Nio ET5 Touring launches in China and Europe

Nio officially unveiled its first electric wagon - the Nio ET5 Touring. During a dedicated online event, the company took the wraps off what’s shaping up to be a very important vehicle. After the first unveiling of the new EL7, the time came for the ET5 Touring, and there was a surprise in store for everyone watching.

If you don’t like spoilers and would rather watch the lengthy unveiling on your own - please skip this paragraph and go straight to the video. Now - the surprise. The unveiling was hosted by the one and only, Ben Collins, former Stig for the world-famous show Top Gear. The stage was set up in the style of the show, with Ben taking on the role of the host with the audience gathered around the all-new ET5 Touring - was it fun? Well, let’s just say that Ben is way better behind the wheel - you can see it for yourself:

After the world-hopping tour and incredible scenery of Norway have faded in our memories, the ET5 Touring has left a firm imprint - one that will be hard to remove. We gotta agree with Ben here - an electric wagon with plenty of room and even more performance, what’s there not to like? Let’s look at some numbers then.

At 188.6 inches the load-lugging ET5 is exactly as long as its sedan sibling, and yet it comes with 44 ft³ of cargo space, once the rear seats go down. It has room for everything - thanks to the clever 40/20/40 folding rear seats, you can have 4 people on board with 4 sets of skis or a couple of surfboards. The cargo floor lifts up to reveal more clever storage, and there are power AC sockets together with the standard 12V outlets - ingenious.

Before we even jump to performance, let’s just spend a few moments looking at this creation. Somehow the Touring version looks natural as if the ET5 was always meant to have this shape. Comparing the sedan to the Touring now feels unfair, as if the sedan was missing something. Whether this vehicle becomes a bestseller or not, it will go down in history as one of the best-looking wagons ever, alongside the Alfa 159.

What good is a wagon without decent performance? Nicht gut. Nio understands this, and the company wasn’t going to mess around with new powertrains. The ET5 Touring gets the same AWD 360 kW (483 hp or 489 PS) powertrain that its sedan sibling uses. The result is rather blistering 0 to 62 mph in 4 seconds flat. During the launch it was suggested that ET5 Touring can accelerate in 3.8 seconds in favorable conditions - there is no doubt that ET5 Touring is a very quick vehicle.

Ben Collins took the Touring down the race track and was very positive about the car’s performance, he commended its handling, acceleration, and braking - which actually is the most important part in a vehicle this quick. School runs will never be the same, and the kids will finally want to go to school in the morning - they will line up in the morning by the car, waiting for the door to open. Nio has not only delivered one of the best-looking wagons ever but has also fixed the morning routines for countless families.

4-wheel drive electric wagon, with 516 lb-ft of torque ready to pounce on moment’s notice - any excuse is good for right-foot-induced drama. The claimed range of 367 miles with the 100 kWh battery pack will never happen, driving the Nio ET5 Touring will be a truly addictive adventure. The smaller 75 kWh battery should deliver about 280 miles as long as the right foot stays off the gas.

Nio ET5 Touring can be ordered today, and deliveries in Europe will start in the 4th quarter. The 75 kWh version starts at $69,700 and the 100 kWh is priced at $80,200. Since this is Nio, the car can be purchased without the battery, in this case, the price drops to $55,600 and the monthly battery rental depends on the size of the pack - 75 kWh costs $198 and the 100 kWh is $339. Of course, there’s the subscription option, and although Nio did not reveal the price for it yet, we can expect it to be the same as for the ET5 sedan version since both models cost the same.

With Nio’s battery swap stations network slowly growing across Europe, the time is coming when the idea of swapping the battery, rather than charging it, will be as normal as cereal for breakfast. Nio vehicles may not be cheap at first glance, but when we realize that every car comes equipped with every imaginable option, the nearly $70,000 price tag no longer looks that high. With performance on par with the fastest EVs out there, and comfort on par with the most expensive EVs out there - Nio starts looking like a dark horse in the EV world. Everybody likes a dark horse, and everybody wants one.

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