Electric cars are advancing at blinding speeds, and this new unit shows just how far they’ve come.
Chinese firm Nio has revealed its new ET5 electric sedan and claims it has a driving range of about 1000km.
The Tesla Model S has a driving range of more than 650km and is currently one of the best performing electric cars on sale.
The Model 3 rivalling ET5 will initially be sold in China before being launched in Europe.
Nio is one of several emerging Chinese electric car brands planning to rapidly expand as more markets push to make electric cars mainstream.
Nio was only established in 2014, but according to its share price it’s now worth $US44.8b ($62.88b).
That’s despite the fact that Nio only sold about 43,000 vehicles in 2020.
That figure is expected to grow as the brand expands out of China and into Europe, where petrol and diesel powered cars will cease to be sold in the next few decades.
Nio’s first EV was the seven-seat ES8 SUV, which launched in select countries in Europe recently and has been met with good reviews.
The ET5 will be available with a choice of three batteries: a 75kWh standard range version with a driving range of 550km, a 100kWh Long Range variant with 700km of range and a 150kWh Ultralong Range version with up to 1000km of range.
The battery pack on the Nio is far bigger than any being used by an electric car to date.
The top-spec Tesla Model S uses a 100kWh battery and Porsche’s Taycan Turbo S has a 93.4kWh battery.
The ET5 is available with two electric motors and all-wheel drive only. The front motor makes 150kW and the rear 210kW for combined outputs of 360kW/700Nm. It can sprint from 0-100km/h in 4.3 seconds.
The Nio also has another ace up its sleeve.
One of its main services is battery swapping, which according to some reports can be done in as little as three minutes, removing the need for long recharging times.
The battery can be swapped at special stations being built across five cities in Norway, reducing the need for long recharging times.
- News.com.au