Chinese EV maker Nio has begun rolling out its ‘Cedar S’ 1.6.0 software update, delivering more than 30 new and upgraded features to the refreshed ES6, EC6, ET5 and ET5 Touring in China.
According to the company, the update brings “a smarter and more comprehensive smart cockpit, the more capable NOMI intelligent assistant, exclusive driving and riding experiences, and intelligent driving assistance.”
Nio pushed the update on the first day of China’s Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, which runs from September 25 to 27.
Version 1.6.0 arrives about three months after ‘Cedar S’ 1.5.0, which Nio rolled out on June 18 as part of a synchronized rollout of its second-generation Nio World Model (NWM) across three software platforms.
The June release brought the upgraded NWM to ‘Cedar S’ vehicles alongside more than 50 new features.
‘Cedar S’ powers the refreshed versions of the four models, which run on a single in-house Shenji NX9031 chip.
Flagship platform ‘Cedar’ serves the ET9, ES9 and third-generation ES8. The ET9 carries two NX9031 chips for redundancy.
The ‘Cedar S’ platform does not run on overseas vehicles.
European owners, for instance, drive NT 2.0-generation models on a local version of ‘Banyan’, the older operating system. As EV exclusively reported, Nio does not expect to bring NWM to Europe until approximately 2030.
Driver Assistance Tweaks
On national and provincial roads, and other roads with higher speed limits, Nio raised the manually selectable target cruise speed in the urban portion of its Point-to-Point Full-Domain Navigation Assist to 100 km/h.
On highways and expressways in rain, the system now proactively reduces speed and cuts the frequency of lane changes and overtaking, the company said.
A new ‘NWM Highlight Moment’ feature lets drivers capture the previous 20 seconds of driving footage while Navigation Assist is active.
Holding the right button on the left side of the steering wheel triggers the capture, and a voice prompt confirms it.
Clips can be viewed in the Nio App and shared with the brand’s user community.
Nio introduced closed-loop reinforcement learning in NWM in late January, starting with ‘Banyan’ 3.3.0, before bringing the new NWM version to ‘Cedar’ and ‘Cedar S’ in February.
The June release added a supervised fine-tuning stage and direct output of steering-wheel angle and pedal signals.
Cockpit Switches Desktops by Gear
Headline cockpit changes tie the center display to the gear selector.
Shifting into P now opens the Artistic Realm desktop, while shifting into D switches to the Map desktop, according to the release notes.
Drivers can also reach the Artistic Realm theme-switching page with a five-finger pinch gesture.
Nio said the bottom navigation bar now stays visible inside the infinite canvas layout, and users can configure the bar more easily.
Tapping the child safety seat quick-control card now opens the corresponding settings page directly.
HUD Adds Minimalist Mode
A new minimalist head-up display mode shows only core information, including vehicle speed, speed limit and lane guidance.
Blind-spot turn-view images can also appear in this mode, which Nio said reduces visual distraction.
Gear-position values now display in real time when drivers adjust HUD height and angle.
Navigation gains two HUD-linked features.
During navigation or cruise-control operation, traffic-light countdowns can appear on the HUD when set to Standard mode.
At toll stations, the center display, instrument cluster and HUD simultaneously show lane distribution and payment method for each lane, distinguishing electronic toll collection from manual lanes.
Audio Profiles and Music Apps
Owners can now create and save up to 9 listening modes in the audio tuning panel. Each mode syncs Pro EQ, sound field, volume and mute settings in one tap.
While parked, a 3-minute guided process generates a personalized listening mode. Owners also receive a ‘Personal Listening Taste Poster’ they can save to the photo album.
QQ Music and NetEase Cloud Music now support dynamic player-style switching. Tapping an artist’s name on the playback screen in either app opens a full list of that artist’s songs.
On the ‘NOMI’ side, Nio added integration for a Snow Leopard AI Hat accessory. Features include greeting animations, a ‘Nine-Shot’ face-changing show and a dedicated navigation vehicle icon.
EC6 Receives Track Mode
EC6 owners receive a dedicated Track Mode aimed at driving enthusiasts.
Mode features include dedicated center-display and instrument-cluster interfaces, sci-fi and classic sound profiles, contrasting-color ambient lighting, and performance tuning for the suspension, steering and cooling systems.
Electric spoiler control now offers Automatic, Deceleration and High-Speed settings, with High-Speed enabled by default.
A track recording function combines dashcam footage with vehicle dynamics data to produce dedicated track videos. Owners can transfer the clips to a phone via the photo album.
Update Lands on Shrinking Volumes
All four ‘Cedar S’ models have lost volume in 2026.
EC6, ET5 Touring and ET5 sedan deliveries each fell more than 60% year over year in the first eight months, according to CPCA data.
EC6 sales totaled 322 units in August, down 71.9% year over year.
Year-to-date EC6 sales reached 3,873 units, down 70.9%. ES6 deliveries stood at 875 units in July, down 28.0% from June.
Nio launched the EC6 Aura Edition on September 22, the coupe SUV’s third special edition this year.
Pricing starts at 369,800 yuan ($54,900) with a 100-kWh battery, or 261,800 yuan ($38,800) under the Battery as a Service (BaaS) scheme.
Nio unveiled 2026 model-year versions of the four models in April and launched Champion Editions with deliveries beginning in June.
ET5 Touring deliveries reached 1,561 units in July and 1,628 in August.
A next-generation ET5 Touring prototype has appeared repeatedly on Chinese roads since August.
Weibo blogger ‘伸手摘星star’ wrote that the car will debut at Nio Day in Wuhan in December, with deliveries in the second quarter of 2027.
Nio has not confirmed the model’s name, platform or timing.
