Goals achieved: Employees at a Nio factory in Hefei, China. The company has completed the target of building 1,000 power swap stations in 2023. — AFP
SHANGHAI: Chinese electric carmaker Nio Inc has unveiled a flagship sedan at its annual customer event on Saturday, with the vehicle set to take on Porsche AG’s Panamera series and Mercedes-Benz Group AG’s luxury S range.
The four-seater executive sedan dubbed ET9 is expected to start delivery in the first quarter of 2025, with an estimated starting price at around 800,000 yuan (US$112,000). It is more expensive than Tesla Inc’s Model S, which starts at 698,900 yuan in China.
The model will be equipped with Nio’s self-developed five-nanometer automotive-grade chip and large cylindrical battery cells, said the company’s founder and chief executive officer William Li at Nio Day, the carmaker’s annual event.
It will also be compatible for a 900 Voltage ultra-fast charging platform that could extend its range by 255 kilometers in five minutes.
“Integrated with over 100 NIO full-stack technologies, NIO ET9 reaches a new height of innovation and technological development,” Li said at the event, held this year in Xi’an, the northern Chinese city famous for its Terracotta Warriors.
As part of a company strategy to build brand loyalty, Nio launches its major products and outlines strategy at “Nio Day” – a year-end gathering for corporate partners, customers and media.
For the first event, in 2017, the company paid for flights and luxury hotels for everyone who had ordered a vehicle in the year before production started. R&B star Bruno Mars headlined the 2018 event.
Nio also presented its latest generation of Nio Power Swap stations, a platform that can quickly replace a depleted battery with a re-charged one in as soon as three minutes.
The newest generation will be compatible with multiple brands and can reduce the overall swapping time by 22%, the company said.
It has completed the target of building 1,000 power swap stations in 2023, and pledged to establish another 1,000 stations in the next year, plus 20,000 chargers, as the company keeps investing in infrastructure to help lessen customers’ range anxiety.
Once considered one of the brightest rising stars in China’s electric vehicle (EV) market, Nio has been falling badly short of its sales targets and continues to post losses – forcing it to consider further job cuts after last month eliminating at least 10% of its workforce.
Earlier this week, it signed a deal for a US$2.2bil cash injection from Abu Dhabi-backed fund CYVN Holdings LLC. Upon completion, CYVN will own a 20.1% stake in Nio and be entitled to nominate two board directors.
The company’s gross margin dropped to as low as 1% in the second quarter before recovering to 8% in the three months through Sept 30. — Bloomberg
