On October 31st, one month after the first batch of EC6 was delivered nationwide, as an ES6 owner, I finally had the opportunity to test drive the performance version of EC6.
My ES6 is a sports version that I picked up in April this year. The reason why I chose the sports version is that during the era of gasoline-powered cars, I had a Mk6 Golf R with a 2+ stage that could achieve 4 seconds acceleration, and after installing a TTE480 turbocharger, I also touched the threshold of the 3-second club. From gasoline cars to electric cars, from sports cars to SUVs, my needs are household, spaciousness and comfort, because I don’t expect a pure electric SUV will bring me any driving pleasure.
According to common sense, the Coupe-shaped EC6 should have been inclined towards niche market and not a high-volume model. However, after it was launched, EC6 sales greatly exceeded expectations, and the current production and delivery date has reached the first quarter of 2021.
According to NIO staff, the main reason is that the order volume is too large, which has led to insufficient supply of the panoramic sunroof in the supply chain, thus affecting the production capacity of EC6. Fortunately, the supply of panoramic sunroofs has now resumed normal levels. In addition, the panoramic sunroof of EC6 uses glass supplied by Wehrhahn with the top-level thermal insulation of 83% and UV insulation of 99.9%. From this point of view, NIO is still extremely generous in terms of materials.
More sleek styling
During the pre-sale period of EC6, I saw countless pictures, but I never saw the real car. To be honest, my expectations were not high, because too many automakers have turned SUVs into Coupes and messed up the design. But this time I saw the real car of EC6, and the styling design was amazing. The actual car looks better than the pictures, which was my first impression.
NIO EC6 has adopted body color design for the first time, and offers six car paint colors for users to choose from. In addition to the “Antarctic Blue” released on NIO Day 2019, there is also an EC6 special color “Polar Blue”.
The slope angle of the back of the EC6 is 17 degrees, including the entire arc of the front windshield, which has an angle of 28 degrees. This slope curve also gives EC6 excellent 0.26Cd aerodynamic performance, which is reduced by 0.02Cd compared to ES6. The aerodynamics are particularly important for a pure electric SUV of this size, which also increased the NEDC range of EC6 to 440 kilometers. After installing the 100-degree battery pack, its NEDC comprehensive range can reach a maximum of 615 kilometers.
The biggest change comes at the rear end. Although I have almost no feeling for coupe SUVs, the slightly upturned duck-tail design really embellishes the car’s rear end very beautifully.
In terms of interior design, EC6 still adopts NIO’s family style, and adds the Himalaya brown color to the color matching. It is worth mentioning that this time, the standard seat for EC6 is fabric splicing. I have also experienced woven seat cushions offline at NIO House. Although the design is very beautiful, I always feel that the texture is slightly inferior. The experience of long-term use of ES6 tells me that the queen seat is a configuration that looks impractical but is actually very practical, but the price is relatively expensive.
The microfiber suede headliner, 12-speaker surround sound system, microcloud material on the instrument panel, four door panels, and nappa leather sports steering wheel are all standard across the range. Frankly speaking, the standard objects really make me, as an ES6 owner, feel a little bit ripped off, and envy is the only emotion for EC6 owners.
Quite unexpectedly, the coupe styling of EC6 did not sacrifice too much headroom in the rear row, and the height space of the trunk was relatively affected. However, this has little impact on regular use. Achieving better appearance performance without sacrificing too much space performance, the designer has done a good job.
Acceleration is faster now.The vehicle model we test drove is the EC6 Performance Edition, with an official 0-100 acceleration time of 4.5 seconds, which is 0.2 seconds faster than the ES6 Performance Edition. It achieved this performance with a load of 300 kilograms, which is almost like Yao Ming and Shaquille O’Neal achieving this result. And if our weight doesn’t match up to these two big guys, the acceleration of this car will only be faster. “But even with that, it’s still an electric car,” is what’s going through my mind right now.
Speaking of kinetic energy recovery, I used to be a heavy user of gasoline cars, and I loved them more than many people. But interestingly enough, even though I had only spent one day getting used to it, I fell in love with kinetic energy recovery.
When the NIO EC6 kinetic energy recovery is set to the lowest level, the feeling of gliding when we ease off the accelerator is almost the same as driving a gasoline car, as smooth as BMW’s 8-speed automatic transmission, with no resistance. This is very friendly for users to transition from gasoline cars.
However, for senior electric car users, even if the kinetic energy recovery is set to the strongest level, it still does not have a one-pedal mode, and the last stop still requires stepping on the brake. Compared with Tesla’s early popularity of the one-pedal mode, NIO seems to be hoping to seize more market share in gasoline cars, as seen from the BASS battery rental plan.
The EC6’s 4.5-second acceleration performance, as well as its sporty exterior and interior design, looks very athletic and high-performance. Of course, this is enough. How can our esteemed NIO owners be slower than others at traffic lights? I used the NIO ES6 Sport Edition to educate my friend’s BMW M4 at countless traffic lights. Of course, when he issues a track invitation, I can only say “I’m out of here.”
In my opinion, the EC6’s chassis tuning is completely comfort-oriented, which is in line with its positioning, and I think there is no problem with that. Compared with my previous B16 and KW V3 suspensions that were really performance-oriented, sitting in the EC6 was like sitting on a sponge cushion, don’t even think about using such a suspension to take corners or you’ll doubt your life choices. Therefore, in my eyes, any mass-produced NIO model is not worthy of being called a performance car.
Feeling a little nervous, didn’t change lanes
Although our garage editor had experienced NOP before, as a car owner, I still want to talk about some feelings, after all, assisted driving is my second most important factor in switching from gasoline to electric cars.First of all, NOP relies on high-precision maps to control the speed of the curve in real-time, which has greatly improved NOP’s ability to handle curves compared to NP in the past. However, through deep experience, there are still some points worth criticizing.
I have been in contact with and learning about NIO for some time, and I have always believed that NIO is a company that is very good at managing user expectations and improving user satisfaction. But NOP’s lane-changing logic does not seem to have inherited this point well.
Subjectively, the lane-changing logic I perceived in NOP was to turn on the turn signal first, then sense whether the adjacent lane had the conditions for lane-changing, then hand it over to the chip for decision-making, and then execute the lane-changing operation. There is nothing wrong with the logic. However, the actual experience shows that the continuity of performance is relatively poor when the priority of turning on the turn signal is placed before the perception program.
When users are pursuing safety under NOP status, the goal is to minimize the labor intensity brought by driving. Simply put, I don’t require NOP to drive faster than me. Safety and comfort are what I want most. Today, when everyone is still using assisted driving, I firmly believe that NOP’s logic tends to be conservative and there is no problem. However, switching the step of turning on the turn signal from the perception layer to the execution layer also conforms to the driving habits of human drivers with experience.
Summary
As NIO’s third mass-produced model and the most mature product, the EC6 not only performs better in terms of cruising range but also adds more elements of youthfulness and sportiness in many details. It is obvious that NIO intends to make a breakthrough in the youth market.
Compared with the ES6 with the same configuration, the EC6 actually has a certain degree of price reduction. In addition, as a purely electric coupe-style SUV, there are almost no rivals for the NIO EC6 on this track.
I look forward to NIO’s better market performance, and of course, Model Y is also coming. If the Model Y does not continue to reduce prices, I will vote for the EC6.
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.