Nio management aims to capitalize on the success of the Zeekr 001, which proves there is a sizeable local market for luxury sporty EV wagons, Deutsche Bank said.
Nio (NYSE: NIO) will likely launch the ET5 Touring in 10 days, after the electric vehicle (EV) maker said last week that deliveries of the model would begin this month.
The first slide on the front page of Nio's English-language website shows a picture of part of a model's interior detail, with text that reads "Inspired By Life. Witness the launch of our next chapter."
The date on the image implies that the event will take place on June 15.
The information on Nio's website does not suggest that the model is the ET5 Touring, but the image shows that it does not appear to have a HUD (heads-up display), and the ET5 is currently the only one in Nio's product lineup that does not support HUD.
Nio plans to launch a new model based on NT 2.0, the ET5 Touring, a midsize smart electric wagon that will begin deliveries to customers in June, it said when it announced May deliveries on June 1.
The ET5 Touring will be launched globally in June and deliveries will begin in the Chinese market, it said in a separate press release.
On June 2, car blogger Wu Ying, who has about 1 million followers on Weibo, said Nio would launch the ET5 Touring on June 15.
Nio did not confirm the information, though one of its energy service Weibo accounts liked the Weibo post.
More images of the ET5 Touring have also been widely circulated on Weibo in the past few days.
Here are the images shared by car blogger De Lu as well as Dong Maimai.
For the ET5 Touring, Deutsche Bank analyst Edison Yu's team expects pricing of RMB 335,000 ($47,090) - RMB 345,000, which will be slightly higher than the regular ET5's RMB 328,000.
Nio management aims to capitalize on the success of the Zeekr 001, which proves there is a sizable local market for luxury sporty EV wagons, the team said in a research note sent to investors today.
Nio delivered 31,041 vehicles in the first quarter, with the ET5 contributing 18,703, or 60 percent, according to data monitored by CnEVPost.
($1 = RMB 7.1135)
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