NIO first mass-production model starts at RMB 275,400

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- ES8, NIO’s first mass-production vehicle, was officially launched today in Beijing. At the launching ceremony, the Shanghai-based electric vehicle start-up unveiled the model’s price and presented many marvellous features and services, such as its swappable battery service system and NOMI artificial intelligence system.

The first 10,000 ES8 vehicles will be the Founder Edition, whose original price is RMB 548,000 and will be RMB 475,400 under 2017 Beijing government subsidy standard. NIO also provides battery renting service, which will reduce the price by another RMB 100,000. But this service requires users to pay RMB 1,280 per month. That means the buyer just needs to pay RMB 375,400 for the Founder Edition. However, all of the first 10,000 vehicles have been sold out. The price of the standard ES8 is RMB 448,000 and will be reduced to RMB 375,400 after the government subsidy. With its battery renting service, the price will be RMB 275,400.

The vehicle, unveiled at the 2017 Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition, is a 7-seat high-performance electric SUV with a length of 5022mm. The company said that ES8 can have a NEDC range of 355Km. The models has an all-aluminium body and chassis and is powered by two electric motors, one for the front wheel and one for the rear. According to William Li, founder and CEO of NIO, ES8 can reach the speed of 100km per hour in 4.4 seconds.

NIO Pilot, another highlight at the ceremony, is claimed to be the most advanced driving assistance system in all mass-production models with a total of 23 hardware, including 1 trifocal front-facing camera, 4 surround exterior cameras, 5 millimeter wave radars, 12 ultrasonic sensors and 1 driver monitoring camera.  And ES8 is the first mass-production model to be equipped with the autonomous driving chip Mobileye EyeQ4.

NOMI, an artificially-intelligent digital companion pronounced as “Know me”, can be able to learn the interest and information of the passengers to meet their needs. Based on the powerful on-board computing capability and cloud computing capability, NOMI creates a new interaction mode between human and vehicle.

At the ceremony, NIO also released NIO Power service system. The new SUV boasts a swappable battery pack, which can be swapped within 3 minutes. The company also introduced NIO Mobile, a recharging vehicle, and ten-minute recharging can make the vehicle run another 100km. By 2020, NIO will set up a total of 1,100 battery swapping stations and launch 1,200 battery recharging vehicles.

Based on cloud service and big data, NIO plans to build a power network to connect charging piles, charging stations, battery, ES8, NIO specialist and vehicle users. Thus users can refuel the vehicle much more conveniently.

The company also announced the cooperations with JD.com, a Chinese e-commerce giant and SF Express, a Chinese delivery service provider. NIO will join hands with them to provide in-car delivery service.