Nio recently introduced its new flagship, the Nio ET7 saloon . He did it by announcing blatantly striking figures that only fed the perception of the brand as the “Chinese Tesla . ” For the ET7 the brand announced 1,000 km of autonomy and a 150 kWh battery.
The really shocking thing though is the fact that it uses a solid state battery . It would be an industry first, surpassing even the Toyota group, so far considered the most advanced group in that field, with a first prototype scheduled for 2021 .
Solid-state batteries are seen as the next great innovation, the one that would allow the definitive leap towards electric mobility. This type of battery has a higher energy density, which allows greater storage in a smaller battery and therefore greater autonomy.
They also stand out for their greater internal integrity and therefore greater safety, which in turn would allow rapid recharges to be used more frequently than with current liquid electrolyte recharges.
Nio will not offer the new battery until 2022, so there is still some time left, but the new 150 kWh battery will offer 1,000 km in the ET7 on a single charge. That\’s considerable autonomy and a notable step up from the current offering.
Nio uses the outdated NEDC cycle to talk about the autonomy of its new model (it is the one still used in China), which raises questions about the density of the battery and its technology.
The Nio ET7 battery would take the Chinese company to the top of innovation
The Nio battery would have a density of 360 Wh / kg , according to the manufacturer, compared to 160 Wh / kg for the 100 kWh Tesla battery, for example. Tesla\’s 100 kWh battery weighs about 625 kg and gives the Model S a maximum of 719 km of autonomy, also NEDC cycle. The Nio ET7 battery with 360Wh / kg, meanwhile, would weigh about 416 kg . Reducing the weight of a car by more than 200 kg undoubtedly benefits consumption and therefore autonomy.
This ET7\’s 360 Wh / kg battery won\’t be available until 2022. If it finally hits the market with these specs, Nio won\’t have an ace up its sleeve, it will have THE ace. And it is that, in addition, what Nio has revealed is actually a semi-solid state battery , with an internally solidified hybrid electrolyte. A sort of intermediate battery towards the true solid electrolyte battery.
But who is the manufacturer of that battery? Nio refuses to reveal the manufacturer, at least for now. Although according to the Chinese press , it could be CATL, Nio\’s current supplier and whose 2019 investigations led to a battery with an energy density of 304 Wh / kg.
And all that with a semi-solid state battery. What density then could they reach with a true solid electrolyte battery? Nio would then cease to be the “Chinese Tesla” to supplant Tesla as the paradigm of innovation in the field of electric cars.