(Source: CnEVPost)
A day before Chinese electric car company Nio sets to announce its entry into the Norwegian market, more details are starting to emerge.
Nio will start delivering vehicles in Norway this September, with the first model being the new ES8, the company's 6-seater and 7-seater flagship premium smart electric SUV, according to a slew of Chinese media reports on Wednesday.
The new ES8 was released in late December 2019 with 188 updates to the previous version. It can accelerate from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour in 4.9 seconds. The NEDC range of the ES8 with the 100 kWh battery pack is up to 580 km.
The pre-subsidy starting price of the new ES8 in China is RMB 468,000 ($72,300), and the purchase price can be reduced by at least RMB 70,000 if consumers choose to give up ownership of the battery and rent it instead.
The Chinese media reports also mentioned that Nio's flagship electric sedan, the ET7, will arrive in Norway next year. Deliveries of the model are expected to begin in China in the first quarter of 2022.
As for when deliveries of Nio's other models on sale - the ES6 and EC6 - will begin, these reports did not mention. However, they cited unnamed Nio sources saying the company will enter other overseas markets in 2022.
Nio delivered 7,102 vehicles in April, down 2 percent from March, as chip shortages put constraints on its production capacity. But the figure was up 125.1 percent from a year earlier.
The company delivered 1,523 units of the ES8, 3,163 units of the ES6, and 2,416 units of the EC6 in April.
As of April 30, Nio's cumulative deliveries of the ES8, ES6 and EC6 reached 102,803 units.
Nio will announce the Nio Norway strategy on May 6, which will be the company's first step into Europe, and CnEVPost will participate in the company's event in Shanghai.
The official website of Nio Norway (www.nio.com/no) has already been launched and the official social media accounts Facebook@Nio Norge and Instagram@nionorge were also online.
CnEVPost reported in January that Nio's first stop overseas could be Norway, the first country in the world to account for more than 50 percent of electric vehicle sales.
This speculation was based on a hint from William Li Bin, founder, chairman and CEO of Nio, who said in a January 10 interview with several English-language media outlets, including CnEVPost, that the center screen navigation map shown at the launch of its first sedan, the ET7, revealed information about its entry into overseas markets.
And when CnEVpost checked the picture of the center control screen on the ET7 introduction page, it found that the address shown in the picture seems to be Karl Johans gate in Oslo, Norway, although it is very blurred.
In early April, Norwegian media Bilbransje24 quoted Marius Hayler, CEO of Nio Norway AS, as saying that Nio would build its first flagship showroom in Norway, and now it seems that it is expected to open in September this year.
The showroom, located at Karl Johan in Oslo, will be the first and largest in the country and form a template for how Nio will be represented in Norway, says Hayler.
“We start in Oslo, but it is not unlikely that there may be more in other places in Norway during 2021,” Hayler said according to the report.
Nio has secured 1,700 square meters spread over two floors in Karl Johans gate 33A - on the corner of Karl Johans gate and Rosenkrantz gate, and a stone's throw from the competitor Polestars showroom in Prinsens gate, according to another local media outlet Tek.no.
Here, Nio will show off their cars, have a café and bar, meeting rooms and a number of other areas, the report said.
NIO reportedly to open its first showroom in Norway in September
