Nio consolidates upward spiral with flagship sedan

Chinese electric vehicle startup Nio unveiled its executive flagship sedan on Saturday in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, as its latest effort to boost the upward trajectory in the competitive vehicle market.

The ET9 will be priced at about 800,000 yuan ($112,178), as the startup's most expensive model ever. Deliveries are expected to start in the first quarter of 2025.

The model features the first smart driving system-on-chip Nio has developed, a 900-voltage electric drive, large cylindrical battery cells and an intelligent chassis suspension system, among other things.

"Nio is always a technology-driven company. Just because Nio's service is good, it doesn't mean you should overlook its technological prowess," said founder and CEO William Li said in an interview after the company premiered the sedan.

Nio has already beat BMW and Mercedes in the segment of vehicles priced above 300,000 yuan in Shanghai and some other cities in the Yangtze River Delta region.

But Li was quick to add that the Chinese automotive market, though competitive, is not a zero-sum game. He said that for Chinese automakers, the biggest challenge in moving upward is patience.

He anticipates that by 2035, five out of the world's top 10 automakers will be Chinese, adding that he hopes Nio will be among them.

At the event, it unveiled its latest fast-charging pile and a fourth-generation swapping station.

The company plans to install 1,000 swapping stations and 20,000 charging piles in 2024, reaching a total of 3,310 battery-swapping stations and more than 41,000 charging piles.

Nio owns and operates the world's largest battery-swapping station fleet. It partnered with Changan and Geely on battery-swapping technology and models in November. It also leads in China for the highest number and widest coverage of charging stations, especially on highways.

The company's sales reached 142,026 units in the first 11 months this year, up 33.1 percent year-on-year.