NIO ES8 - Terje's cars

NIO ES8

The NIO ES8 is just over 5 meters long, almost 2 meters wide and weighs 2,4 tonnes. The SUV is a typical representative of the "gigantomania" that is ravaging the car market. If you take a closer look at the car - a Signature 6 seater - there is little doubt that it belongs in the premium segment. The price tag of 609 seems almost ridiculously low. That's because the batteries are not included. You have to add 000 for the "standard range" batteries of 90 kwh and 000 for the "long range". With 75 kWh, the car has a range of 160 km (WLTP).

This is a new trend for promoting new cars: You open a "lounge" or "lobby" where people can come in and warm up with a cup of coffee or something similar, read a bit on their mobile phone or chat. Inside this idyll there are also a couple of nice cars...

Snobbish location at the Grand Hotel

NIO could hardly have chosen a better place to profile itself. NIO House is located on the first floor of the former Hotel Nobel on Karl Johan, right next to Grand Café and Bjerke Urmaker. In warm lighting with visibility from Karl Johans gate, supercars such as the NIO EVE and EP9 can be glimpsed. On the other side of the hotel entrance is a coffee bar in the same style and colours.

welcome inside

You don't need to show a membership card or business-class ticket to let yourself into the heat. Around the cars, there are "supervisors" - not pushy salespeople. Once you have familiarized yourself with the car (currently only ES8), you can order a test drive. You should have done that in advance - online. For now, the only location is NIO House Oslo centre. Many would probably prefer a more open landscape for their first drive in a large, electric SUV.

Currently only ES8

Tasteful and luxurious interior in NIO ES8

Battery as a service

The concept is that NIO ensures that the car has power on the batteries. If you choose to leie batteries instead of owning them, you can benefit from NIO's "battery swap" stations that will be placed in a network. The first has already arrived at Kjellstad, where the "Lierbommen" was located. You can drive in there and change to a fully charged battery in 5 minutes. In China, other services are also offered, such as someone picking up your car, charging it for you, and putting it back in its place. Or that there will be a "charging van" where a guy puts your car on charge and has a smoke while your batteries are being recharged.

Can open up new opportunities

NIO's extended battery service can open up new possibilities. According to one of the customer advisors, most people choose to rent batteries. Those who choose the NIO ES8 Signature LR thus get a car in the top luxury segment for "only" NOK 609. Included in the price is a home charger (without assembly). In addition, the battery rent is NOK 000 per month - or NOK 1999 for the "standard range". The rent gives access to 1399 kwh and 200 free battery changes per month in the "battery bow". It will be interesting to see how this develops. Tesla considered both battery rental and battery replacement - but decided against it. Renault Zoe has battery rental as an "option" - but that did not attract Norwegian customers.

NIO ET7 is 5,09 meters long with a range of 1000 km

OIL ET7

The sedan version ET7 on display in NIO House is a one-of-a-kind. They will be rolled out to the first customers in China in a few weeks. Currently, no one is registered in Norway. We don't know much about it other than that it is 5,09 meters long (!) and has a stated drag coefficient that is as good as the latest Tesla S and almost as good as the Mercedes-Benz EQS. The range with a 100 kwh battery is stated to be 1000 km (NEDC).

ES6 and ET5 could become big sellers

The ES6 is 4,85 meters long and is only offered as a 5-seater. It has been in production for over two years, but will not arrive in Norway until 2023. Then the NIO ET5 will also arrive, which - if the price is right - could become a "Tesla 3 killer". The Tesla 3, produced in Shanghai, is currently hugely popular in China. All Tesla 3 and Tesla Y imported into Norway today are manufactured in Shanghai.

The special cars

The NIO EP9 is the world's fastest electric car. It does 0-100 in 2,9 seconds – enough to inhibit the blood supply to the head. The future car NIO EVE is a self-driving prototype that was shown for the first time in 2017. Then it was said that the model would be put into production in 2020. That did not happen. The world is probably not yet ready for cars where all 6 passengers can sit facing each other without anyone having to drive. The entire roof is transparent, but the side windows contain controllable "pigments" to prevent visibility and keep the sun out.

If you are visiting Oslo, it is recommended to pay a visit to NIO House. Soon they will also come to Bergen, Stavanger, Trondheim and Kristiansand.

In the same family – NIO EP9 super sports car and NIO ES8

Interior concept in a fully self-driving prototype – NIO EVE

See

NIO Norway

nine norway — NIO changes batteries in 3 minutes

electric cars from china — The Chinese are coming!

3 months ago we wrote about the Chinese car brand NIO, which is shooting up the Chinese sales charts. We then wrote that the brand had no Norwegian representative. Now they have - NIO Norway.

The automobile industry in China has a huge domestic market. So big that Western car manufacturers have established their own factories for the Chinese market, and of course there are many Chinese brands we have barely heard of here at home, which produce cars at high speed to meet domestic demand. China has introduced a "New Energy" program to stimulate the production of zero-emission cars. This has provided good conditions for the development of models that are also interesting for Norway.

Chinese cars at full speed to Norway

For now, it seems that it is Chinese MG, XPeng, BYD and Maxus that have gained a hold on the buyers. The model series DFSK and Seres from Dongeng-Sokon will soon be sold through the Gill/Subaru chain. RøhneSelmer was relevant for a while as a dealer, but seems to have withdrawn. The former luxury car brand Hongqi is in the process of establishing car sales in Norway. NIO is currently the last brand to have a Norwegian representative.

boy es6 — The NIO ES6 is an electric SUV with 4-wheel drive and a large battery pack

NIO Norway

The company was registered earlier this month (March 2021). The general manager is Marius Hayler who until recently was general manager of BC Norway - importer of Jaguar and Land Rover. Considering the success of the Jaguar I-Pace, it's safe to say that Hayler has succeeded in bringing an electric car outsider high up the sales charts. NIO Norway is currently a newly started small company apparently subject to a European umbrella organisation. But NIO Norway is not without importance. According to press reports, it is Norway that has been designated as NIO's first export market. It is currently uncertain how the company will organize marketing, sales and follow-up.

NIO Norway on Facebook

Leading battery technology

Last year, NIO came out with the model ES6. This year, a larger model, the ES8, has been launched. Both can be delivered with either a 70 kw or 100 kw battery – on par with Tesla's largest battery. NIO has announced that it plans to launch a 150 kw "solid state" battery in Q4 2022 for its new self-driving "Tesla-killer" ET7. Car owners with 70 and 100 kW batteries will be able to upgrade their cars with the new super battery. If this is true, NIO will be one of the very first to offer "solid state" battery technology - and the first electric car manufacturer to make it possible to upgrade battery packs.

Battery change in 3 minutes

Many electric car manufacturers have talked about upgrading battery packs - but so far this has been science fiction. NIO has made it possible to change batteries in a short time. In China there are 145 drive-in stations where NIO owners can change the battery pack in 3 minutes! The service is designed as an alternative to fast charging. Instead of waiting 20-30 minutes to charge, you can drive on with a fully charged battery after 3 minutes. According to NIO's own video, everything happens automatically, but in reality some manual work is required. For example, you may not reverse the car yourself into the exchange station. Admittedly, there is one machine which unscrews the battery, but in the video below you can clearly see a man in the background controlling a lever or similar. The switch itself takes 3 minutes, provided there is no one in front of you in the queue - and provided the station has fully charged batteries available. Each station can only have 14 battery packs inside at the same time. In practice, there can sometimes be long waiting times for this service.

Hardly for Norway

Changing batteries "on the go" is hardly something you should do unless you don't leier battery packs. Who wants to replace the battery pack from their new car to continue driving with the battery pack from a 2 year old taxi? Renault is one of the car manufacturers that has come the furthest in offering battery rental. It is available in the rest of Europe, but not in Norway. We prefer to hey - not rent.

Extended service offer in China

Like Tesla, NIO offers free roadside charging via its own charging network. They can build that up in Norway as well. But one of the offers that is unlikely to be implemented in Norway is a mobile charging service where car owners can order charging via one touch of a button regardless of where they are. Then the electricity is supplied from a van - one electric van of course. Another service is "24/7 On-Call Valet Charging", where someone will pick up the car and return it with a fully charged battery. With the well-developed charging networks we have in Norway, it is difficult to see any need for anything other than self-service charging stations.

It will be interesting to follow the development in NIO. Maybe in two years we can buy premium electric cars with "solid state" battery technology and a range of 1000 km?

Facts

NIO ES6 100 kw
Range converted to WLTP: 480-520 km
Range NEDC: 610 km
544 HK
0-100: 4,7 sec.

NIO ES8 100 kw
Range converted to WLTP: 460-500 km
Range NEDC: 580 km
544 HK
0-100: 4,9 sec.