NIO has presented its great asset for next year, the NIO ET5, a medium electric saloon that has in its great autonomy one of its main assets to face the Tesla Model 3, its most direct rival.
Just as Tesla created the Mo 3 with a scale image of the Tesla Model S, the ET5 is a scale copy of the NIO ET7, which was unveiled earlier this year, maintaining a design that is virtually identical to its eldest brother.
The Chinese saloon sports an athletic body (4.79 meters long, 1.96 wide, and 1.49 high), with a smooth roof drop that gives it a coupe look. It dispenses with the grill, its headlights are very thin, it opts for clean surfaces and there are hardly any lines of tension that mark the bodywork. Thanks to its design, the NIO ET5 achieves a drag coefficient of 0.24.
The cabin, as with its American rival, is quite spartan, with quality materials, but without anything that is not essential, which makes everything focus on the 10.2-inch instrument panel and the large screen with tablet format that acts as a central console.
To this must be added an important technological endowment, among which the PanoCinema system stands out, a Head-Up Display with augmented reality that is projected on the windshield and simulates being a large screen located about six meters in front of the car.
Without leaving the technological section, the NIO ET5 has sensors and radars that allow it to achieve a level 3 of autonomous driving.
Great power and even greater autonomy
Nio has chosen to offer only a variant of its propulsion system, which has two motors (all-wheel drive), one 150 kW at the front and the other 210 kW at the rear, achieving 489 hp and 700 Nm of torque. Thus, it goes from 0 to 100 km / h in 4.3 seconds.
Where it does offer variety is in its batteries, both in capacities and in acquisition format, and is that in addition to the classic property, it offers the BaaS service (Battery as a Service), a subscription with which the battery can be exchanged for another that is loaded in the stations of the brand.
The one with the smallest capacity, called Standard, has 75 kWh and offers 550 kilometers of autonomy. The intermediate is the Long Range of 100 kWh and with 700 kilometers of range. The superior is the Ultra Long Range of 150 kWh and which exceeds 1,000 kilometers of range.
Will the NIO ET5 arrive in Europe?
The company announced with the ET7 its intention to land in European markets, but it has not yet been confirmed that the ET5 will follow the same path. It seems like the most logical thing to do, and the fact that it was developed to pass the Euro NCAP test with flying colors points in that direction.
At the moment it has been announced that throughout 2022 it will be available in China at a price that starts at 36,000 euros in exchange for the BaaS format, which rises to almost 45,800 euros as a starting point with batteries in owners
