Today, the third car of NIO NT2.0 platform, the ES7, officially landed in the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), which means that the delivery of ES7 is not far away.

In fact, during the Q1 2022 financial report conference call, William Li mentioned that three car models of the NT2.0 platform will be launched this year. Among them, the first two car models, the ET7, have already been delivered, and the ET5 has also been officially available for order. However, there has been little news about the third product, the ES7. Today, we will dig deeper into all the exposed information and our guesses regarding the ES7.

Exterior

From the disguised spy photos to the real car pictures taken by netizens, and now the MIIT pictures, there is little doubt about the appearance of the ES7. It follows the X-Bar design of its big brother, the ET7, and continues the design concept of “Design for AD”.

In terms of lighting, it features a one-piece LED headlight and double-dash daytime running lights. The three-dimensional through-style taillights correspond to the daytime running lights in front.

The same design as the ET7 can be seen everywhere, such as the three-dimensional through-style taillights. However, some users criticized that the ES7’s taillights are not as good-looking as the ET7’s, which is subjective.

The ES7’s charging port is located in the same position as the ES6, on the right front fender, while the big brother ET7 has it on the rear of the car, which is the most controversial part.

Additionally, the side view camera located in the fender of the vehicle has been confirmed. Although this design provides better integration, there are some concerns from users about increased risk of scratches and dirt accumulation. Moreover, the protruding corners on the roof, similar to those on the ET7 and ET5, house the following advanced driving assistance hardware:

• One long-range laser radar sensor;
• Seven 8 million-pixel high-definition cameras;
• Four 3 million-pixel omnidirectional cameras from Sony;
• Four Orin X ADAS chips with a total computing power of 1,016 TOPS.

Dimensions

The ES7 fits between the ES6 (EC6) and the ES8, and is a large 5-seat model. Compared to the ES6, the ES7 is 6.2 cm longer in length and has a 6 cm longer wheelbase. This means that most of the added length goes to the cabin. If this extended space is fully utilized for the rear seats of this large 5-seat car, we expect an exceptional passenger experience for two reasons:

• During our test drive of the ET7, we found that due to the uniform height of the battery module (140 mm) to accommodate interchangeable batteries of the same specification, the floor of the ET7 is somewhat higher. Although the ET7 tries to compensate for the tall floor height (1,509 mm), the vertical space in the rear cabin is not optimal. This issue is expected to be addressed in the ES7.

• In addition, referring to the rear seat configuration of the ES7, it is expected to have ventilation, heating, and massage functions, all of which are not expected to be absent from the ES7.

Powertrain and Range

According to the parameters announced in the filing, the NIO ES7 uses a front and rear dual-motor four-wheel-drive layout, with its drive motors provided by NIO’s proprietary Wuling Power and Silicon Carbide Technology. The front motor has a maximum power output of 180 kW, and the rear motor has a maximum power output of 300 kW, with a total system power output of 480 kW and a total torque output of 850 N·m. This powertrain is identical to that of the NIO ET7, which is expected to reach 0-100 km/h in 3.8 seconds. The ES7 is expected to enter the 0-100km/h club in around 3.9 seconds, making it NIO’s fastest-accelerating SUV.The most advantageous point for driving is the weight, and the weight control of ES7 is also very good. Its size is larger than ET7 (2,349/2,379 kg) and ES6 (2,290 kg), but the weight is controlled at over 2.3 tons, which is due to the all-aluminum body.

Currently, NIO’s 75 kWh ternary lithium batteries and 100 kWh ternary lithium batteries correspond to CLTC conditions of 530 km and 675 km on ET7, respectively. I speculate that under the same set of dynamics, ES7 will generally be about 50 km lower, namely 480 km and 620 km.

At the same time, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has further exposed other information:

• ES7 has a maximum speed of 200 km/h;

• Approach/departure angle of 17/22, front/rear suspension of 936/1,017 mm;

• Tire specifications 255/50 R20, 265/45 R21.

Interior

In terms of interior, although there are currently no leaked images, we can refer to the ET5 and ET7 on the NT2.0 platform.

Considering that ET5, which is positioned lower than ES7, already has a lot of featured configurations as standard, ES7 should also be equipped with relevant configurations:

• 8155 cockpit chip

• AMOLED high-resolution central control screen

• 23-speaker Dolby panoramic sound system

• 7.1.4 immersive sound system

• Air suspension

• Electric suction door

• Seat massage

• VR glasses

Estimated Price

Finally, let’s take a guess at ES7’s price.

ES7 is positioned between ES6 (EC6) and ES8, but many of the configurations of NT2.0 models are standard across the board, such as the younger brother ET5. Therefore, the starting price of ES7 will not be low, and it may be close to ES8 (starting from CNY 478,000).Considering that the starting price of ET7, also from the “7” series, is at 448,000 yuan, and SUVs are usually priced higher, we expect the official price for ES7 to be between 450,000 and 500,000 yuan.

For potential NIO users, there are two situations to consider ES7:

• If you are considering the top configuration of EC6/ES6, the performance version with the NP full option package and some additional options, the vehicle price is already around 450,000 yuan. At this time, choosing the larger ES7 will come with the standard NAD hardware package.

• Or if your budget is around 500,000 yuan and you have your sights set on ES8 but finding out that the 6/7-seater in the 3rd row is not a hard requirement, then you can consider waiting for this new 5-seater vehicle.

NIO has mentioned many times that the main competitor for ES7 is a gasoline-powered SUV – the Brilliance BMW X5. Indeed, for pure electric mid-to-large-sized SUVs under 500,000 yuan, besides ES8, there is only the slightly larger model within the NIO family.

And the recently popular Ideal ONE L9 has come to the size of large SUVs and is undoubtedly a layout of three rows, so there should be very little overlap between the two, and they do not have much competitive relationship.

Therefore, we specifically picked out several gasoline-powered vehicle models that ES7 competes with for comparison. It can be seen that ES7 is not advantaged in size, but completely outperforms these models in terms of power, even their sports editions. ES7’s advantages also lie in the various top-level configurations mentioned earlier.

As a product of the NT2.0 platform, just like ET7 and ET5, ES7 has the responsibility of going global. And if we follow the prediction price of 500,000 yuan and compare it to the European and North American markets, then we can see the corresponding models, even up to the Porsche Cayenne starting at 923,000 yuan in China.

It is said that the officially unveiled models together with ES7 include the updated NIO 866. which makes me exclaim that NIO’s products this year are like making dumplings.

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.