Written by Cláudio Afonso | info@claudio-afonso.com
The Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio started ET7 Model test drives last weekend, on March 5th. During the last 48 hours, hundreds of customers had the opportunity to test the sedan unveiled in December 2020 that is finally start its deliveries later this month, on March 28th.
The ES8 owner @SYSMAX was among the early testers and shared some Pros and Cons after nearly one hour testing the model: “I am lucky to be the first scheduled owner to test drive ET7. After nearly an hour of test drive and ride, let’s also talk about some of my real feelings.”
Pros
- Chassis suspension gives people a sense of advancedness, which is higher than the suspension of the new Es8. Whether it is a small vibration on the road or the bumps over the speed bumps, it can be filtered well, and it will not be adjusted to the “ship-off” shaking with Simba at the softest time. Steering lane change support is good. Although there is still a relatively obvious head-up when accelerating rapidly, the flaws do not hide Yu. The power output of the car in comfortable mode is extremely elegant and smooth, which is smoother than any other electric car I have ever driven. This running performance has far exceeded that of the top oil vehicles (Royce and Bentley’s 12 cylinders).
- As an audio enthusiast, I want to say that the sound performance of this car is particularly good. The 7.1.4 channel and the 10 million sound system NIO has cost a lot of money. The whole car is equipped with double-layer soundproof glass, and the whole cockpit looks extremely quiet when parking. Looking at the cars coming and going outside the car during the audition, the feeling in the car is as wonderful as the audition room. The treble is transparent, the middle tone is warm, the low frequency is just right, the sound field positioning is accurate, the encirclement atmosphere feels good, the overall quality is very high, and one ear feels better than the Focal utopian system, which I spent 100,000 yuan on Simba myself. The four-season “spring” in the test drive program directly made my ears pregnant. I have to admire the team in charge of tuning. Music aesthetics are really extraordinary!
3. The seat comfort of the whole car is very good. The sitting posture is slightly higher than that of ordinary cars. The seats are very thick, soft and there is no lack of support. It feels like Rolls-Royce New Gust. Compared with the thin seats of ES6 and ES8 before, they don’t feel like the design and produced by a company at all… The angle of the rear seats is a little straight. Although it is also very comfortable, the waist support is slightly insufficient. Even if the three air cushions are adjusted to the most inclined, there is still a lot of space at the waist. It is recommended that the owner buy another waistrest to increase comfort.
READ MORE: Nio ET7 Test Drives start on March 5th: Here’s everything you need to know
4. The energy consumption of this car is very good. The violent scene of test driving is only 18kwh/100 kilometers. It is expected that the normal driving energy consumption will be between 15 and 16. The new Wandu IDB fully integrated brake kinetic energy recovery system replaces the Bosch ibooster2.0 system used in the previous generation. The efficiency of kinetic energy recovery by stepping on the brake has been improved by 50%, and the maximum recovery capacity has reached 90kw (Bosch is less than 60), which makes a good contribution to energy consumption performance.
Cons
- The interior of the car is slightly elegant, and it follows the Nordic simple technology fashion style. The backlight refresh rate of the car screen is a little low. Although it is not felt by naked eye observation, you can take interval stripes when shooting with a camera or mobile phone in daylight. The test drive is a white interior, and the texture of rattan looks a little plastic. The dark color above the dashboard is similar to the back fur material, which is relatively hard and looks slightly cheaper. I feel that the price of a car of 400,000+ does not match. If this car is used for commercial administrative purposes, I suggest you choose a black interior. Of course, this is completely my personal aesthetics that cannot be regarded as a Volkswagen standard. It is recommended that you take a look at the real car before choosing the interior color.
- The panoramic sunroof has no sunshade like Porsche Taycan. Although the official said that this sunroof can block 99% of ultraviolet rays, in fact, it is still a little uncomfortable to sit in the back row and close your eyes to rest. I hope the official will have corresponding sunshade accessories for sale in the future.
3. The tire noise of the 20-inch tire of the test drive is still more obvious than that of my ES8 when driving normally, which may be caused by the height of the body from the ground not as that of the SUV or the tires are not silent tires. In addition, the tire pressure of the test drive is 2.7, and it should be good if it can be controlled at about 2.5. In Sport+ mode, the grip of this tire is not enough, and low-speed acceleration will make the rear wheel unable to bite. After switching to Sport mode, this situation will not be the case. If you are pursuing the mute effect, it is recommended that you replace the tire with Michelin mute tires after picking up the car.
Conclusions
The above are some personal feelings about my test drive in just one hour. Generally speaking, ET7 is a good product that exceeded my expectations, and it is also the best product that can be bought at the same price on the market at present (regardless of performance, comfort, intelligence). If you need to buy a medium-priced sedan, this one should be comfortable, and the performance of the ET7 will never disappoint you.
As announced by Nio during a conference on January 19th, NIO ET7 test-drives in China started on Saturday, March 5th. With the 150 kWh battery, ET7 has an extra-long NEDC range of over 1,000 km and features motors at the front and rear with a combined output of 643 horsepower and 627 pound-feet of torque. The sedan accelerates to 62 mph in 3.9 seconds. Starting at around $69,000 (448,000 yuan) before Chinese subsidies for the 70.0-kWh option, the ET7 is targeting the same public as Tesla Model S. That said, the price drops to around $58,000 if the buyer opts for Nio’s Battery as a Service (BaaS) subscription, which allows drivers to swap their batteries at Nio Power Swap stations in China for a fee of around $150 a month. Deliveries are expected to start in 3 weeks, on March 28th.
In February 2022, Nio delivered 91 units in Norway. Currently, the company is only exporting its ES8 Model to the Scandinavian country, although, its highly expected ET7 model will arrive Norway in the last quarter of 2022 and the ET5 (announced during the NIO Day last December) in the first quarter of 2023, as revelead by Nio’s CEO William Li on January 22th. In January, the Chinese EV maker sold 44 units, down from the 67 sales reported in December 2021. Nio opened two months ago its first Battery Swap Station in Europe and plans to have 20 Stations in five different Norwegian cities by the end of the year.
Last week, the company announced that delivered 6,131 vehicles during February 2022, representing an increase of 9.9% year-over-year. . February deliveries are often affected by the Chinese Spring Festival Hollidays where the factories usually close from January 31st to February 6th.
The deliveries consisted of 1,084 ES8s, the Company’s six- or seven-seater flagship premium smart electric SUV, 3,309 ES6s, the Company’s five-seater high-performance premium smart electric SUV, and 1,738 EC6s, the Company’s five-seater premium smart electric coupe SUV. As of February 28, 2022, cumulative deliveries of the ES8, ES6 and EC6 reached 182,853 vehicles.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | info@claudio-afonso.com