Author: CH_Chen
Can it compete with the BMW X5?
Last night, NIO’s sixth car model, the intelligent electric mid-to-large SUV – NIO ES7, was officially launched with a pre-subsidy price starting at 468,000 Yuan.
As a new car from NIO, it is bound to attract attention. The appearance, interior, space, performance, intelligence, range, and configuration of the ES7 have become the focus of everyone’s attention.
As the discussion on the internet heats up, the familiar question arises:
How dare a Chinese brand SUV sell for 500,000 Yuan?
Has Performance, Has Temperature
In the past, when evaluating high-end car models, mechanical parts such as the body, chassis, and power were the most important parts that had to be mentioned and could best reflect the value.
If we evaluate a mid-to-large SUV with an aluminum alloy body, front double-wishbone + rear H-arm multi-link suspension structure, standard CDC damping continuously adjustable shock absorbers + air suspension, four-wheel drive, maximum output power of 480 kW, and 0-100 km/h acceleration in 3.9 seconds in traditional dimensions of a vehicle, how much should it cost?
The answer is: it must be over one million Yuan.
However, such mechanical hardware can already be obtained in the NIO ES7, which starts at 468,000 Yuan before subsidies. Without a doubt, NIO’s products are worth the price in terms of mechanical hardware.
Naturally, just as a chef cooks a dish, it is a waste even with high-quality ingredients without good cooking skills. NIO’s “cooking skills” on the ES7 are also even more exquisite.
In terms of braking, NIO has adopted the brand-new IDB technology. By applying linear control technology, the braking build-up speed has increased four times, and the braking distance from 100 km/h to 0 has been reduced to 33.9 meters. And it greatly enhances the linear feel of the brakes.
In terms of the chassis, NIO ES7 uses the NIO full-stack self-developed ICC intelligent chassis domain controller, breaking the traditional black box software tuning for the chassis, enabling the chassis to have better scalability and rapid iterative capability.
In short, NIO has firmly controlled the chassis tuning in its own hands, so it can be more flexible and faster to tune the chassis to the desired state. The previously launched NIO ET7, which was the first to be equipped with ICC, has already demonstrated NIO’s strength in tuning the chassis. The performance of the ES7’s chassis is equally worth looking forward to.
As a high-end car model, while the mechanical foundation is important, the luxurious appearance is also essential for the ES7’s profile which measures 4919 x 1987 x 1720 mm and has a wheelbase of 2960mm, ensuring a sense of volume in the exterior and space inside the car.
Sitting inside the ES7, it’s not appropriate to describe its interior as “luxurious” because luxury is extravagant and ostentatious. “Sophisticated” is a more appropriate adjective to use because it is understated and restrained. If there is a word above “sophisticated”, I would choose “warm”.
“Warm and sophisticated” brings a cozy comfort, like the feeling of coming home, which is the impression that the new familial interior design of NIO has brought me.
The warmth and comfort of the ES7 is conveyed through various details:
- The color scheme and material of the interior design are pleasing to the eye
- The touch of the steering wheel, seats, ceiling, and rattan wood trim inside the car makes my hands feel comfortable
- As soon as I sat in the new car cabin, I smelled the fresh air without any unpleasant odors, which tells me that I am comfortable
- I tried all the seats, moving from the driver’s seat to the passenger seat, and then to the back seat. My lower back and buttocks tell me that I am comfortable.
Without much explanation, just looking, touching, smelling, and experiencing it all for yourself, you can easily feel NIO’s cockpit design concept for the second living room of the ES7.
Behind this comfort is actually the assurance of technology and configuration.
For the ES7, NIO’s first use of eco-friendly material, Nappa leather made from coffee beans, not only reduces environmental impact, but also has fewer VOCs (volatile organic compounds), ensuring that the interior has no odours.
As for the seats, the driver’s seat of the ES7 is supported by 18-way adjustment, while the front passenger seat is equipped with a queen seat. The left and right seats in the back row support 23°-31° electric backrest adjustment and lumbar support adjustment. The front seats are equipped with ventilation, heating, massage, and Air Cushion pressure relief systems, while the seats on both sides of the back row are equipped with heating and Air Cushion pressure relief systems.
To make sure passengers in every position in the car are comfortable, NIO has included almost all the features that can be equipped as standard on the ES7.# Design for AD
The NIO ES7 is a high-spec, high-performance mechanical masterpiece with an extremely comfortable cockpit. As a car and an industrial mechanical product, it is obviously worth its price tag of 500,000 CNY.
However, as a new era smart electric vehicle, how can we ignore the dazzling smart features of the NIO ES7?
Even the design language of its appearance has been defined as Design for AD, conceived for autonomous driving, redefining the appearance of the automotive industry in the era of autonomous driving.
Everyone who sees this car for the first time cannot ignore the “horns” on its head – the top-mounted two 8 million pixel cameras and one long-range high-precision LIDAR.
They constantly remind you that this car is equipped with the Aquila NIO Sensing system and the ADAM NIO supercomputing platform, with 33 high-performance sensing hardware and 4 NVIDIA Drive Orin chips, capable of up to 1016 TOPS of computing power.
With the launch of the three NT2.0 platform models from NIO and an increasing number of smart electric vehicles with similar designs on the market, this design has become one of the standard designs for smart electric vehicles of the new era.
With powerful hardware as a guarantee, the NIO ES7 is equipped with 21 standard safety and driving assistance functions, including automatic emergency braking, vehicle blind spot warning, i-ACC intelligent adaptive cruise control, ALC turn signal control and lane change assistance.
At the same time, the future will also open up NAD (NIO Autonomous Driving) monthly subscription payment plan to gradually achieve full coverage of high-speed, urban, parking and battery swap scenarios, and gradually achieve point-to-point autonomous driving function, making long-distance travel and urban commuting safer and easier.
In terms of the smart cockpit, the NIO ES7 is equipped with the second generation of NIO Digital Cockpit, based on the third generation of Qualcomm Snapdragon automotive digital cockpit platform, with on-board mobile interconnectivity and communication capabilities such as 5G/V2X/Bluetooth 5.2/Wi-Fi 6/UWB/NFC, and supports access to high-performance AR and VR devices jointly developed by NIO and its partners.The AR device of NIO ES7 can achieve a cinema-level screen experience of up to 201 inches, accompanied by a standard 23-speaker, 1000W 7.1.4 immersive sound system and Dolby Atmos, which fully satisfies the demand for immersive movies in the car.
Undoubtedly, the level of intelligence of NIO ES7 represents the highest level of mass-produced cars in the automotive industry. This means that even if you spend double or even triple the price, it is difficult to find cars that are more intelligent than it in the current car market.
Times Have Changed, Mate！
In fact, at least a year ago, we should have realized the fact that “Chinese brands have the ability to stand firm in the high-end car market.”
As long as we abandon the preconceived notions, objectively look at the global trend of electrification and intelligence of cars, compare electric cars and fuel cars with consistent standards, and evaluate Chinese-brand new energy vehicles, perhaps the question we should ask is:
Why can’t a Chinese-brand SUV be sold for 500,000 yuan?
The trend of electric and intelligent cars has a great impact on the traditional car evaluation system.
As a very intuitive example, when the Lexus LS commercial with a champagne tower on the hood was released, people praised it because it was difficult to make the engine run quietly, smoothly, and with little vibration while having high performance. This is one of the main reasons why we pursue engines with large displacement and multiple cylinders such as V6, V8, and V12, and it is also the biggest obstacle that Chinese brands cannot break through in the high-end automotive market.
However, now, even a thirty-thousand-yuan Wuling Hongguang MINI EV can achieve what the Lexus LS was only able to do, and a new energy vehicle that costs two to three hundred thousand yuan can easily surpass the power performance of a million-yuan fuel car and dominate it in terms of intelligence.
Therefore, the vigorous promotion of electric and intelligent cars in the country not only clears the biggest obstacle for Chinese brands to challenge the high-end car market, but also gives Chinese-brand new energy vehicles the confidence to compete with traditional luxury-brand fuel cars.
Earlier this year, when NIO first revealed information about the ES7, NIO CEO William Li publicly stated:# “NIO ES7 to Compete with Domestic BMW X5”
This statement may sound provocative to some, as it challenges the common understanding of many people. Although NIO did not eventually bring the price of the ES7 down to the range of the domestic BMW X5, the results of this hands-on static experience showed that the NIO ES7 has the strength to compete with the BMW X5.
In terms of mechanical hardware, the luxury of the car interior, and the comfort of static seating, NIO ES7 is not inferior at all. In terms of absolute performance and intelligent level, NIO ES7 has overwhelming advantages. The most obvious gap in the product may be the difference in the mileage and energy efficiency between electric cars and fuel cars.
However, as a replaceable battery model, the disadvantage of the NIO ES7 in this regard is much smaller than that of other brands of electric cars. It is not only fast to recharge, but also its mileage can be flexibly upgraded at any time.
Currently, the NIO ES7 CLTC with a 75kWh battery pack has a cruising range of 485km, and the CLTC with a 100kWh battery pack has a cruising range of 620km. If the upcoming 150kWh battery pack is used, the CLTC cruising range will be close to 1000km.
Even if we cut the mileage in half, the ability to run 500km at a stretch is enough to meet the needs of most people.
Of course, before driving the NIO ES7, we cannot draw a conclusion, as the mechanical tuning of the BMW is profound. The difference in driving experience between the two could only be known after driving.
Fortunately, we won’t have to wait too long, as NIO ES7 is expected to start delivery in late August. By then, we can make a hands-on comparison.
Buying more than a new car, but a new life
At the end of the article, I would like to “add a personal touch” and talk about my experience as an old user of the NIO ES6 in the past two years.
I remember more than two years ago, when I made up my mind to buy a NIO ES6, I was also asked similar questions, “Why is NIO ES6 worth 400k?”
My answer then was, “I want to experience a high-quality electric car with advanced driving assistance functions.” At the end of 2019, my choices were really limited.
Looking back now, I was too young and simple when I first judged NIO’s products, which resulted in some deviations. Initially, I was attracted by its acceleration performance, all-aluminum body, spacious interior, and advanced driver assistance system. All I wanted was a large SUV that was suitable for family use, stylish, and a bit unique.
Who could have thought that it would change my life so much?
First of all, the biggest change in terms of finances was that I gave up the idea that I had to keep a gasoline car for long trips. After my gasoline car sat idle at home for half a year, I had to give it up reluctantly.
Thanks to the battery swap and advanced driver assistance system, as well as the convenient charging and battery-swapping facilities around Guangzhou, driving the ES6 for long distances is clearly more comfortable. Most of the time, the energy replenishment efficiency is not much worse than that of a gasoline car, but the cost of travel has been greatly reduced. I really can’t find a reason to keep a gasoline car for long-distance trips.
I haven’t even installed a home charging station yet, but only because of six words:
“Free battery swap is awesome!“
In addition, the change that affected the most people was that our whole family became frequent users of NIO’s services. I would go play soccer, my wife would do crafts, and my little princess would often stay in the NIO House children’s park, reluctant to leave.
More and more of my friends on social media are NIO car owners, and it’s easy to establish trust and connections between people because of common shared facilities like the NIO House and battery swap stations, and similar experiences and topics related to car use.
Finally, in terms of time, there has been a significant increase in the amount of time that I spend with my car. In addition to commuting every day, I also often work and rest inside the car. On weekends, I drive it camping and have already bought equipment for sleeping inside it. In the past, I thought four hours of driving on a long trip were boring and tedious, but now, I find driving 1,000 kilometers at a stretch in it to be not only exciting but also enjoyable. I’m already thinking about planning a trip to Southwest China or Northwest China.
In the two and a half years since then, there have been many high-quality electric vehicles with advanced driver assistance systems on the market, but I have never regretted my decision.
On the one hand, this is because ES6 has been consistently updating its OTA system in the past years, and its advanced driving assistance system remains top-notch within the industry. On the other hand, buying a car for four to five hundred thousand yuan is not just about buying the car itself, but also about buying the experience. The experience that NIO ES6 provides has far exceeded my expectations when I bought the car.
If I were to continue talking, I could write another ten thousand or twenty thousand words. I could write about how the NIO tire repair car saved me, or how their “underwater hotpot” style service resulted in me only ever adding windshield wiper fluid for two years after buying my car. I could write about how NIO Life slowly but surely infiltrated my kitchen cabinets, bookshelves, and closets, making it hard to resist.
All of these are firsthand and authentic experiences from owning a car, and cannot simply be measured in terms of how much value they bring to the car. However, they have certainly enriched my life and made me feel that owning this car has made my life easier and more enjoyable.
Therefore, if your car budget is around 500,000 RMB, I would suggest taking a look at the NIO ES7. Don’t worry about idle chatter on the internet, such as “why do you need so many services for one car?” or “you only need services when the car is bad”, or “NIO car owners have all been brainwashed by NIO”.
Just go and take a look, try it out, and understand the lifestyle changes that come with owning a NIO ES7, and whether they lead to the kind of life you aspire to.
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.