Chinese electric car company Nio has made a breakthrough with a new battery that lets their cars go up to 1,000km without a recharge. The CEO, William Li, tested it by driving over 1,000km from Shanghai to Xiamen in one go. He used the Nio ET7 electric car, powered by their 150 kWh battery, claiming it has the highest energy density of any mass-produced EV battery. This means it can go farther on a single charge compared to most electric cars.
Nio plans to start making these batteries in April 2024, but they come with a hefty price tag of 298,000 yuan ($42,100), the same as a Tesla Model Y in China. Nio has a unique way of dealing with charging — customers can buy their cars without a battery and instead pay a monthly fee to use Nio’s network of over 2,000 battery swap stations in China. At these stations, users can exchange their empty batteries for fully charged ones.
Although this strategy hasn’t turned a profit for Nio yet, CEO William Li has become a bit of a celebrity, often compared to Tesla’s Elon Musk. Nio recently hosted “Nio Day,” where Li introduced their latest electric vehicle, the ET9 flagship, to an audience of 10,000 Nio owners.
