All Nio stores will get show cars and test cars by March, when customers will be able to test drive the sedan.
With Nio's flagship sedan ET7 less than two months away from first delivery, the company is on track to send show cars to its stores across China.
At an Nio store in Jiangyin, Jiangsu province in eastern China, the electric vehicle company is delivering a show car to the store, according to information shared today by Weibo car blogger @德卤爱开车.
"The ET7 show car is starting to arrive at the stores. This one is a show car from a store in Jiangyin and now it's allowing people to see the interior," the blogger said.
(Image credit: Weibo car blogger @德卤爱开车)
Nio unveiled the ET7 at Nio Day on January 9, 2021, and the model began locking orders on January 20, 2022.
The company held a small communication two days before locking in orders to announce plans for the model.
The first show cars of the Nio ET7 will be delivered to some stores in January and February, but they are engineering pilot cars and users will not be able to enter the cars, said Yang Bo, head of sales program operations for the company, at an event held in the evening of January 18.
But the information shared by the Weibo blogger shows that it appears that some vehicles are now allowing users to enter the cars to view the interiors.
All Nio stores will get show cars and test cars by March, when users will have access to the interiors as well as test drives, Yang said.
Nio will open the ET7 for test drives starting March 5 and will schedule production in order of intent to make a deposit starting March 11, he said.
Between January 20 and March 10, regardless of when consumers lock in their vehicle configuration, the order in which they receive delivery is based on the timing of the previously paid RMB 5,000 ($787) intent deposit.
Consumers currently paying the RMB 5,000 intent deposit can benefit from an RMB 10,000 discount off the purchase price, which will end on March 28 when ET7 deliveries begin.
For customers who lock in their orders between March 11 and March 28, Nio will begin production on the vehicles that are not in production at that time and will deliver them in the order in which the intended deposit was paid.
For those who lock in their orders on and after March 29, delivery will be based on the time of locking in their orders.
Owners of new ET7 vehicles will receive a free 7kW DC home charger, which can be upgraded to the 11-kWh version for free for those who lock in their orders before delivery begins.