Discreet China luxury

First published in the magazine BilAutofil No. 3-2023

Air suspension, door locks, massage in the back seat and the “director’s button” to push the front passenger seat forward. Can you have a better time as a back passenger in a car? At least not when it says NOK 631,500 on the price tag.

It’s not poor to sit in the front either. Simply put the favorite massage program, enter the Sport + program and feel that there is no hard pressure on the right pedal before the 653 hp are sent to the ground through the four-wheel drive and stick the body several centimeters into the white leather seat and temperament while Nomi looked at you under the dashboard and blinked.

This is a brief summary of the Nio ET7, a 5.10 meter long premium sedan and the second Nio car model in Norway.

The Tesla crowd

The Tesla Model S immediately comes to mind, because I’m pretty sure it’s Tesla’s success that inspired the Nio to match both its size, performance and minimalist interior. Yes, the driver’s setting is so stripped of buttons and switches that even setting the side mirror and temperature requires clicking on the infotainment screen. Then it is easy to become a little inattentive, but do not be afraid, because Nomi connects through the internal camera of the car with a positive view from the center of the dashboard, follows closely and immediately tells you if you should become inattentive for a tenth of a second!

Maybe you reacted to the ridiculously low price, and yes, it is without a battery. Because of course the battery can be bought, but around 97 percent of Nio customers, there were 1,135 of them last year when Nio only had the ES8 SUV sold, end up entering into a battery subscription agreement that also includes the exchange of a discharged. battery on battery exchange station rather than fast charging. In practice, a battery change does not take more than five minutes, and most people who own an electric car know how little range you get in five minutes, even at a 300 kW lightning charging station.

Lightning fast

Although the ET7 takes you to 100 km / h in less than four seconds and wins most sprint exercises for electric cars, it is not the sporting characteristics that primarily characterize the Chinese premium car. The comfort features where it floats forward on air suspension controlled by sensors that read the road and adjust the suspension according to the nature of the surface.

The deafening interior silence of the ET7 is on a par with what is expected from cars on the border between premium and luxury, such as, for example, the twice more expensive Mercedes-Benz EQS. The interesting thing about the Chinese car industry is their ability and willingness to challenge European, Japanese and Korean technology with luxury at a lower price.

Some do it in a flashy way, as we wrote about in the duel between Hongqi’s “red flag” SUV and the Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV in the previous BilAutofil, while others do it very discreetly, like Nio.

Discreet award

Because Nio does not call for attention, on the contrary. And that’s exactly what makes the ET7 and other Nio models interesting. In the ET7, nothing is missing, perhaps with the exception of the heating of the windshield and windshield. Connecting the mobile phone is easier and faster than in any other Chinese car, and if you first find the radio settings on the 12.8-inch infotainment screen, the 1000 Watt system connected to 23 speakers ensures positive sound.

At first I mentioned the massage in the back seat, but for an electric car you sit high in the back with a full 83 cm in the rear legs of a 180 cm tall driver. But when the front seats are in the lowest position, it will not be possible to put your feet under them.

All doors open with an electric button.

Rattan in the interior

Premium / luxury cars are often delivered with imitation wood elements in the door panels, center console and dashboard. This is also the case in ET7, where Nio is the first car manufacturer to use rattan treated refined into natural karun, technical material with a significantly lower CO2 footprint as an alternative to plastic.

Rattan grows like a vine and is harvested by hand by local farmers. Since it was originally found out in an Indonesian craft market, the material and manufacturing process has been refined by Out of Space in Germany to allow it to withstand the rigors of automotive use.

Most people subscribe

I mentioned at the beginning the large proportion of battery subscribers. So far, two battery packs are offered, 75 and 100 kWt, priced at NOK 90,000/160,000 when purchased, but as in the subscription including battery exchange option, cost NOK 1,399/1,999 per month. Here, the customer can choose to upgrade or downgrade the selected battery pack if the need changes. Nio promises that they will soon also be able to offer a 150 kWt battery pack, which increases the range to almost 1,000 kilometers.

During our test around zero to a few degrees Celsius, consumption ended up at 19.3 kWh/100 km. With a 100 kWt battery pack, this means a range of use of up to 500 km. In the comprehensive NAF winter test, the ET7 came out third best after the Tesla models S and X and stopped only after 434 km.

Five minutes to change the battery

The battery replacement solution is probably the reason why Nio has not bothered to charge their cars as fast as, for example, Hyundai, Tesla, Porsche – and to what extent Mercedes-Benz EQE / EQS. Although the charging speed is indicated at 130 kW, I have never been able to get more than 80 kW. Charging the 100 kW battery from 5 to 80 percent took from 50 to 60 minutes. The load time should be reduced by half.

But again: changing from an empty battery to a fully charged battery at a battery exchange station takes no more than five minutes. Where they exist.

WE THINK

Exciting, spacious and advanced premium sedan with battery exchange option as an alternative to too slow fast charging.