Before the official release of the ET9’s pricing, NIO’s chairman, William Li, excitedly exclaimed:
ET9 is the best car of this era.
Let’s take a look at the prices for different versions of the ET9:
- Standard version, starting at 788,000 RMB, with a battery rental plan starting at 660,000 RMB;
- Limited First Edition, starting at 818,000 RMB, with a battery rental plan starting at 690,000 RMB.
Additionally, ET9 includes benefits such as 3 years of full-scenario driver service and 20 complimentary battery swaps each year for 5 years.
Meanwhile, NIO’s third brand Firefly also made its debut during this NIO Day. So far, NIO holds three brands: NIO, ONVO, and Firefly. These brands cover a wide range of user groups including small car users, big car users, family users, and business users, spanning a broad market from the 100,000 RMB tier to the 800,000 RMB tier.
William Li has mentioned multiple times the goal of doubling sales next year and achieving profitability by 2026, a goal that requires the synergy of the NIO, ONVO, and Firefly brands. From this perspective, launching both the ET9 and Firefly during NIO Day 2024 holds significant importance for NIO’s forward momentum.
ET9, a Luxury Car with a Distinctively Unconventional Design
At first glance, the ET9 clearly isn’t designed along traditional luxury car lines.
In the era of fuel cars, traditional luxury cars represented by the Benz S-Class, Maybach S-Class, BMW 7 Series, and FAW Audi A8L often favored a yacht body design. With the need for a powerful engine in the front compartment, these cars typically feature elongated front ends.
To accommodate the cooling requirements of powerful engines, traditional luxury cars place special emphasis on front grille design to meet functional needs while enhancing the vehicle’s imposing presence. Moreover, traditional luxury cars often favor large rim designs to further promote a sense of elegance and nobility.
Over time, these design elements—yacht bodies, long hoods, commanding front grilles, and large rims—have become hallmarks of luxury cars, deeply influencing automotive design and customer perceptions of luxury vehicles.
However, in the era of new energy, while models like the Benz EQS and BMW i7 may not feature traditional grille designs, they still follow conventional paradigms to craft a luxury image. Even the Zeekr 008 aims for an immediate sense of prestige with styling cues like the starburst headlights, shining diamond-shaped grille base, and large wheels.
ET9 takes a different route, featuring none of these classic luxury car exterior elements such as the yacht body or elongated hood.In terms of exterior design, the ET9 adopts the “aero-body” design concept, delivering a sense of power while maintaining sleek lines. Officially, the ET9 is described as “a pure electric jet cruising at ground level.”
In terms of design elements and exterior styling, the ET9 aligns closely with NIO’s other models, offering ample white space for a fresh, minimalist, and restrained look. While it lacks intricate designs that immediately signal luxury, the ET9’s substantial size of 5,325 mm in length, 2,017 mm in width, and 1,621 mm in height still conveys a majestic presence.
To ensure ample cabin space, the ET9’s front end is not particularly long. However, NIO has finally provided a front trunk with a 105 L capacity on the ET9.
The ET9’s wheels do not feature the large disc style typical of top luxury cars. In fact, the standard 23-inch large wheels exude more athleticism, complemented by floating hub caps. As the wheels turn, the NIO logo at the center remains stationary. Additionally, the ET9’s rear features a large intelligent electric spoiler to further enhance driving performance and boost the sporting aesthetic.
Noteworthy is the story behind the ET9’s paintwork. According to official information, the ET9’s paint process draws inspiration from the crafting and polishing techniques used in porcelain-making. After spraying, the surface is hand-polished for dozens of hours to impart a more luxurious appearance.
Overall, the ET9’s exterior is distinctly different from the flashy style of traditional luxury cars, favoring a more understated and modest approach.
NIO’s Vision for the Cabin Comes to Life in the ET9
From the appearance unveiled at last year’s NIO Day to today, a full year has passed, and we can finally explore the ET9’s interior. NIO ET9’s interior marks a significant departure from NIO’s previous models and traditional luxury cars.
With a wheelbase of 3,250 mm, the ET9 features a four-seat arrangement, complete with refrigerator, color TV, and large sofa, while the “Sky Island” on the canopy and the “Executive Bridge” running through the front and rear seats serve to separate the four seats.
The “Sky Island” allows for dual-zone independent control of the sunshade curtain, enabling passengers to personalize the integrated spotlights, ambient lights, and reading lights; the “Executive Bridge” employs luxurious surface materials to provide a more premium touch, and incorporates accessories such as wireless charging, small tables, air vents, and control screens to meet users’ functional needs.
Looking at the ET9’s seats, there is no doubt that at this level, ventilation, heating, massage, and leg rests are standard features. The front passenger seat is equipped with a 350 mm rail, supporting forward movement of up to 292 mm to provide greater seating space for the rear-seat occupants.The sound system of the ET9 must be highlighted. Named SkyGO Philharmonic, it is the industry’s first 8.2.4.8 sound system. These numbers refer to:
- 8 directions on the horizontal channel, including front center, front left, front right, rear left, rear right, left surround, right surround, and rear center, totaling 21 speakers;
- 2 subwoofer speakers;
- 4 sky channel speakers;
- 8 headrest speakers.
According to official data, the SkyGO Philharmonic sound system of ET9 has a rated power output of 2,800 W. Among these, the 8 headrest speakers of the ET9 are equipped with ARNC Active Noise Cancellation technology, enhancing in-car tranquility.
The intelligent interaction within the cabin is another highlight of the ET9.
In terms of intelligent interaction, the ET9 is fully equipped with screens, including a 15.6-inch AMOLED central control screen, two 14.5-inch OLED rear entertainment screens, an 8-inch rear control screen, and a strip screen spanning the dashboard.
At the front of the front armrest box, the ET9 is also equipped with a TUI Bar “Lingxi island,” allowing users in a comfortable semi-reclined position to control the central screen with gestures such as single-finger, dual-finger, and three-finger swipes, for functions like driving mode switching and music playback.
Additionally, the ET9 features a full-range AR-HUD, which can be compared to a combination of existing W-HUD and AR-HUD functionalities. It includes an equivalent 31-inch W-HUD at the near focus distance of 5 m, and an equivalent 130-inch AR-HUD at the far focus distance of 15 m.
Naturally, ET9 also includes interactions based on NOMI and NIO Phone. The newly released NOMI 3.0 version introduces the first-ever collaboration with an external microphone and strives for silence during rotation.
As an executive flagship sedan, maintaining in-cabin privacy is a fundamental trait of the ET9. To meet users’ privacy needs, the ET9 is fitted with 3.95 ㎡ of privacy glass throughout the vehicle. Additionally, like the Maybach S-Class, the ET9 features a small triangular window at the rear door, along with the door frame, to further protect the privacy of rear passengers.
Moreover, the ET9 includes a “One-Touch Privacy” feature, which allows the electric sunshades of the entire vehicle to be activated with a single touch. In the rear, the ET9 is also equipped with a central safe, enabling business users to store confidential documents, or perhaps the private savings of family members.It is apparent that the ET9 takes into consideration all aspects expected of a luxury car, such as comfort, prestige, technology, and privacy.
The Era’s Most Noteworthy Automotive Technologies Are Almost All Found in the ET9
Drive-by-wire steering, active suspension, intelligent driving chips, and high-voltage platforms—these cutting-edge automotive technologies are almost all present in the ET9.
First, let’s explore the ET9’s drive-by-wire steering. This system eliminates the mechanical connection between the steering wheel and the turning wheels, relying completely on electrical signals for control, allowing users to freely design the steering wheel’s angle and resistance.
According to official information, the drive-by-wire steering in the ET9 can intelligently adjust the steering ratio between 14:1 and 6:1 based on speed; the steering wheel can telescope forward 35 mm and backward 118 mm. Moreover, when the ET9 is in smart cruise or autonomous parking scenarios, the drive-by-wire steering can decouple the steering wheel entirely from the turning wheels, using slight movements to indicate the vehicle’s direction to users.
Although drive-by-wire steering is more advanced technically, its lack of a steering column raises the safety redundancy requirements significantly. According to official data, the core steering motor in the ET9 employs a 6-phase motor, enhancing reliability by 2.2 times compared to common electric power steering systems on the market.
Simultaneously, the ET9 is equipped with rear-wheel steering and fully active hydraulic suspension.
The ET9’s rear wheels can steer up to a maximum single direction of 8.3°, achieving a minimum turning diameter of 10.9 m, comparable to that of a compact car.
The fully active hydraulic suspension is highly integrated with the electric drive unit of the active suspension, offering a wide and fast range of stiffness, height, and damping adjustments. To demonstrate its practical application capabilities, NIO conducted a champagne tower test for the ET9, which can serve as a reference.
Additionally, the ET9’s fully active hydraulic suspension can interact with movie or game visuals, swiftly providing appropriate feedback for a more immersive viewing or gaming experience.
On the intelligent driving front, the ET9 features NIO’s Aquila 2.0 super-sensing system, two Shenji NX9031 chips, and a world model-based intelligent driving solution.
Aquila 2.0 includes 31 sensing hardware components such as long-range LiDAR, dual-side wide-angle LiDAR, and 4D imaging radar. The long-range LiDAR incorporates NIO’s self-developed Yangjian chip, reaching a maximum detection distance of 500 m, while the entire Aquila 2.0 system boasts a sensing range exceeding 400,000 square meters.Shenji NX9031 is a 5 nm smart driving chip independently developed by NIO. In July of this year, the tape-out was officially announced, and it is finally going to be delivered on the ET9.
As for the computational power of the Shenji NX9031, Li Bin hasn’t been specific, only stating that “one chip is equivalent to four.” Nevertheless, the ET9 opted for two Shenji NX9031 chips to improve redundancy and safety—one for computation and the other for backup.
In terms of the three-electric systems, the ET9 is equipped with a 900 V high-voltage platform, with a maximum voltage reaching 925 V. Besides supporting battery swap as usual, the ET9 also boasts a very high peak charging power of 600 kW and a peak charging current of up to 765 A.
Additionally, the ET9 features a 1,200 V silicon carbide power module with dual motors of 180 kW + 340 kW, delivering a peak torque of 8,000 N·m and 0-100 km/h acceleration within 4 seconds. When it comes to performance, NIO is not holding back.
The front headlamps of the ET9 are also technologically advanced. According to official information, the ET9’s headlamps have a maximum illumination distance of 500 m, which can utilize algorithms to avoid illuminating vehicles, electric bikes, pedestrians, and other road participants, achieving zonal lighting. Moreover, the headlamps support projection, steering-linked turning, width indication, and pedestrian interaction functions.
In passive safety, the ET9 is not only robust but also intelligent. According to official data, 2,000 Mpa thermoformed high-strength steel is used in areas like the door ring main body, door inner reinforcing beams, and B-pillar inner reinforcement plates. Additionally, the ET9’s torsional rigidity reaches 52,600 N·m/deg.
Underpinned by NIO’s vehicle-wide operating system, SkyOS (Tianshu), the company claims that in the event of a tire blowout, the ET9 can achieve “millisecond-level response and centimeter-level yaw control.” The reliability and safety of this feature were personally verified by Li Bin driving the ET9 over road nails.
Li Bin’s Ambition Is Strong, Can the ET9 Handle It?
It is now rare to see Li Bin as actively involved and vigorously promoting a car as he does with the ET9.
In the week preceding the ET9’s launch, Li Bin shot short experience videos inside the ET9 with Midea’s Chairman Fang Hongbo, Horizon’s founder Yu Kai, and BAI Capital’s founding partner Long Yu. Li Bin also invited former Volkswagen CEO Diess to experience the ET9, who described his impressions after the experience as “impossible.”Li Bin, in a rare move, donned a racing suit and drove the ET9, accelerating towards terrain pins at speeds of 150 km/h and 160 km/h, respectively, to verify ET9’s safety capability of “millisecond-level response and centimeter-level yaw” after a blowout.
The reason for such dedication is the immense effort and ambition infused in the ET9 by NIO.
The planning and development of the ET9 began in 2019, NIO’s most challenging year. It wasn’t until NIO Day in December 2023 that the ET9 made its debut, with presales announced at a price of 800,000. Now, another year has passed, and the ET9 is officially on the market.
During the media briefing on December 12, Li Bin discussed the significance of the ET9 to NIO. For example, the ET9 demonstrates where NIO’s decade-long investment of over 50 billion in R&D has gone; it positions NIO more equitably alongside BBA; it reinforces NIO’s brand image in technological innovation.
Talking about the ET9’s steer-by-wire system, Li Bin once again showcased his grand vision, stating, “Many things NIO does, we pioneer, and others eventually follow. I believe our explorations are valuable for the entire Chinese smart electric vehicle industry.”
For the product definition of the ET9, Li Bin expressed a desire for it to not embody the old-money style of a Maybach, but rather represent the spirit of the current era—an enterprising, socially responsible spirit of innovation and leadership.
Overall, the ET9 truly encapsulates the pinnacle of NIO’s technological advancements over the years and breaks traditional norms.
Breaking tradition requires courage, capability, and ultimately gaining market acceptance. The ET9 will begin deliveries in the first quarter of next year. Li Bin stated that monthly sales of the ET9 are expected to surpass the Audi A8L and BMW 7 Series, though matching the Mercedes S-Class and Porsche Panamera (approximately one to two thousand units monthly) remains somewhat challenging.
Firefly Unveiled, Priced at 148,800
Recently, some media have released speculative images of the Firefly, which are vastly different from the actual vehicle.
The Firefly brand has only one model. In terms of appearance, each side of the Firefly’s front features three lighting groups, with the logo positioned at the center of these groups, while the rear design mirrors the front. Interestingly, regarding the three lighting groups, Li Bin explained it signifies “creation of myriad things” and “good things come in threes.”
In our community, this design has sparked controversy, with many users comparing the Firefly’s lighting group design to Apple’s camera lenses.
In terms of products, the official design features of the Glowworm are summarized with three words: agility, trust, and ingenuity.
Agility refers to the agile design and handling of the Glowworm, such as its turning radius being just 4.2 meters.
Trust indicates that the Glowworm will have the strongest active and passive safety features in its class, meeting the latest safety standards in China and Europe, with a total of 9 airbags.
Ingenuity refers to the clever space design of the Glowworm, including a front trunk with a capacity of 92 liters.
Regarding the Glowworm’s market competitiveness, Li Bin summarized it as “more MINI than smart, and more smart than MINI.”
Moreover, the Glowworm will support battery swapping; however, its swapping stations will not be interchangeable with those of NIO and ONVO, instead establishing its own container-style battery swapping system. According to Li Bin, deploying Glowworm’s battery swapping stations will be easier and more cost-effective than those of NIO and ONVO.
In terms of channels, the Glowworm has confirmed it will reuse NIO’s sales system while also considering reusing ONVO’s sales system.
Currently, the Glowworm has begun presales, starting at 148,800 RMB, with a 199 RMB deposit deductible against 2,000 RMB of the car price. Additionally, NIO and ONVO users receive bonus points after receiving their cars. The Glowworm will officially launch next April.
As for sales, Li Bin stated that selling several thousand units a month is reasonable, though not expecting to reach 10,000 units.
President of Glowworm Jin Ge needs a special mention. Unlike ONVO’s Disney-backgrounded President A. Tichen, Jin Ge is a veteran in the automotive industry.
Jin Ge brings 18 years of automotive experience, having worked at SAIC for many years, leading the development of models like the GL8 and Cadillac CT5. He joined NIO in 2022 to lead the development of Glowworm.
In Jin Ge’s view, “Small cars are challenging but full of imagination.” The Glowworm is a global car, requiring its product strength to meet various national or regional demands and standards, which is evidently challenging.
Globally, the small car market is vast. How Jin Ge leads Glowworm to capture a significant share of this market and wins this challenging battle is worth anticipating.
In Conclusion
Li Bin once described NIO’s entrepreneurship as a “marathon on a muddy road.” Today, NIO has been running this “marathon” for ten years through twists and turns on the “muddy road.”
The ten-year “marathon” journey has been very difficult, but NIO has indeed become more diverse and robust, with over 600,000 users; more than 2,800 battery-swapping stations; extensive technological accumulation from chassis to intelligent technologies; and an increasingly solid high-end brand image.At this critical ten-year milestone, NIO has introduced the ET9 to enter the 800,000 yuan market; further down the range, NIO has the ONVO in the 200,000 yuan segment and the Firefly in the lower tens of thousands — it seems that NIO currently has an unprecedented number of cards to play.
However, NIO is also facing significant profitability pressures at the moment, with many outside misunderstandings and even doubts about NIO’s status and some decisions. Coupled with the intense market competition, NIO’s “marathon” is not only “muddy” but also fraught with crosswinds and perilous steps — undoubtedly, there are many cards, but can NIO truly succeed in playing them well?
Li Bin has also stated that the qualifying competition in the new energy market has reached its final stages, and which brands remain competitive in two to three years will be evident. Without establishing scale, it will be difficult to compete.
From Li Bin’s perspective and NIO’s actions such as launching the ET9, it is clear that in the face of current high-pressure competition, NIO is making comprehensive preparations.
At the same time, NIO hasn’t forgotten to look forward to the future, just like NIO’s ten-year “N10” logo — NIO still aspires for N times 10 years.
This article is a translation by AI of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.