It could’ve nicked the all-time street car Ring record
The Nio EP9 ran a 7m 5.0s lap time at the Nordschleife, beating the previous record for battery-powered ‘Ring japes by some 17 seconds. A fine, noble effort – and nowhere near the car’s ultimate potential.
NextEV Formula E racer Nelson Piquet Jnr. told TG that the car had to be wound back to 80 per cent power for the record attempt, to stop the batteries overheating during seven minutes of all-out attack. Had the full 1,360bhp been on tap, the computer simulations projected a 6min 48sec time – bang on the Radical SR8’s ultimate street-legal (just) car record…
The car is actually massive
The EP9 is massively wide. It’s over 2.2 metres across, and yes that’s without mirrors, because it doesn’t have any mirrors. It’s a cool looking piece of kit though, part Koenigsegg, part Ford GT, and part SCG 003. Except with none of the engine…
The aero is absurd
Open the butterfly door and a dashboard that’s barely there greets you. Actually, I’m lying. Open the door and you have to vault a giant sill, easily three or four times the tube thickness of something like a McLaren 650S. Reminds me of a Mercedes CLK GTR, in fact. The enormous sills are part of Nio’s secret aerodynamic weapon: housing the batteries in stacks in the sills. The weight is kept neatly within the wheelbase, but by propping them at either side of the car, the engineers can bung far more air under the middle of the car than if it had a Tesla-style skateboard battery.
In turn, the Venturi tunnels are just vast. It’s almost reminiscent of the AM-RB 001. Nio is claiming twice the downforce generated by an F1 car, at 24,000Nm. Not sure I believe that quite yet, but in any case the reveal event showcased a looping video of the EP9, gigantic rear wing deployed, driving on the ceiling…
You don’t get much cabin for your $1.2m
Anyway, that cabin. It’s barely there. A slim strut at scuttle height supports two screens, and that’s pretty much the entire interior. The F1-spec steering wheel has a further screen mounted within, and the two-occupant driving position is pure motorsport: low, with feet raised higher than your backside, sunscreen pillars swept past your field of vision.
You almost certainly can't buy one
I know, you’re probably a very successful footballer or the oligarch that owns the entire club. You use bank notes for tissues and play Jenga with gold bullion. But even if you’ve got the funds, you can’t simply demand to have one of the six EP9s being made. The cars have been reserved for investors who ploughed money into Nio’s parent company, NextEV, when it appeared in 2014. This is their reward, if you like. And it’s only for the Chinese market. All told, not coming to a Cars and Coffee near you.
China's first supercar is actually quite European
Though NextEV’s founders are Chinese, and the car is only being offered in China, it has Europe to thank for doing the hard yard in set-up.
“We are a global startup”, explains founder and chairman William Li. “We want to get top talent from the globe, to build the best product possible. So, in Shanghai we base our R&D and supply chain. We have connectivity and R&D facilities plus a design centre in Munich, then three offices in London. We are trying to build up the teams to have 200 employees in UK, and the UK has lots of race are and tech experience – look at the F1 teams based here.”