Photo: NextEV
Money problems or not, we can definitely consider Tesla's experiment a success. Elon Musk has almost single-handedly created a market out of something that used to be considered a small niche in the greater scheme of things.
Thankfully, Tesla is not alone anymore, and electric car manufacturers have started appearing from all kinds of places, each of them aspiring to steal Palo Alto's crown as the epicenter of the electric car revolution.
The latest company to challenge the electric car status quo is Next EV, headquartered in Silicon Valley and founded by Chinese entrepreneur William Li, who is also known for creating online car selling company Bitauto.
Since “Next EV” would probably sound too mainstream, the company's electric car brand will be known as NIO, and it's first ever product for the road will be unceremoniously called the EP9.
Don't be too annoyed by its name, though, because the EP9 not only promises to be the fastest electric car ever, but it has already put its money where its aerodynamic snout is. On the Nurburgring, that is, where a prototype of the model has actually managed to set a lap time of just 7:05.120 minutes, which makes it faster than any other electric vehicle, beating a good number of ICE sports cars as well.
The rather handsome hypercar is powered by four inboard electric motors, which help it become what Koenigsegg would describe as a Megacar since it develops 1 MegaWatt of power or 1360 PS. Since it also has four individual gearboxes, one for each motor, the EP9 can employ full-time torque vectoring and can allegedly provide its two passengers with up to 3G cornering capabilities, a 0-200 km/h (0-124 mph) time of just 7.1 seconds and a top speed of 313 km/h (195 mph).
There aren't many details available about the batteries used, because there are two of them, on each side of the cockpit, but NIO says that the EP9 can be charged in just 45 minutes and offers a range of 427 km (265 miles).
The car's aerodynamic body can allegedly achieve 24,000 Newtons of downforce at 240 km/h (149 mph), which is apparently more than a Formula 1 car. We're not that good with physics, so we'll just take their word for it now.
There is no word on production numbers or starting prices for the moment, which makes us think that there will be more information on the matter once the “we broke the Nurburgring” fiesta dies down a bit.
The latest company to challenge the electric car status quo is Next EV, headquartered in Silicon Valley and founded by Chinese entrepreneur William Li, who is also known for creating online car selling company Bitauto.
Since “Next EV” would probably sound too mainstream, the company's electric car brand will be known as NIO, and it's first ever product for the road will be unceremoniously called the EP9.
Don't be too annoyed by its name, though, because the EP9 not only promises to be the fastest electric car ever, but it has already put its money where its aerodynamic snout is. On the Nurburgring, that is, where a prototype of the model has actually managed to set a lap time of just 7:05.120 minutes, which makes it faster than any other electric vehicle, beating a good number of ICE sports cars as well.
The rather handsome hypercar is powered by four inboard electric motors, which help it become what Koenigsegg would describe as a Megacar since it develops 1 MegaWatt of power or 1360 PS. Since it also has four individual gearboxes, one for each motor, the EP9 can employ full-time torque vectoring and can allegedly provide its two passengers with up to 3G cornering capabilities, a 0-200 km/h (0-124 mph) time of just 7.1 seconds and a top speed of 313 km/h (195 mph).
There aren't many details available about the batteries used, because there are two of them, on each side of the cockpit, but NIO says that the EP9 can be charged in just 45 minutes and offers a range of 427 km (265 miles).
The car's aerodynamic body can allegedly achieve 24,000 Newtons of downforce at 240 km/h (149 mph), which is apparently more than a Formula 1 car. We're not that good with physics, so we'll just take their word for it now.
There is no word on production numbers or starting prices for the moment, which makes us think that there will be more information on the matter once the “we broke the Nurburgring” fiesta dies down a bit.
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