Competition in the electric vehicle (EV) marketplace was always going to heat up, but some may have been caught off-guard with how technology has progressed so rapidly.
Just a few months ago, the Tesla Model S became the fastest production car in the world, electric or otherwise. But now we have this: the NIO EP9, which is out to steal some of the spotlight.
It has already claimed the record for being the fastest electric car to complete the notoriously brutal Nurburgring circuit (7min 5.12 sec) and we ain’t gonna lie – the numbers behind it raised plenty of eyebrows in the Motor-Vision office.
Sheer ridiculousness
The two-seater EP9 generates one megawatt of power, which is the same as Koenigsegg’s One:1 megacar; in more widely recognised terms, that’s the equivalent of 1,341bhp and that’s not a typo. Oof!
With that amount of power, 0-60mph is possible in 2.7 seconds, eventually reaching 194mph.
In an extra dash of sheer ridiculousness, it can get up to 124mph quicker than most cars reach 62mph – 7.1 seconds – and it can be doing 186mph in 15.9 seconds. Sounds like something only the brave or brainless would want to try.
Each of its four wheels has its own dedicated electric motor and individual gearbox. Its two lithium-ion batteries pack enough juice to provide 265 miles of motoring, which isn’t a patch on the 381 miles possible in the Tesla Model S P100D, but these batteries can be turbocharged to full capacity in just 45 minutes. The car weighs 1,735kg, which – when you consider the batteries make up 635kg of that – isn’t very much.
Single-figure production volume
Sadly, there are only plans to build 6 at the moment and manufacturing will cost around $1.2 million (£970,000) each. Prices haven’t been confirmed yet but going off its production cost, you can only imagine the cost.
What is NIO though? Yeah, we hadn’t heard of them before either but it is a new sub-brand launched by Chinese parent company NextEV. This car is only the beginning, if chairman William Li is to be believed.
He said that the EP9 “showcases what is possible with electric vehicles” and is a statement of the company’s vision and technical and manufacturing capabilities.
Translation: watch your back, Tesla.
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