Nio has sold one of its rare EP9 electric hypercars for $1.48 million, nearly a decade after the record-setting vehicle announced the Chinese automaker’s arrival in 2016.
“Before New Year’s Day at the end of last year, we had one EP9 in inventory and sold it at the original price of $1.48 million,” co-founder and president Lihong Qin said during a Q&A session on Sunday.
Qin said the buyer sent an engineering team to the United Kingdom to inspect the vehicle before completing the purchase. “After the inspection, they thought it was good,” he said. “This car had been sitting with us for over eight years.”
In the UK, Nio has a team led by its principal chief engineer Danilo Teobaldi, which is focused on attribute integration – “the way a car behaves when it is driven,” as the executive explained in a 2024 interview with the local outlet Autocar.
Besides the engineering center in Oxfordshire, Nio has other vehicle development operations in Shanghai, Hefei, Beijing, Nanjing, Munich and San Jose.
The premium EV brand is preparing to launch in a few months its most expensive SUV to date.
“We have this DNA for high-end vehicles,” Lihon Qin said on Sunday. “Everyone doesn’t need to worry.”
Record-Setting Origins
The EP9 was Nio‘s first vehicle, unveiled on November 21, 2016, at the Saatchi Gallery in London alongside the company’s brand name and logo.
Developed in just 18 months, the hypercar set back then a new electric vehicle lap record at Germany’s Nürburgring Nordschleife, completing the 20.8-kilometre circuit in 7 minutes and 5.12 seconds.
The vehicle also broke the EV record at Circuit Paul Ricard in France, recording a time of 1 minute 52.78 seconds — nearly a minute faster than the previous mark.
With four high-performance inboard motors and four individual gearboxes, the EP9 produces one megawatt of power, equivalent to 1,360 horsepower.
It accelerates from 0 to 200 kilometres per hour in 7.1 seconds with a top speed of 313 kph. The model has a range of 427 kilometres (265 miles) and can be charged in 45 minutes.
Founding Investors
The first batch of EP9s was limited to six units that were not available for sale.
Instead, they were given to NIO’s founding investors, including Chairman William Li, Tencent Holdings Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Ma Huateng, JD.com CEO Liu Qiangdong, Autohome Inc. founder Li Xiang, Xiaomi‘s co-founder Lei Jun, and Hillhouse Capital founder Zhang Lei.
ES9 Launch
Qin’s comments came as NIO prepares to launch its ES9 flagship SUV, with an event tentatively scheduled for April 10 — a few weeks before the Beijing Auto Show.
The ES9 will be Nio‘s largest and most powerful vehicle to date, measuring 5,365 millimetres in length with a dual-motor all-wheel drive system producing 520 kilowatts.
It is one of three large SUVs the Nio Group — which includes the Nio, Firefly, and Onvo brands — plans to launch this year in China.
