Nio ET9 launches with prices starting at 90,450 USD with BaaS

On December 21 at the Nio Day event in Guangzhou Nio launched its new ET9 flagship sedan. The car claims 9 flagship experiences and offers many firsts in terms of technology and comfort. Priced from 660,000 yuan (90,450 USD) to 818,000 yuan (112,100 USD), the versions are as follows:

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The first edition is limited to 999 cars and has various upgrades to the standard car mainly in terms of interior materials and exclusive badges. Nio will also offer the ET9 with battery as a service (BaaS) which means the user can rent the battery monthly.

Deliveries of the Nio ET9 will commence in March 2025. In terms of both length and width, it is the largest Nio to date, with measurements of 5324 and 2016 mm, respectively. Although Nio are calling the car a sedan, both in silhouette and height (1620 mm) it is more consistent with an SUV coupe and it has a similar style to the ES6 and ES7.

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The ET9 has a wheelbase of 3250 mm. This puts it towards the upper limit of the third-generation swap stations for wheelbase. Third-generation stations can accommodate cars with up to a 3300 mm wheelbase. Perhaps more significantly, the ET9 will not be compatible with first and second-generation Nio swap stations due to the length of the wheelbase.

Despite Nio’s new NT 3.0 platform already being used for the Onvo L60, the ET9 will be the first model from the Nio brand to use the new platform. It has the first global 900 V high-voltage architecture in China.

The ET9 uses a 120 kWh battery pack with an energy density of 292 Wh/kg. Nio claim that it’s possible to take on the equivalent of a 255 km range in 5 minutes with fast charging. A fourth-generation battery swap station should be able to swap the battery in 144 seconds. Range is up to 650 km using CLTC measurement.

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Global 900V architecture means it can be used with 500V to 1000V charging piles with a peak charging power of up to 600 kW and a peak current rate of 772 A. This gives it a 5C charging capability.

As already seen in many videos, the ET9 has a Skyride intelligent chassis system. Notably, this is a fully active suspension system capable of 1000 torque adjustments per second and four-wheel independent control to meet the needs of different driving scenarios. This not only enables the ET9 to do party tricks like tabletop football and juggling a ball but also delivers an incredibly smooth ride.

Also featured as part of the system is rear-wheel steering, which is probably just as well, given the length of the car, along with a drive-by-wire. This means there is no mechanical connection between the steering wheel and the wheels. Such technology has existed in aviation for many years but is relatively new to cars. To date, only a few, mainly EV’s, have been equipped with the technology, which is also known as steer-by-wire. One notable user is the Tesla Cybertruck.

The rear wheel steering helps the car have a turning circle diameter of 10.9 meters. Nio’s flagship rides on 23-inch Pirelli PZERO EV-specific tires. The hubcap inside floats, ensuring the Nio badge always points up. Midnight ceramic blue is a new color exclusive to the ET9 and appears to be the car’s signature hue.

Inside the new ET9 is the biggest departure yet from the standard Nio-layout that has remained largely unchanged in overall look since the first generation ES8. While, there is still a swiveling Nomi on top of the dashboard the 15.6-inch infotainment screen is horizontally oriented. Furthermore, there is now a long, thin strip 48-inch 5K instrument panel that runs across the car’s width.

Nio claims the car has the industry’s first full range AR head-up display. This has ultra smooth coverage and overlays information such as where to stop for battery swap stations.

Attached to that drive-by-wire system is a new two-spoke rectangular steering wheel. The drive selector has also moved from the traditional center console position on previous Nio models to a steering wheel column-mounted stalk.

Nio claims that the ET9 brings a business class-like experience. Much of that is aimed at the rear seat occupants. A four-seater, the center console continues through to the rear. There are two screens mounted on the back of the front seats for rear passenger entertainment. The seat cushion width is up to 582 mm, and the backrest angle can be adjusted to 45 degrees. The boss seat, the one behind the front passenger seat, can recline to 135 degrees, and the front passenger seat, with one button, can go forward.

Two major features of the ET9 are the Sky Island unobstructed view panoramic roof and the Executive Bridge, which is the name given by Nio to the through center console. There are 7 powered sunshades for the windows, and also the center console features a tray table that can be adjusted from any angle. Underneath is a fridge with 10 10-liter capacity that can support a temperature range from -2 degrees up to 55 degrees Celsius. In addition, there is a secret storage compartment for valuables between the two rear seats.

There is a touchless experience with the doors opening to welcome occupants. Going with this is a two-square-meter light curtain projected to the side of the door.

Nio was one of the first companies to use a Dolby Atmos sound system and has again excelled with the sound system in the ET9. It introduces the Nio LYRA 8.2.4.8 sound system with 35 speakers and 2800W. This consists of 8 surround sound speakers, 2 sub-woofers, 4 roof mounted, and 8 headrest mounted. Rear-mounted speakers are in the bridge. The car can provide a 5D pano-cinema experience with the car moving to match movies being played.

Inside, the ET9 uses 18 square meters of Nappa leather. The veneer uses sycamore from a single tree. Every touchpoint is heated, and the seats contain a 16-point hot stone massage function. To ensure a quiet environment there is active noise cancellation.

In front, the ET9 has a 105-litre capacity frunk, and this is electrically opening.

Powering the ET9 is Nio’s new, self-developed 900V Thunder electric drive system. This includes the world’s first 925V W-Pin synchronous permanent magnet electric motor, which has a peak power output of 340 kW. Mounted on the rear axle, it weighs just 79 kg, resulting in a power density of 4.3 kW/kg. Meanwhile, the front axle has an asynchronous induction motor with a peak power of 180 kW and a power density of 2.6 kW/kg. Acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h is in 4.3 seconds.

The ET9 uses two of Nio’s self-developed Shenji NX9031 autonomous driving chip. Previously, second-generation Nio models used the Adam supercomputer, which consists of 4 Nvidia Orin X chips. The computing power of one Shenji NX9031, which is a 5 nm chipset, exceeds the 1016 TOPS of the Adam supercomputer. It has strong image processing capabilities, which, with AI noise reduction algorithms, help the system identify objects shown by the cameras in low light conditions. In the presentation, Nio CEO William Li showed a picture of a lake at night which couldn’t be seen in the actual image but, after the use of the algorithm, was clearly visible

Sensors include three lidar units and the first use of a 4D millimeter wavelength imaging radar. There are a total of 31 sensors. Two of the Lidar units are side-facing wide FOV units with a range of 150 meters. Total Lidar coverage for the car is 350 degrees while camera coverage is a full 360 degrees. The aim is to create autonomous driving, which is 20 times safer than that of a human driver.

There’s a heap of safety features. One thing Nio was keen to demonstrate was how control could be maintained when the ET9 experiences a tire blowout. William Li even went as far as showing this in a video with him driving the car at 160 km/h – the car continued in a straight line. In the case of a collision, there are nine airbags to ensure safety.

Also debuting on the ET9 is Nio’s new SkyOS, which it claims is China’s first smart electric vehicle operating system. Superior performance is achieved through high bandwidth, low latency, and large computing power, according to Nio.