This is in fact the second generation EL6; the original never left China.
Styling-wise, it’s hard not to draw comparisons between the new EL6 and the super-slick computer mouse style that Tesla has made its own, although there’s more than a hint of Hyundai up front too.
Sleek and inoffensive yet generic just about sums it up, although the camera housing above the windshield is distinctive, albeit perhaps not in a flattering way. Taxi, anyone?
Things get more interesting at the bottom. The EL6 is based on the company’s new NT2.0 platform (short for Nio Technology 2.0, in case you were wondering), complete with two battery options: a 75 kWh pack or a 100 kWh pack, good for a range of 400 or 529 kilometers. respectively.
Charging is limited to 140 kW for the smaller battery car, and 180 kW for the larger battery model we drove, which is a far cry from Tesla, Hyundai and Kia, but still about on par with many alternative electric vehicles.
However, Nio also has its patented battery swap technology, which allows the EL6’s battery to be replaced with a new, fully charged battery in about five minutes at one of Nio’s roadside battery swap stations. There are 120 planned for installation in mainland Europe, and the company plans to have several in Britain before launch – although we can’t help but feel that Britain’s notoriously clunky road infrastructure and planning laws Britain could prove to be something of a problem. challenge. But good luck to them.
The company just reached the milestone of 30 million battery changes since it launched the system in 2017, so these stations are clearly working well in China.
The EL6 gets a 201 hp induction motor at the front and a 282 hp permanent magnet electric motor at the rear for permanent all-wheel drive and a combined power of 483 hp.
There is also the Intelligent Chassis adaptive damping as standard, which can make 500 adjustments per second, and no fewer than nine driving modes.
Strikingly, this latest platform also offers 33 ‘sensor units’, one long-range lidar and four Nvidia Drive Orin X chips, good for a computing power of 1016 trillion operations per second. Yes, trillion.
If you were still in any doubt that we were deep in ‘tech-for-car’ territory with electric cars, you are no more.