NIO ET7 - Can They Finally Rival with Tesla?

For too long, Tesla has gone unrivaled and dominated the EV market!

The China based electric vehicle startup Nio unveiled its first sedan, the ET7, during its
annual Nio Day presentation. Nio is often called the 'Tesla of China'... but is it really that
good?

We'll find out today, and we'll see if Nio really is a threat to Tesla.

Nio Days have become huge launch events for the company, much like Tesla's 'Battery Day'
events. At the first one in 2017, Nio unveiled its first production model, the ES8 EV SUV,
followed by the ES6 longer-range EV SUV at the 2019 event as well as the EC6 EV coupe.

And recently, it debuted its ET7, a new midsize premium sedan designed to compete with the
Tesla Model S. And how!

There are 3 battery options on offer, the biggest of which is the new 150 kilowatt hour unit
that can give you a whopping 620 miles of range! In contrast, Tesla's Long Range model
offers 412 miles on a full charge. It's definitely new, and something EV fans have wanted for
a long time!

The standard battery on the Nio is a 70 kilowatt hour unit good for about 310 miles or range,
and the mid-range battery of 100 kilowatt hour will give 435 miles.

If they're going to compete with a giant like Tesla, Nio has to bring its A-game in terms of
power. And that shouldn't be a problem. Nio has announced one powertrain, and that's the
dual-motor system generating a combined 644 horsepower and 626 pound-feet of peak
performance.

And if we're talking speed, Nio also claims the car goes from 0 to 62 miles per hour in 3.6
seconds.
As is the case with Nio's other cars, the ET7 can have its batteries swapped via its own
network of Nio Power Battery stations. It's simple… you drive into the station, an automated
system swaps out your battery for you, and you drive out 3 minutes later. The company later
charges that battery and places it in another vehicle later or the next day. Nio estimates they
can pull off 300 swaps a day.

If you subscribe to the 150 dollar per month battery services pack, the starting price for the 70
kilowatt hour battery car goes down to 58,375 dollars.

There are hundreds of such battery swap stations in China, and Nio recently also announced
the deployment of a second generation version of the system. They aren't even playing catch
up to Tesla at this point… they are already a formidable competitor! And even the similarities
between the 2 companies are uncanny.

Founded by William Li, Nio is just a 6 year old electric car company with a passionate
customer base, a quirky founder, and a skyrocketing market share!

Nio so far has had only SUVs on the market, and they first showcased their concept for a
sedan in April 2019 at the Shanghai Auto Show. Unfortunately, it didn't take off from there
because they ran into financial difficulties not long after that. Nio was also criticized for
putting all its money into marketing and silver studded showrooms, all the while running out
of cash and making lesser and lesser in profits.

After receiving a billion dollars from state-backed investors in early 2020, plus a 1.5 billion
dollar credit line from Chinese banks, Nio's New York listed shares started recovering and
closed the year well over a thousand percent!

The ET7 is their very first luxury sedan, and we don't doubt there will be more!

The ET7 spans 200.7 inches in length, making it 5 inches longer than the Tesla Model 2, its
prime rival. The exterior design is beautifully balanced and modern, and if you're thinking,
"Hey, that looks a little familiar," it's because the body does draw inspiration from Tesla.
Some similar styling elements include a fastback roofline and flush door handles.
The front of the car looks rather formidable, like a shark… sharp, thin LED headlights
positioned flat on the fenders give the sedan a sleek and quite intimidating look. The back
features an end-to-end taillight and a convex tail shape topped by a spoiler. The top has a
laminated all-glass roof, much like the Tesla panoramic sunroof on the Model S.

Inside is a sleek, minimal dash with a 12.8 inch screen serving as the control center for the
whole car and an infotainment system which you can enjoy with the thousand watt, 23
speaker sound system.

And you might have noticed that the dash features one interesting little element – this small
black ball that seems to have eyes. This is Nomi! Your screen is controlled by her, and she
responds to voice commands and can help you with anything you need. She is the world's
first in-vehicle artificial intelligence that goes beyond standard infotainment and navigation
functions. It's basically your friend!

ET7's Nomi can incorporate artificial intelligence with a charming face-like interface that
swivels and blinks its oval "eyes" to address each vehicle occupant directly, depending on
their location in the cabin. She can learn user preferences over time to make sure you are
comfortable in your car. For example, Nomi can set the personal seating and steering wheel
positions whenever it senses a driver approaching the vehicle.

You can also give NOMI verbal commands to adjust the cabin temperature, open or close the
windows, or even take an in-car selfie of yourself and display it on the radio screen. It's all
about engaging on a personal level and creating that connection.

You can see how Nio put comfort at the forefront of their product since that is the experience
users would most value. When you have a car with a 620 mile range that can be extended
within 3 minutes, you'll be taking some long road trips!

Nio wanted this to be your second living room, and we can see how. The interior is trimmed
in Karuun renewable rattan, and all the seats have a massage function, plus ventilation and
heating capabilities.
The sedan works with the company's new autonomous driving system that features a camera
resolution of 8 megapixels versus the 1.2 megapixels you'll find on Teslas and Nvidia
processing chips that offer processing power greater than 7 Tesla self-driving computers put
together!

The Aquila Sensing Feature, as the system is called, can spot another car 680 meters away
and pedestrians more than 220 meters away. Additionally, the ET7 also uses a LiDAR sensor
with a 500 meter range, plus a 5 millimeter Wave Radar Array, 12 ultrasonic sensors, and a
pair of high-precision positioning units to understand exactly what is around it. All that
information goes into the onboard processor, dubbed ADAM.

The ET7's autonomous driving features could achieve Level 4 by 2022, should Nio's plans
remain on track.

The cars don't all come with that feature, though… the autonomous driving systems costs 680
yuan or 105 dollars a month.

They are already accepting orders for the TE7, and they plan to start deliveries in 2022. Pre-
orders are currently limited to China, but Nio does plan to expand into other markets soon.

Admittedly, a range of over 600 miles on a single charge is definitely ambitious. And usually,
when something sounds too good to be true, it is! A lot of times, Tesla has made promises it
couldn't keep.

Like the promise of a 100 percent automated production line. Elon Musk had to backtrack on
that when the company started missing production deadlines. Or the time Musk promised a
fully autonomous Tesla in 2016, and we have yet to reach that level of driving autonomy!
The only outlandish promise he has kept is a 35 thousand dollar Model 3.

But backtracking on all those promises can't be a good look for the company, which is why it
would be so easy for Nio to swoop in and start making sales. If Nio can deliver even two-
thirds of the promises they have made at this point, Tesla should definitely be worried from at
least an innovation and technological standpoint, if not a financial standpoint.
Nio is new to the car manufacturing world, just like Tesla, and in their short reign, have
zoomed past all the other legacy carmakers. This is all given Nio doesn't even have its own
car production factory! All of Nio's production work is either outsourced or carried out in
other factories.

In December, Nio delivered a little over 2 thousand units of the ES8 SUV, 2,493 units of its
smaller ES5 electric SUV, and 2,505 units of the EC6 SUV. Their fourth quarter saw a sale of
over 17,300 vehicles, indicating an impressive 112.6 percent growth from 2019.

It might not seem like much, but it is 2021, and the EV space is getting more and more
crowded. Nio continues to rise along with fellow EV makers Xpeng and Lordstown Motors,
while Tesla fell 15 percent. Some legacy carmakers are also slowly coming out of the
shadows with their own electric cars, most of which are just electric versions of their existing
models… from Ford to General Motors and even luxury brands like Rolls Royce; everyone is
jumping on the bandwagon!

2020 has definitely been a challenging year for the whole world, but against that backdrop,
Nio has managed to achieve record highs and closed the year with a bang. It might not be
catching up to Tesla quite as fast, but their new ET7 might just do the trick!

Do you think Nio is an actual threat to Tesla, or will Tesla find its way to the top again and
take its place as the EV industry leader? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

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