The CEO of Chinese EV startup Nio, William Li, livestreamed a 14-hour road trip utilizing the 1,000 km EV battery as part of the battery’s successful testing. With only 3% of the battery left, the road trip covered 1,044 kilometers between two Chinese cities.
The newly developed battery by Nio is a groundbreaking development and a formidable rival of the electric vehicle giant, Tesla. Nio CEO Li traveled 1,044 kilometers on December 17 from Shanghai to Xiamen. Some have already dubbed Nio the China equivalent of Elon Musk (Musk is the CEO of Tesla). For the 14-hour drive, the battery was installed in a Nio ET7 EV. Despite the region experiencing a cold snap and the car operating at a mere 3% of its battery capacity, the car was not recharged during the entire trip.
According to CEO Li, the battery, known as the Nio 150kWh battery, has the highest energy density of any mass-produced EV battery on the market right now. Its amazing 1,000 km range starts here. There are no intentions to start producing the 150 kWh battery in large quantities in April 2024.
Expense
The battery will not be inexpensive; a unit will set you back about 298,000 yuan ($42,000), which is roughly equivalent to the cost of a Tesla Model Y in China. On the other hand, Nio lets consumers purchase its vehicles without a battery and sign up for its battery swapping service. Throughout China, Nio has more than 2,000 battery swapping locations. With its current business model, Nio has not made any significant market gains and has reported losses of $12,000 on average for each electric vehicle it produces.
The ground-breaking Nio 150kWh battery is anticipated to increase demand for Nio automobiles and boost the Chinese EV manufacturer’s bottom line.