Written by Cláudio Afonso | info@claudio-afonso.com
BMW China posted this Tuesday on Weibo, the official invite to the presentation of the BMW X5 Li Variant. The model is a variant from the BMW regular-wheelbase X5 that is produced in the BMW Group Plant Spartanburg in South Carolina, US. In order to free up space in the US plant, the manufacturer will entirely produce this version in the Brilliance Automotive Dadong plant in Shenyang, China.
“BMW invites you to witness the blockbuster debut moment. All-new BMW X5 Online press conference, starting at 20:00 on March 31st. Lock in @BMW China Weibo, or scan the code to follow the official Douyin and video account to make an appointment for the live broadcast, and wait for the tasting.” — BMW says on the announcement.
On February 15th, NIO’s Co-founder, Director, and President Lihong Qin confirmed that the company will unveil a new model: NIO ES7. Qin said that the model will target the same market that BMW X5: “ES7 is competing with X5, the two most competitive five-seater SUVs this year”. Although the company didn’t confirmed the final price yet, it is expectable to start around ¥382,000 ($60,000USD). On January 17th, the model was spotted on the road in China under Spy Mode. These tests on the road are part of the process for any company months before launching a new model to the market.
The launch of its new five-seater SUV is expected to mid-April, although, the first official public appearance date is still not confirmed after the rumours of the 2022 Beijing Auto Show delay, due to Covid-19 cases in China.
“Beijing auto show organizers are expected to reschedule the April event because of surging coronavirus infections in multiple cities across China. Discussions were ongoing to reschedule the biennial show, with no official information ready for public release” — a source with one of the event’s organizers told Automotive News China.
The international automotive exhibition was initially scheduled to take place at the China International Exhibition Center of Beijing from April 21st to April 30th. The first photos of NIO ES7 leaked on December 29th, showing some differences compared with the existing models. Deliveries in China are expected to start during Q4 2022 with the European Market receiving the first units early next year.
SPECS
- Equipped with NT2.0 Hardware — the layout of the watchtower is basically the same as the one used by ET7 and ET5 Model with NAD (NIO Autonomous Driving) included.
- The outflowing model is the shell of the ES6 — It is known that the ES7 will be longer than the current ES6 captain, and it is positioned between the NIO ES8 and the NIO ES6.
- The charging port of ES7 in low located in a different area.
- The intelligent cockpit hardware carried in the car is also likely to be Qualcomm Snapdragon’s 8155 processor.
Barclays analyst Jiong Shao reiterated on Monday an Overweight rating and a $34 price target on NIO shares after the company Earnings report released last week. Shao believes that NIO’s ET7 & ET5 sedans will become best-sellers after deliveries start. NIO ET7 deliveries started this Monday (March 28) and NIO ET5 deliveries are expected to begin in September 2022.
Earlier this week, a NIO ES8 Model with NAD (NIO Autonomous Driving) capabilities was spotted in Uppsala, Sweden. The country is part of NIO’s 2022 expansion plan with the first deliveries expected to arrive by the end of this year.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | info@claudio-afonso.com