NIO, the Chinese Electric-Vehicle Startup, Unveils New ET7 Sedan
January 09 2021 - 9:03AM
Dow Jones News
By Trefor Moss
SHANGHAI -- Chinese electric-vehicle startup NIO Inc. unveiled
its fourth production model Saturday, as it prepares to face the
challenge of Tesla Inc.'s locally built Model Y crossover, which
launches in China in the coming weeks.
At the company's annual "NIO Day" in the western city of
Chengdu, Chief Executive William Li said the luxury ET7 sedan,
costing between $69,185 and $81,230 depending on the configuration,
would be a "cozy living room" with new autonomous-driving
capabilities and features including seats with inbuilt massage
functions. The car will be available in early 2022.
"In 2021, we will strive to live up to the expectation and keep
moving forward," Mr. Li said at the launch.
Mr. Li also debuted several new technologies, including a more
powerful 150 kilowatt-hour battery pack -- an improvement on the
100 kWh battery pack the company launched in November -- which will
give NIO's vehicles a claimed range of more than 621 miles.
By comparison, Tesla's Model 3 has a claimed range of 263 miles
for the standard version, and 353 miles for the long-range
version.
Mr. Li also introduced an upgraded battery-swap system capable
of switching the car's battery more quickly than the existing
system, and with three times the capacity of the older system, with
15 stored batteries enabling up to 312 swaps a day.
NIO has championed battery swapping as a speedy alternative to
recharging. Mr. Li said the company would have 500 battery-swap
stations in operation by the end of 2021, up from 177 stations
now.
Having flirted with bankruptcy before securing a financial
lifeline from the Chinese authorities in April, seven-year-old NIO
hit its stride in the second half of 2020. A surge in the value of
its New York-listed shares -- which are worth roughly 14 times more
than they were a year ago -- has made NIO the world's fifth
most-valuable auto maker, ahead of industry stalwarts such as
Daimler AG and General Motors Co.
Record sales in December completed a fourth quarter in which NIO
sold 17,353 vehicles, almost as many as it managed in all of
2019.
Two rival Chinese EV startups that listed in the U.S. last year
are also building momentum. Li Auto Inc. sold 14,464 vehicles in
the December quarter, while XPeng Inc. delivered 12,964 vehicles.
Li currently has one model on sale and has said a second will
become available next year. XPeng has two models in production, and
it announced Friday that it, too, is preparing to unveil a new
sedan.
Chinese EV sales grew strongly in the second half of 2020 after
a prolonged slump in the country's auto market. Most analysts
expect sales to build steadily in line with a government target for
EVs to account for 20% of all Chinese vehicle sales by 2025 --
equivalent to roughly 5 million passenger vehicles a year.
At the same time competition in the electric-car segment is
intensifying. BYD Co., China's largest EV maker, sold 77,611
electric cars in the fourth quarter of 2020 -- 73% more than the
three startups combined. The Shenzhen-based company is now the
world's fourth most-valuable auto maker, ahead of NIO, with its
share price having more than quadrupled during the past year.
Tesla's Model 3 sedan, produced at the company's year-old
Shanghai plant, was the bestselling EV in China in the first 11
months of 2020, with more than 116,000 vehicles sold, according to
the China Passenger Car Association.
Tesla has priced the China-made Model Y at around $52,580,
making it slightly cheaper than NIO's rival EC6 coupe, the
company's third production car, which went on sale in September.
However, NIO offers prospective customers the chance to knock about
one-fifth off its vehicles' sticker price by purchasing the car
without a battery, which they can lease from NIO for around $150 a
month instead.
One-third of NIO buyers are choosing the battery-lease option,
according to Mr. Li.
Tesla's Model 3 costs around $38,650 after subsidies. Only EVs
priced under $46,400 qualify for subsidies -- unless, as with NIO
vehicles, they have battery-swapping capability.
While Tesla is likely to sell significantly more cars than Li,
NIO and XPeng this year, Tesla's popularization of EVs should
ultimately boost its rivals, according to Bill Russo, founder of
Shanghai-based consulting firm Automobility.
"Tesla is expanding the market," Mr. Russo said. "More boats
float in a rising tide."
--Liu Lekai in Beijing contributed to this article.
Write to Trefor Moss at Trefor.Moss@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 09, 2021 08:48 ET (13:48 GMT)
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