Nio knows how to throw a party. On January 9th, the company held Nio Day in Chengdu, China, the annual event celebrating the company, its friends, and users. This year, users voted for the venue and planned and executed the event with a theme of “Always Forward,” with performances by famous music composer Shi Lei Chang, and leading Chinese musician, Wang Feng.

The company used the occasion to announce an impressive array of new products and technologies. Among them were the ET7, its first flagship sedan; a 150-kWh battery pack; Power Swap 2.0, the second-generation power swapping station; and NAD (Nio autonomous driving) technology.

For those that have not been following Nio’s quick rise in the new-mobility space, a brief history.

Founded in November 2014, it set out on a mission to offer high-performance smart electric vehicles and the best user enterprise. To do this, it established R&D centers and manufacturing facilities in Shanghai, Hefei, Beijing, San Jose, Munich, and Oxford—and a nationwide user service network in China.

In 2015, Nio’s Formula E team won the inaugural FIA Formula E Drivers’ Championship. In 2016, the company launched the EP9, one of the world’s fastest electric vehicles. In 2017, it unveiled the EVE, an autonomous electric concept car.

Production vehicles didn’t come until 2018, when the company began deliveries of its high-volume vehicle, the ES8 seven-seater flagship SUV in China, and then went public on NYSE. In 2019, it launched the ES6 five-seater SUV. In 2020, Nio began deliveries of an “all-new” ES8; established its headquarters in Hefei; and launched the EC6, the “coupe” version of the ES6 SUV. Last year’s cumulative deliveries reached 75,641 units. Now, the ET7 has been officially launched.

The “Nio community is growing, while the love and trust from our users have always been the driving force behind our continued progress,” said William Li, Founder, Chairman, and CEO. “The ET7 launched at this Nio Day is a brand new start for smart electric vehicles. We will continuously invest in products and technologies, and speed up the development of our service network, thereby bringing a better experience of smart electric vehicles to users.”

 

ET7 first ‘autonomous driving’ Nio

Nio calls its ET7 its “first autonomous driving model,” pitching the car as having over 100 standard comfort, safety, and smart features. Other headliners are its NEDC range of over 1000 km with the new 150-kWh battery and over 1000 TOPS computing power with help from Nvidia.

On the automated driving front, the ET7’s NAD technology is intended to bring safer and more relaxing autonomous driving, gradually covering use cases such as on expressways, urban, parking, and battery swapping. Based on the company’s Aquila “super” sensing system and Adam supercomputer, the NAD full-stack autonomous driving capability includes perception algorithms, localization, control strategies, and platform software.

The Aquila sensing suite features 33 high-performance sensing units including 11 8-MP high-resolution cameras, 1 ultra-long-range high-resolution LiDAR, 5 millimeter-wave radars, 12 ultrasonic sensors, 2 high-precision positioning units, as well as V2X (vehicle-to-everything) communication. The goal of designers was to integrate the sensors “naturally” into the ET7’s body. The Aquila suite can generate 8 GB of data per second.

The Adam supercomputer features 4 Nvidia Drive Orin SoCs (systems-on-a-chip) with a total computing power of 1016 TOPS (trillion operations per second).

“Autonomy and electrification are the key forces transforming the automotive industry,” said Jensen Huang, Nvidia Founder and CEO. “We are delighted to partner with Nio, a leader in the new energy vehicle revolution—leveraging the power of AI to create the software-defined EV fleets of the future.”

“The cooperation of Nio and Nvidia will accelerate the development of autonomous driving on smart vehicles,” added Nio’s Li. “Nio’s in-house developed autonomous driving algorithms will be running on four industry-leading Nvidia Orin processors, delivering an unprecedented 1000+ TOPS in production cars.”

Adam signals a major achievement by Nio, with the centralized, software-defined computing architecture giving its next-generation EVs like the ET7 the latest AI-enabled capabilities that are perpetually upgradable after the point of sale.

Nvidia says Orin is the world’s highest-performance AV and robotics processor. The supercomputer-on-a-chip family delivers 254 TOPS, while also being scalable down to entry-level ADAS/Level 2 use cases of 10 TOPS and 5 W.

 

NEDC range over 1000 km

The ET7 is a little bigger in every major dimension than the Tesla Model S and even larger than the Xpeng P7. (See our recent coverage of the P7 https://bit.ly/3nwbcTQ.) The ET7 is 5098 mm (200.7 in) long, 1987 mm (78.2 in) wide, and 1505 mm (59.3 in) tall on a 3060-mm (120.5-in) wheelbase.

Its body is defined by a low drag coefficient of 0.23 Cd, and upfront are dual-beam LED headlights and double-dash daytime running lights above.

The car is designed to meet both China and Euro NCAP five-star safety standards. Its body structure, featuring an ultrahigh-strength-steel and aluminum hybrid body, has an impressive torsional stiffness of 37,100 N·m/degree.

In top powertrain form, the ET7 comes with a 180-kW permanent magnet motor up front and a 300-kW induction motor in the rear. Maximum output is 480 kW and 850 N·m (627 lb·ft) for a 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 3.9 s.

A combination of the low drag coefficient and the application of Nio’s second-generation high-efficiency electric-drive platform with silicon-carbide power module improves energy efficiency. NEDC ranges with the 70-kW·h battery pack is over 500 km (311 mi), the 100-kW·h pack over 700 km (435 mi), and the new 150-kW·h pack over 1000 km (621 mi).

A smart air suspension and continuous damping control are standard on all ET7s. The 4D dynamic system, based on high-definition maps and high-resolution sensors, can detect road conditions and actively adjust the suspension for a more comfortable ride. Braking distance from 100 km/h (62 mph) is 33.5 m (110 ft).

Interior designers were aiming for a second living room concept for a refined and cozy mobile living space. The frameless door comes standard with soft-closing for an easy ingress/egress experience. The ET7 marks the first application of Out for Space GmbH’s Karuun renewable rattan on a production model for a green and natural experience. The standard seats offer massage, heating, and ventilation for every passenger.

The ET7 features Nio’s second-generation smart cockpit with enhanced in-car mobile connectivity and communication capability enabled by the third-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon automotive cockpit platform. The brand’s in-car AI-based Nomi digital assistant sitting atop the IP continues to evolve. A 12.8-in AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) center display has greatly improved resolution and contrast. The 7.1.4 immersive sound system with 23 speakers and 1000-W total output is standard on all trim levels.

The ET7 has a pre-subsidy price starting from RMB 448,000 or RMB 378,000 with BaaS (battery-as-a-service). The numbers for the Premier Edition are RMB 526,000 or RMB 398,000, respectively. NAD’s 19 safety and driver-assistance features come standard, and full functionality can be subscribed to with ADaaS (AD-as-a-service) for a monthly subscription fee of RMB 680.

The car is available for pre-order on the Nio app, with deliveries estimated to start in Q1 2022.

 

Big packs and fast swaps

While the ET7 was the headliner at Nio Day, the large 150-kW·h battery pack is more significant for the Nio range. Enabled by an advanced mass-produced solid-state battery technology, the company says it can achieve an ultra-high energy density of 360 W·h/kg.

All Nio users can opt to upgrade to the 150-kW·h pack via a Nio Power Swap station. When equipped with the larger battery, the NEDC ranges of the 2018 ES8 can exceed 730 km (454 mi), the new ES8 beyond 850 km (528 mi), and the ES6/EC6 over 900 km (559 mi).

To continuously improve the battery-swapping experience, the company officially launched at Nio Day the Power Swap Station 2.0, which can complete 312 swaps per day. A vehicle can automatically drive into the station and users can initiate a battery swap from inside the vehicle with one click.

Nio will speed up the deployment of the Power Swap Stations, with an estimated 500 Power Swap Stations in operation nationwide in China by the end of 2021.

The company also introduced a Blue Point Plan for the missions of low-carbon and environmental-protection mission. The plan certifies emission reductions and trade in carbon credits for Nio points.