Chinese electric vehicle maker NIO unveiled its ET7 flagship sedan model, designed to compete with the offerings from domestic rival XPeng and Tesla.
At the company’s annual “NIO Day” in the western city of Chengdu, Chief Executive William Li said the luxury ET7 sedan, costing between $69,000 and $81,000 depending on the configuration. The car will be available in early 2022.
The ET7 will be offered with three battery sizes. The entry level 70kWh unit offers a 310-mile (500 km) range, with a 100kWh version offering 435 miles (700 km). The top 150kWh battery has a claimed range of more than 621 miles (1,000 km). All the figures are calculated using the Chinese NEDC system.
The NIO ET7 sedan can work with the company’s new autonomous driving system that features camera resolution of 8 megapixels and Nvidia processing chips that offer processing power greater than that of seven Tesla full self-driving computers, Li claimed. The autonomous driving system costs 680 yuan a month, Li said.
NIO’s new sedan also features a laminated all-glass roof, heated seats in both rows and 23 speakers.
Keeping the ET7 charged won’t take long. NIO announced on Saturday that it is upgrading its battery swap stations as well. Rather than wait to infuse depleted cells with electricity, NIO’s automated service stations will simply swap out the entire pack with a fresh one. The company figures each station will be able to accommodate up to 312 battery swaps per day with the 13 packs each keeps on hand. NIO hopes to have 500 of these stations in operation by the end of 2021.
NIO also debuted several new technologies, including a more powerful 150 kilowatt-hour battery pack—an improvement on the 100 kWh battery pack the company launched in November—which will give NIO’s vehicles a claimed range of more than 621 miles.
