Limited Edition ET9 Sells Out After NIO Day Guangzhou Reveal

NIO ET9 Flagship Smart Electric Sedan Debuts at NIO Day 2024

Yesterday, we introduced the release of NIO’s third brand “FIRFLY”. Actually, On the night of NIO DAY on December 21, William Li, the founder of NIO used much of the time to unveil the most important model for NIO, its flagship smart electric sedan, the NIO ET9.

Positioning as a premium flagship sedan for corporate executives and industry elites, the car is rivalling with the premium models from luxury brands such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi. The ET9 offered two trims:

NIO's founder William Li told the media that all 999 units of Limited Edition ET9s has been sold out the day after the event.

Advanced Features and Innovations

Touted for its high-end specs, the ET9 features 9 major innovations including design, space, comfort, audio, intelligent systems, smart driving, safety, electric powertrain, and overall driving experience, and is equipped with 12 in-house developed technological advancements, and has filed 1,081 patent applications. Most importantly, ET9 is the second mass-produced vehicle to incorporate steer-by-wire technology worldwide, following Tesla's CyberTruck.

The steer-by-wire technology is used on NIO’s "Sky Ride" chassis. During the event, William Li showcased the stability and safety by two videos. One showing a ET9 been driven over a speed bump, the four layers of champagne glasses, which were placed on the hood of the ET9, remains still. In the second video, William Li drove the ET9 towards ground spikes at a speed as high as 160 km/h, the car can ride steadily event with a tire blowout.

Specifications and Design

Let’s dive into some other specs of the flagship sedan.

The ET9 has a length, width, and height of 5324mm, 2016mm, and 1620mm, respectively, and a wheelbase of 3250mm long. It has a four-seater layout creating a spaced and private seating area. On the rear row, the seats has a thickness of 582mm like first-class airplane seats, comfortable indeed. Besides, the rear seats can be reclined at an angle of 135°. As a executive sedan, a 360° adjustable executive desk is a must.

Intelligent Systems and Smart Driving

-          The ET9 is smart as well. By utilizing the Cedar intelligent system, the car has the ability to full-modal perception, end-to-end cognition, and emotional engine evolution with NOMI.

-          NIO’s Cedar AQUILA super sensing system on the ET9 is vital to the intelligent driving ability. It has over 30 high-precision sensing hardware components, such as long-range lidar and 4D imaging radar, which can achieve a maximum perception range of over 400,000 square meters, as big as 60 football fields.

-          The ET9 is equipped with the in-house developed Shenji NX9031 chip, boosting a great support to the computing ability for the car.

Powertrain

The ET9 is built in 900V high-voltage architecture, boosting a 520kW powertrain, besides, it uses the world's first 925V continuous wave winding motor as a rear motor, can produce  an electricity consumption as low as 16.2kWh/100km. The battery pack is 100-degree, supporting a CLTC comprehensive range of 650km.

Market Position

Study from the market data, Autocango learns that the NIO delivered 15,493 units in November, which is significantly lower compared to the first-tier Chinese NEV startips such as Li Auto, Leapmotor, and HIMA, whose monthly deliveries reaching 30,000-40,000 units.

Accumulatively, NIO has delivered 180,599 units in the first 11 months of 2024, with an estimated annual sales of about 220,000 units.

The ET9, targeting the corporate executives and industry elites is facing rival with HIMA's Maextro S800, co-created by Huawei and JAC Group, which is expected to be officially launched in April-May 2025. The ET9 has a long journey ahead.