23Cd have helped to improve the range offered from the silicon carbide batteries.
The ET7 will be offered with three battery sizes. The entry level 70kWh unit offers a 310-mile range, with a 100kWh version offering 435 miles. The top 150kWh battery has a claimed range of more than 621 miles. All the figures are calculated using the Chinese NEDC system. The machine features Nio’s battery swap technology, allowing drivers to switch battery packs at special stations to avoid charging times.
Nio says the ET7 also features a range of advanced driver assistance features that will enable it to offer autonomous driving. The system uses 33 high-performance sensing units, which it says are built into the body of the car for optimum design, with its autonomous systems powered by an advanced computer system capable of generating 8GB of data per second.
The ET7 is 5098mm long, 1987mm wide and 1505mm high, with a wheelbase of 3060mm. As with existing Nio models, the interior dashboard is dominated by a large touchscreen – 12.8in in this case – which can be operated by Nio’s Nomi in-car AI system. It also features a 23-speaker sound system as standard.
The ET7 is due to launch in China early in 2022, with a starting price of around £51,000, although this can be reduced by opting to pay for batteries through a subscription service. While 19 of the ET7’s driver assistance features will be standard, accessing the full AD as a Service feature will require a monthly subscription of around £80.
READ MORE
Chinese EV firm Nio secures major funding boost
Join the debate
Add your comment
Some interesting cars starting to roll out of China now. This looks a lot like a Tesla S but a bit more interesting stylistically.
If they could sell it here for less than £75k, would make that electric Jag XJ's task even harder.
that will be nearer to £100k once the taxes and changes for Euro regs are added, then to have to pay another grand a year, year in year out to have what is essence is added to other cars as a package, is a little disgusting, and as for you saying that would make the XJ jags task harder - LOL, Nah, I dont think so, the Jag will be a better car all round, and i cant see NIO getting to the UK anytime soon, they are struggling to supply their own country and making just 36k units a year over a number of models.So, by the time that gets here, the third Gen XJ EV will probably be about to launch... (thats humour)
Batttery tech and availability seem to be the problem,surely we should be more on top of it by now?
Hopefully the new battery centre planned for Blyth will help the UK EV industry, and costs of EV cars in general here. Desirable EV'S are still a bit too expensive for most
If the UK tech is as bad as logging into Autocar, I understand why the Chinese are winning (it has taken me 20 minutes, including using my correct login).
It is not because the Chinese are so good (and they are good at this tech), but because we are so bad. We have the power to compete, but we don't have the government, investors, or infrastructure to compete.
I welcome the best products, whereever they come from, and this looks good.
Sorry you talk an absolute load of tripe - The UK is building a massive Giga Factory, and will be one of two to come onstream in the next year-18 months, one from JLR, we also have some of the best engineers in the world for this style of tech, and have done for years.As for you incapability to log onto a website, well, thats shows more about you and you choice of IP Provider than Autocar, as much as they have issues and stupid decisions with their site, I have never in all the years of reading this online not been able to get in first time everytime.Perhaps you should get a computer that was not made in the 1990's.... We have in the UK Technology companies that are the best in the world, one of which is ARM in Cambridge, they are market leaders in their business, and they are not the only ones, instead of putting down the British businesses, why not actually do some research and see that we are good in many area's.