Photo: NextEV
Everybody wants SUVs these days, and if the forceast is to be believed, everybody will want electric cars in the future, so mixing the two now makes plenty of sense.
For the moment, though, Tesla is the only company that offers a battery-powered crossover, even though judging by the Model X's body design, slotting it in one category isn't all that easy as it's awfully close to being a minivan.
Still, even if weren't really an SUV, it's still the closest thing we have to the damn thing, so we'll go with it. A Chinese startup (how many times have you heard that today?) that's both old and new is looking to change that, even though it might have to stand in line as others have expressed the same intention.
The troubled Faraday Future seems to be the first company to offer an electric SUV, but recent developments have cast doubt over its chances of success. NextEV, on the other hand, has been quietly plotting its plan and it now looks ready to be brought into the light.
Last month, the company best known for its involvement in the Formula E all-electric racing championship launched a new brand called Nio. To mark this event, it also put together a little something with a rather uninspiring name (EP9) but very inspiring everything else.
The Nio EP9 is the world's most powerful electric supercar, cutting short Rimac Concept One's reign on that throne. To prove its credentials, the Chinese supercar became the fastest electric vehicle on the Nurburgring with a lap time of 7:05.120 minutes. But the EP9 is just a show of force, not a production model.
No, but an SUV would. The company's co-founder, Jack Chen, talked about that prospect and gave late 2018 or early 2019 as a deadline for the beginning of sales outside of China. The EV is expected to have a range of 330 miles (NEDC), meaning it will do more than 200 EPA miles with its 70 kWh battery pack.
But the most notable thing Cheng told Automotive News during an interview was that the Nio SUV would offer all ths at "a Toyota Price." Exactly what that means is anybody's guess since Toyota sells both Yaris city cars and V8 Land Cruisers, but you probably get the idea: the Nio SUV will be closer to the Model 3 in philosophy than the Model X.
Hopefully, NextEV and its Nio brand will turn out to be the ones who talk less and do more. The media focused on the more vocal Faraday Future or Lucid Motors, but sometimes it's the quiet ones that punch the hardest. We'll see whether this turns out to be the case in two years time.
Still, even if weren't really an SUV, it's still the closest thing we have to the damn thing, so we'll go with it. A Chinese startup (how many times have you heard that today?) that's both old and new is looking to change that, even though it might have to stand in line as others have expressed the same intention.
The troubled Faraday Future seems to be the first company to offer an electric SUV, but recent developments have cast doubt over its chances of success. NextEV, on the other hand, has been quietly plotting its plan and it now looks ready to be brought into the light.
Last month, the company best known for its involvement in the Formula E all-electric racing championship launched a new brand called Nio. To mark this event, it also put together a little something with a rather uninspiring name (EP9) but very inspiring everything else.
The Nio EP9 is the world's most powerful electric supercar, cutting short Rimac Concept One's reign on that throne. To prove its credentials, the Chinese supercar became the fastest electric vehicle on the Nurburgring with a lap time of 7:05.120 minutes. But the EP9 is just a show of force, not a production model.
No, but an SUV would. The company's co-founder, Jack Chen, talked about that prospect and gave late 2018 or early 2019 as a deadline for the beginning of sales outside of China. The EV is expected to have a range of 330 miles (NEDC), meaning it will do more than 200 EPA miles with its 70 kWh battery pack.
But the most notable thing Cheng told Automotive News during an interview was that the Nio SUV would offer all ths at "a Toyota Price." Exactly what that means is anybody's guess since Toyota sells both Yaris city cars and V8 Land Cruisers, but you probably get the idea: the Nio SUV will be closer to the Model 3 in philosophy than the Model X.
Hopefully, NextEV and its Nio brand will turn out to be the ones who talk less and do more. The media focused on the more vocal Faraday Future or Lucid Motors, but sometimes it's the quiet ones that punch the hardest. We'll see whether this turns out to be the case in two years time.
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