“Hello World” is the theme of NIO Day 2021, which attracted 490 NIO users to participate in co-creation, and 450 user volunteers to provide support for NIO Day. However, speaking of the content of the event, it is obvious that the information released by NIO Day this time is not as much as that of NIO Day 2020 in early January this year, but…

NIO Day 2021 may be the most successful one in my heart for one reason: I placed an order.

What did they talk about?

NIO Day 2021 actually talked about four things: NIO’s development, NIO’s planning, the soon-to-be-delivered ET7, and the new car ET5.

About overseas strategy:

In 2021, NIO added 11 new NIO Houses, including the first overseas NIO House established in Oslo, Norway. In 2022, NIO’s products and full-service system will officially land in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark. At the same time, NIO plans to provide services for users in more than 25 countries and regions globally by 2025.

Oslo, Norway, as the “first battle” for NIO to enter the overseas market, represents only the first step for NIO to move towards globalization. However, with NIO’s products and full-service system landing in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark in 2022, NIO will officially become a global pure electric brand born in China.

At present, NIO will expand into at least 5 countries and regions every year to continuously penetrate the overseas market. For NIO, this is not only a challenge, but also perhaps an opportunity.

In terms of energy replenishment system:

Currently, 733 battery swap stations, 3,348 destination chargers, and 3,136 superchargers have been built for the future.

The NIO battery swap station provided less than 2 million battery swap services at the beginning of this year, but as of now, the NIO battery swap station has provided more than 5.5 million battery swap services.

In 2022, NIO will continue to layout its rechargeable and replaceable network, which is upgradable.

According to NIO’s plan, by 2022, NIO will have over 1,300 battery swapping stations, 6,000 supercharging stations, and 10,000 destination charging piles in the Chinese market.

In addition, NIO will also launch 7kW and 11kW DC home chargers.

ET7 to be delivered soon:

Previously, NIO set the goal of delivering the ET7 model in the first quarter of 2022, which is finally coming true now.

NIO officially announced that ET7 will begin preorders on January 20, 2022, and deliveries will start on March 28, 2022.

The 5,000 yuan deposit to reserve the car can be used as a 10,000 yuan discount on the purchase of the ET7. Existing NIO car owners who purchase the ET7 will receive a discount of 7,000 yuan and 30,000 points, while NIO ES8 founding edition car owners will receive 10,000 yuan and 50,000 points.

Maybe impulsive, but I ordered it

When Li Bin said, “At this moment, everyone can already select and match the ET5 in the NIO App” at the NIO Day 2021 event, I immediately picked up my phone without any hesitation. Initially, I just wanted to see how it looked, but in the end, I couldn’t resist…

Let’s take a look at the basic information of the NIO ET5:

• Dimensions: 4790 mm (L) x 1960 mm (W) x 1499 mm (H), with a wheelbase of 2888 mm.
• Using a new generation of efficient electric drive platform, still adopting a front and rear dual-motor layout.
• The front motor is a 150 kW asynchronous AC motor, while the rear is a 210 kW permanent magnet synchronous motor.
• The system’s total power is 360 kW (approximately 490 horsepower), with a comprehensive torque of 700 N·m.
• Wind resistance coefficient is 0.24 Cd, with 0-100 km/h acceleration in 4.3 seconds.

From the appearance, the NIO ET5 looks like a shrink version of the NIO ET7, but what attracts me the most is the rear design, especially the IllumiBlade taillights, the slightly upturned “ducktail”, and the sporty rear lip spoiler. Combined with the NIO ET7’s design elements, the rear design of the NIO ET5 is full but not overly plump.

In addition to the rear design, the front of the NIO ET5 still adopts the X-Bar design concept, and features a pop-out front spoiler and a through-type side flow guide. The roof is equipped with a panoramic glass sunroof with a lighting area of 1.28 square meters.

During the NIO Day 2021, when William Li introduced the NIO ET5, the most confident sentence he said was “Standard in every configuration”.

Currently, the NIO ET5, like the NIO ET7, is equipped with the Aquila NIO Sensing System and the Adam NIO Computing Platform as standard across the lineup. In terms of the layout of autonomous driving perception hardware, it still adopts a watchtower-style layout.

The NIO ET5 is equipped with 33 perception hardware, including: 1 lidar, 7 8-million-pixel high-definition cameras, 4 3-million-pixel high-sensitivity Night Vision cameras provided by Sony, 5 millimeter wave radars, 12 ultrasonic sensors, 1 ADMS enhanced driver’s perception, 2 high-precision positioning units, and 1 V2X vehicle-to-everything perception.The NAD (NIO Autonomous Driving) function of the NIO ET5 still adopts a subscription model, with a subscription fee of RMB 680/month. If you think you don’t need the NAD function, the 19 standard auxiliary driving functions of the NIO ET5 are sufficient for daily and long-distance travel.

In addition to AQUILA and ADAM, the NIO ET5 series also comes standard with frameless electric suction doors and a 1000W power, 23-speaker, 7.1.4 surround sound, and support for Dolby panoramic sound.

That being said, let’s talk about the cockpit of the NIO ET5, which is the highlight of this car, as NIO has integrated VR/AR technology into the cockpit.

The NIO ET5 cockpit, equipped with AR/VR technology, is called the PanoCinema panoramic digital cockpit. NIO and innovative AR company NREAL have jointly developed exclusive AR glasses, which can project a super-large screen with a visual distance of 6 meters and an equivalent of 201 inches. At the same time, NIO has also cooperated with NOLO to develop NIO VR Glasses, which are equipped with ultra-thin Pancake lenses and can achieve dual 4K display.

I remember chatting with a colleague last week, and he mentioned that he hoped the screen display effect of the intelligent cockpit could be like that of the BMW i8 concept car in “Mission Impossible,” projecting images onto the entire front windshield and allowing for interaction. I told him at the time that this design would be too expensive and it would be more feasible to wear AR glasses…

As it turns out, NIO has really integrated AR/VR head-mounted display technology into the car…

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NIO ET5 is equipped with a 10.2-inch digital instrument panel and a 12.8-inch AMOLED touchscreen display. The digital instrument panel uses HDR high dynamic range image technology, and the central control screen supports 100% NTSC color gamut.

The interior of NIO ET5 adopts Clean + environmentally friendly fabrics and Clean + polymer materials, fully reflecting the concept of recycling and environmental protection.

Lastly, let’s talk about the price and cruising range.

NIO ET5 offers three battery capacity options under CLTC conditions:

• 75 kWh battery pack pure electric cruising range is 550 km;

• 100 kWh battery pack pure electric cruising range is 700 km;

• 150 kWh battery pack pure electric cruising range is 1000 km.

However, the 150 kWh battery pack is not yet online, and we can only choose the 75 kWh battery pack and 100 kWh battery pack in the NIO App. As for the price:

• The purchase price of the entire vehicle with a 75 kWh battery pack is 328,000 yuan;

• The purchase price of the entire vehicle with a 100 kWh battery pack is 386,000 yuan.

The price after using the Baas battery rental service is 258,000 yuan. The monthly fees are 980 yuan for the 75 kWh battery pack and 1480 yuan for the 100 kWh battery pack.

At the same time, users who buy NIO ET5 can enjoy the car owner’s rights, including 10-year unlimited mileage free warranty, lifetime free battery replacement, lifetime free vehicle networking, free exclusive chargers, and lifetime free roadside assistance.

In fact, after experiencing NIO’s products, people will find that ET5 is “a real deal” with its price of 258,000 yuan and the configurations it offers. But the key point is “delivery starts in September 2022”, which may be NIO’s fastest delivery ever.

(P.S. If I’m not mistaken…)
“`

Maybe it was impulsive, but when I was selecting options on the NIO App for the ET5, I couldn’t resist and placed the order. Or maybe it wasn’t impulsive – for someone like me who commutes daily, occasionally goes to the suburbs to run or rarely takes their car on long trips, the NIO ET5 aroused my purchasing desire.

During NIO Day 2021, NIO partnered with Alan Walker to create the single “Hello World”. Its global debut of a “cross-time and space” electronic music performance took place as the event was drawing to a close.

However, many people, including myself, didn’t seem to have the time or mind to listen, as everyone seemed to be busy placing their orders…

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.