The Chinese NIO will soon present its first sedan. It is not yet known exactly what this new model will be called, but the promised battery capacity is in any case already impressive.
In a teaser image, NIO only shows the silhouette of the sedan, with the text ‘ready for tomorrow’ and the date on which the public will see the model for the first time. So a name is still missing. NIO reveals it to him on January 9 during the NIO Day event. The silhouette of the car in the image appears to have some similarities with that of the ET Concept, which the brand showed in Shanghai last year. The sedan appears to be taking on a shape similar to that of the Tesla Model S and Audi A7. NIO is still keeping the final specifications under wraps, but confirms that the sedan will receive a 150 kWh battery pack that can be exchanged at designated exchange stations. In addition, the model has ‘the latest technologies in the field of autonomous driving’.
That 150 kWh battery pack is quite substantial. Tesla offers a maximum capacity of 100 kWh in the Model S. It is considerably more than what NIO currently offers itself: the current top model ES8 also does not exceed 100 kWh. What that large battery capacity will do exactly with the range is as yet unclear. It is not inconceivable that the Chinese sedan will approach close to 700 kilometers, a value that Mercedes-Benz also aims for with the EQS.
European ambition
NIO experienced solid growth in the past year. The company delivered 43,728 cars in 2020, a growth of 112.6 percent compared to 2020. In total, NIO has now delivered 75,641 units of the ES8, ES6 and EC6 models. That may not seem like much, but the ball only really started to roll from 2019 at NIO, which was founded in 2017. The sales market is not limited to China alone. NIO intends to enter the European market in the second half of this year. Details about this are not yet known, but January 9th may become clearer.