The ET7 will start at 448,000 yuan (~ $ 69,000) if buyers opt for the standard 70 kwH battery. However, if customers choose to subscribe to “battery services” at 980 yuan ($ 150) / month, the starting price drops to 378,000 yuan or about $ 58,375. The 70 kwH package offers up to 500 km of range, while the new optional 150 kwH version, with its 360 Wh / kg of energy density, is expected to deliver ranges over 1,000 km – north of 600 miles and far beyond the model Tesla S can provide. Furthermore, Nio claims that the ET7 has 0 to 100 km / h in 3.9 seconds with a maximum power of 480 kW. But note that when the ET7 goes on sale in the first quarter of 2022, it will only be available with 70 kwH and 100 kwH batteries to start – the 150 kwH solid state version is unlikely to arrive until the end of that year.
Keeping the ET7 charged won’t take long. Nio announced on Saturday that it is updating its battery change stations as well. Instead of waiting to infuse electricity into the depleted cells, Nio’s automated service stations will simply exchange the entire package for a new one. The company estimates that each station will be able to accommodate up to 312 battery changes per day with the 13 packages that each keeps on hand. Nio expects to have 500 of these stations in operation by the end of 2021.
Finally, Nio executives showcased their latest advances in ADAS technology. The company debuted an updated version of its Navigate on Pilot (NOP) feature during the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition 2020 in September. NOP has a series of 23 sensors and cameras to map the world around the vehicle with a location accuracy of 20 cm, allowing the car to know when it is safe to change lanes and even to do it automatically on behalf of the driver.
But that was in September. On Saturday, Nio showed its latest and greatest driver assistance technology, the Aquila Sensing feature. This uses a series of 11 8 MP high definition cameras (compare with the 1.2 MP sensors Tesla uses) that can detect another car at 680 meters and pedestrians from more than 220 meters away. In addition, the ET7’s ADAS also uses a 1550nm LiDAR sensor with a 500-meter range along with a 5mm Wave radar, 12 ultrasonic sensors and a pair of high-precision positioning units to understand exactly what’s around you . All of this information is fed into an integrated processor, called ADAM, which, according to the company, has seven times more gross computing power than Tesla’s FSD. ET7’s autonomous driving capabilities could reach Level 4 in 2022 if Nio’s plans remain on track.