CHENGDU: Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Nio will be rolling out standard gasoline automation engines from BMW to Audi later, launching their first sedan model on Saturday (January 9) as it sees a larger share of the world’s largest car market.
The ET7 was launched, at an event in the western city of Chengdu, when rival Tesla began selling its Model Y sports utility vehicle in China in the Chinese market.
Nio aims to expand its product line to attract more customers. In the passenger car market in China, sedans and SUVs each make up about 46 percent of total sales.
CEO William Li said Nio’s new battery technology will give the ET7 a driving range of more than 1,000km between charges.
The starting price is 378,000 Yuan (US $ 58,378) for the car without the battery pack, one of the most expensive EV parts, which can then be rented from the company. With the battery pack, the starting price is 448,000 Yuan.
Li said in an interview that the ET7 5-series target competitors are BMW, Audi’s A6 and Mercedes-Benz E-class sedans.
It was “reasonable” that Nio could sell the same number of ET7 sedans as the BMW 5-series sedans in China in the future, Li said, but did not provide details of the timeframe. The starting price for the BMW 5-series is 426,900 Yuan and BMW sells more than 10,000 of them every month in China.
Li said the ET7 will be equipped with lidar sensors – which help the car see its surroundings, and are often found in autonomous cars – to support drivers, a technology that has been dismissed by Tesla’s forward-thinking chief Elon Musk.
The Californian automaker, which sells Model 3-made sedans in Shanghai, has just started selling its Model Y vehicles at a starting price of 339,900 Yuan. It uses cameras to support drivers.
Nio, which delivered 43,728 vehicles last year, with a market capitalization of more than US $ 92 billion, surpasses the standard Daimler AG and General Motors engines. Investors have poured billions of dollars into the development of electric vehicles.
Li said “it’s not a bad thing” when asked about the company’s high market value, but said Nio is still relatively small compared to established companies like BMW in terms of sales volume.
It currently sells three SUV models built at a car factory in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei.
On Thursday, rival Nio Xpeng announced plans to release a new sedan model. It currently has a sedan and SUV in its line.