Nio has pulled the curtain on the ET7, an electric sedan with which the Chinese want to shake up the established order. And no, they are not only talking about Tesla.
The Nio ET7 can be recognized at a glance as a car with which the Tesla Model S has been targeted. A sleek, electrically powered four-door with a sloping roofline. Especially the recessed door handles and the design of the interior seem to come straight from Silicon Valley. However, the dimensions tell a slightly different story; With a length of almost 5.1 meters, the ET7 is still just 13 cm longer than a Model S and also 2 cm wider.
Nio founder William Li also likes to talk about differences with Tesla. According to him, the ET7 should not be seen as a competitor of Tesla. He sets according to Sina.com prefer the established order from Germany; BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz. With a price starting from € 56,600 in China, the ET7 is indeed somewhat in between the Model 3 and Model S. Li would have described Tesla as ‘the Volkswagen among EV builders’, where he prefers to share his Nio with premium brands.
Still, even as a basic version, the ET7 should make the potential Tesla Model S buyer in China doubt. For a considerable amount of money less, the ET7 promises to pamper you well. The two electric motors, front and rear, together deliver 684 hp and thus the ET7 sprints from a standstill to 100 km / h in 3.9 seconds. Even more impressive is the range. According to the somewhat optimistic NEDC cycle, this is at least 500 km, if you have the standard 70 kWh battery pack on board. If you sign for 100 kWh, you will get 700 km. With the largest package, which has a capacity of no less than 150 kWh, you can even get a distance of at least 1,000 km according to that cycle.
Not only the performance is promising. The interior also looks good at first glance. A 12.8-inch amo LED display is at the heart of the operation, accompanied by a 10.2-inch digital instrumentation behind the wheel. By default, you seat on nappa leather and the interior is decorated with wood from ‘tropical trees’. If you would like to convert the ET7 into a moving concert hall, you can use the 1,000 Watt sound system consisting of 23 speakers. The ET7 is also smart; with an extensive lidar system with 33 sensors, the car is ready for ‘fully autonomous driving’, according to Nio.
All in all, it looks very promising. Chinese can experience it by 2022. It remains to be seen whether we can also go on the road here in the Netherlands with the ET7. In principle, the Chinese intend to come this way this year.