Tagged: China

NIO’s new ES6 show cars available in nearly 300 stores in China

The new ES6 show cars became available at nearly 300 stores in 92 cities as of May 20.

(Image credit: NIO)

NIO (NYSE: NIO) has made the new ES6 show cars available in most of its stores in China, just days before the model's official launch.

The new ES6 became available in nearly 300 NIO stores in 92 cities on May 20, the electric vehicle company announced yesterday.

Those cities include both first-tier Chinese cities, including Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and smaller cities, including Zhoushan, Handan and Nanning.

NIO's showrooms include the flagship NIO Houses as well as smaller NIO Spaces, and as of April 30 they numbered 110 and 270 in China, respectively, according to data it released on May 1.

The company has four NIO Houses as well as six NIO Spaces in Europe.

NIO will hold the launch of the new ES6 on May 24 starting at 7:00 pm Beijing time (7:00 am US Eastern time on May 24), and viewers will be able to watch a live video stream on channels including the NIO App, NIO.com, and NIO Weibo.

Test drives of the new ES6 will be available on May 24, and its delivery will begin on May 25, according to information previously announced by NIO.

This will be NIO's fastest model from official launch to delivery, as its local peers, including (NASDAQ: LI), have proven that efficient delivery is critical to success in the highly competitive Chinese EV market.

NIO launched the first-generation ES6 in December 2018 and began delivering the model in China in June 2019.

Available data for 2022 show that from January to August, 32,877 ES6 units were delivered, contributing 46 percent of NIO's total deliveries of 71,556 units for the period.

The wait for the new ES6 by potential consumers may be one of the major reasons for NIO's low deliveries in the past few months.

NIO delivered 6,658 vehicles in April, which was up 31.22 percent from 5,074 in the same month last year, but down 35.85 percent from 10,378 in March.

In April, most deliveries were attributed to the ET5 and ES7, while NIO has been upgrading its product from NT 1.0 to NT2.0, it said on May 1.

NIO pins high hopes on new ES6 with unprecedented delivery efficiency and marketing campaign

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NIO starts delivery of 2023 ET7 sedan

On May 19, deliveries of the 2023 ET7 began in several cities, including Shanghai, Beijing, Hefei, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Changsha.

NIO (NYSE: NIO) has begun deliveries of the 2023 ET7, its flagship sedan's facelift that was officially launched at the Shanghai auto show a month ago.

Deliveries of the 2023 NIO ET7 began on May 19 in several cities, including Shanghai, Beijing, Hefei, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Changsha, a company press release said, without disclosing the number of deliveries.

NIO launched the 2023 ET7 on the first day of the Shanghai auto show on April 18, bringing more than 15 upgrades, including improved seats and a 40w wireless charging panel for cell phones, but the prices remain unchanged.

Including the battery, the starting price for the new ET7 with the 75-kWh battery pack is RMB 458,000 ($65,350), and RMB 516,000 for the version with a 100-kWh long-range pack.

If consumers choose to purchase the car using the BaaS (battery as a service) program, both models start at RMB 388,000 and the monthly battery rental fee is RMB 980 and RMB 1,680 respectively.

In addition to these two versions, the new ET7 is also available in a Signature Edition with a 100-kWh battery pack for a starting price of RMB 536,000 including the battery. The model starts at RMB 408,000 under the BaaS plan, with a monthly battery rental fee of RMB 1,680.

The ET7, NIO's first sedan and the first model on its NT 2.0 platform, was initially launched at the NIO Day 2020 event on January 9, 2021 and sees first delivery on March 28, 2022.

In the second half of 2022, the ET7 was repeatedly in the top 10 of the China Passenger Car Association's (CPCA) monthly ranking of premium sedan sales in China with a starting price above RMB 300,000.

The sedan saw its highest sales month in June 2022, when 4,349 units were sold.

However, heading into 2023, sales of the model plummeted, selling less than 800 units in each of the first three months, according to data monitored by CnEVPost.

The day before deliveries of the 2023 ET7 began, NIO announced on May 18 that it was offering an upgrade program for the interior of the 2022 ET7 that would allow owners to pay for some of the additional features the new ET7 has.

Besides launching the 2023 ET7 on April 18, NIO also unveiled the new ES6, an SUV that is more important to the company, contributing about half of its deliveries from 2019 to 2021.

The launch event of the new ES6 will begin on May 24 at 7:00 pm Beijing time (May 24 at 7:00 am US Eastern time), and its deliveries will begin on May 25.

($1= RMB 7.0079)

NIO pins high hopes on new ES6 with unprecedented delivery efficiency and marketing campaign

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NIO’s new ES6 launch event to begin at 7:00 pm Beijing time on May 24

Show cars of the new ES6 are already available at stores, and those interested can visit NIO Houses to check out the model, NIO said.

(Image credit: CnEVPost)

NIO (NYSE: NIO) announced earlier this week that the new ES6 would be officially launched on May 24, but no specific time was announced, and now they've been known.

The launch of the new ES6 will begin at 7:00 pm Beijing time on May 24 (7:00 am US Eastern time on May 24), and viewers will be able to watch a live video stream on channels including the NIO App, NIO.com and NIO Weibo, the electric vehicle (EV) maker announced today.

The new ES6 show cars are already available in NIO stores, and those interested can visit NIO Houses to check out the model, NIO said.

Of note for China EV trio watchers, (NYSE: XPEV) will report its first-quarter financial results on May 24 before the US markets open, with its earnings call starting at 8:00 pm Beijing time that day.

NIO announced on May 16 that the new ES6 will be officially launched on May 24, test drives will be available on the same day and deliveries will begin on May 25.

This will be NIO's fastest model from official launch to delivery, as its local peers, including (NASDAQ: LI), have proven that efficient delivery is critical to success in the highly competitive Chinese EV market.

NIO launched the first-generation ES6 in December 2018 and began delivering the model in China in June 2019.

From 2019 to 2021, NIO delivered 155,722 vehicles, of which the ES6 contributed 80,852, or 52 percent, data monitored by CnEVPost shows.

Available data for 2022 show that from January to August, the ES6 delivered 32,877 units, contributing 46 percent of NIO's total deliveries of 71,556 units for the period.

NIO pins high hopes on new ES6 with unprecedented delivery efficiency and marketing campaign

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Gotion unveils new battery based on LMFP chemistry with range up to 1,000 km

The pack is based on Gotion's new L600 LMFP cells with an energy density of 240 Wh/kg and will be in mass production in 2024.

(Astroinno Battery. Image credit: Gotion High-tech)

Several Chinese power battery makers have previously announced batteries with ranges of up to 1,000 km, but all are based on nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) ternary materials.

Now Gotion High-tech has unveiled a new battery technology, which claims to be able to achieve a range of 1,000 km even without the use of expensive ternary materials.

Hefei, Anhui-based Gotion unveiled its L600 LMFP battery cells based on lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry and a battery pack called Astroinno Battery at its 12th technology conference today.

The L600 LMFP cells have an energy density of 240 Wh/kg, or 525 Wh/L. The cells support 4,000 cycles at room temperature and 1,800 cycles at high temperature, according to the company.

A battery system based on the L600 LMFP cell could have an energy density of 190 Wh/kg, which is higher than the energy density of packs based on ternary chemistry systems that are in mass production now, Gotion said, adding that the new cell will be in mass production in 2024.

The energy density growth of mass-produced LFP cells has faced a bottleneck, and further improvements require chemical system improvements, so the LFP solution with manganese addition was born, said Cheng Qian, Gotion's executive president of international operations.

Gotion unveiled the Astroinno Battery based on L600 LMFP cells, saying that the pack uses a sandwich structure with double-sided liquid cooling technology and minimalist design, resulting in a 45 percent reduction in the number of structural components and a 32 percent reduction in the weight of structural components.

The minimalist electrical design thinking makes the pack's wiring harness length only 26 percent of the previous one, from the original 303-meter harness down to 80 meters, with a volumetric grouping efficiency of 76 percent, according to the company.

The pack has an energy density of 190 Wh/kg, surpassing the energy density of ternary batteries currently on the market, Gotion said.

Gotion is not the first manufacturer to release a 1,000-km range battery pack, but it is the first to achieve that range based on the LFP chemistry system.

, China's largest power battery maker, unveiled Qilin Battery, or CTP (cell to pack) 3.0, on June 23, 2022, claiming an energy density of up to 255 Wh/kg to support a vehicle with a 1,000km range.

The Qilin Battery is an innovation in battery structure, not a chemical system, and a 1,000 km range battery pack requires NCM chemistry.

The first Qilin Battery with a 1,000 km range is the 001 of Zeekr, a premium electric vehicle brand of , and deliveries of the model with this range have already started on May 16.

On April 21, Svolt Energy, which was spun off from Great Wall Motor, made the real-life debut of its Dragon Armor Battery at the Shanghai auto show.

Dragon Armor is also an innovation in battery pack structure without involving battery chemistry.

Svolt Energy said that the Dragon Armor Battery with LFP cells could have a range of more than 800 kilometers, while such batteries with ternary cells could have a range of more than 1,000 kilometers.

Gotion installed 1.18 GWh of power batteries in China in April, ranking fifth with a 4.68 percent share, according to the China Automotive Battery Innovation Alliance (CABIA).

In the LFP market, Gotion ranked fourth with a 6.17 percent share in April.

Gotion posts 135% year-on-year profit growth in Q1, site for US battery plant nears finalization

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NIO invests in nuclear fusion startup Neo Fusion

has acquired a 19.9 percent stake in Neo Fusion and NIO Capital has acquired a 10.1 percent stake.

(Image credit: CnEVPost)

NIO (NYSE: NIO) has invested in a new nuclear fusion startup, its second such investment in the past year or so.

The Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker has invested in nuclear fusion startup Neo Fusion and told CnEVPost that the project will be funded by multiple parties, including NIO and NIO Capital, in phases, and that it plans to attract additional strategic and financial investors to support the project's long-term development.

The investment was first reported by Reuters earlier today. NIO invested RMB 995 million ($142 million) for a 19.9 percent stake, while NIO Capital, an investment firm founded by its founder, chairman and CEO William Li, invested RMB 505 million for a 10.1 percent stake, according to the report.

The newly formed Neo Fusion will research and develop technologies aimed at making controlled fusion available for global commercial use within 20 years, the report noted.

Neo Fusion has a registered capital of 5 billion yuan and is 50 percent controlled by China's eastern province of Anhui government-owned energy companies and investment arms, according to the report.

"Fusion power is a clean and efficient energy source, and also potentially one of the ultimate clean energy solutions to sustainability, making fusion power strategically significant to carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, as well as solving the global energy crisis," NIO said in a statement sent to CnEVPost.

Staying true to the original aspiration of Blue Sky Coming, NIO aims to facilitate the R&D and commercialization of nuclear fusion technology by making financial investment into this project, so that it can play a bigger part in realizing long-term suitability and enhance its influence industry-wide, the statement said.

Notably, NIO Capital had invested in a company engaged in a similar business a year earlier.

On February 25, 2022, Energy Singularity, a startup researching nuclear fusion technology, announced the closing of a nearly RMB 400 million round of funding, its first since founding in 2021.

NIO Capital and local gaming giant miHoYo were co-leaders in the funding, with Sequoia China Seed Fund and Bluerun Ventures participating in the financing.

The funds will be used primarily to develop and build the world's first small-scale tokamak experimental device based on high-temperature superconducting materials, and to develop advanced magnet systems that can be used in the next generation of high-performance fusion devices.

($1 = RMB 7.0217)

NIO Capital invests in nuclear fusion technology startup

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