Nio Unveils ET7 Autonomous Luxury EV Sedan With 600-Plus Mile Range

If you aren’t familiar with Chinese automaker Nio, there’s a good chance you’re not alone. The Chinese brand sprung up seemingly overnight, hit a rough patch in 2020, but appears to be back and forging ahead with new models. Nio already makes three SUVs—the ES8, EC6, and ES6—and today it took the wraps off of the ET7, their first fully autonomous electric vehicle.

As with any EV, the headline figure has to be the range. Luckily for Nio, the range estimates certainly won’t provoke any anxiety. The ET7 will have three battery options, a 70 kWh battery, 100 kWh battery, and a massive 150 kWh unit. According to Nio, the three battery packs will return New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) estimated ranges of 310 miles, 435 miles, and “over” 620 miles of range, respectively. NEDC is notoriously optimistic when it comes to estimating range, so the ET7’s real world numbers will almost certainly differ from the NEDC estimate.

To make the ET7 fully autonomous, Nio’s own Autonomous Driving tech (or NAD for short) comes as an optional subscription service and is powered by 33 sensors in and around the car. The ET7 has 11 eight-megapixel cameras on board, one ultra long range LiDAR unit, five millimeter-wave radar cameras, 12 ultrasonic sensors, and two positioning units (V2X and ADMS). In total, the system can generate up to eight gigabytes of data per second. That is, to use a technical term, a lot.

Motivation comes courtesy of a 180 kW permanent magnet motor on the front axle and a 300 kW induction motor at the rear. All told, the ET7 makes up to 644 horsepower and 627 lb-ft of torque and will sprint to 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds. Nio also said the ET7 will stop from 62 mph in 109.9 feet. According to our test numbers, that is identical to the Tesla Model S P100D we tested a few years ago, but the Tesla is still much quicker to 60 mph.

But instead of focusing on performance, Nio opted to make the ET7 a more luxurious EV experience by including features like standard soft close doors, heated and ventilated front and rear seats, a nifty looking digital cockpit, and a 23 speaker, 1,000-watt sound system. This is clearly meant to be a more relaxing experience than the neck-snappingly quick Model S Plaid.

Prices for the 70 kWh ET7 start at $69,200 and the subscription to Nio’s autonomous driving service will run you an extra $107 a month. Opt for the bigger, 100 kWh battery and you’ll have to shell out closer to $78,000. Pricing for the 150 kWh model hasn’t been released yet. For us, though, the ET7’s pricing is all academic, since it (or any of Nio’s cars for the foreseeable future) are unlikely to be sold in the U.S. anytime soon.

Source: Read Full Article