- JD.com founder Richard Liu has ordered an ET9, as Nio's William Li continues to pitch the executive sedan to entrepreneurs.
- Deliveries of the ET9 began late last month, with the first owner being the chairman of home appliance giant Midea Group.
Richard Liu, the billionaire founder of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com, has ordered an ET9 as Nio (NYSE: NIO) tries to pitch the electric executive sedan to more corporate executives.
Nio founder, chairman, and CEO William Li said in a Weibo post today that Liu placed the order for the ET9 after he personally accompanied the JD.com founder and chairman to test drive the model.
"The vehicle is currently being scheduled for production and after a while I'll deliver it," Li said.
Nio unveiled the ET9 and started accepting bookings on Nio Day 2023 in December 2023 in an attempt to enter the luxury executive sedan market dominated by foreign brands including Mercedes Maybach.
On Nio Day 2024, December 21, 2024, the ET9 was officially launched with a starting price of RMB 788,000 ($107,220) including the battery pack, making it Nio's highest-priced model.
Deliveries of the ET9 began late last month, with the first owner being Fang Hongbo, or Paul Fang, chairman and CEO of Foshan, Guangdong-based Chinese home appliance giant Midea Group.
Li was there to deliver the vehicle to Fang in person in Foshan, and discussed how Chinese brands can move into the premium market, and how to break the domination of the market by foreign brands.
One of the ET9's biggest selling points is the SkyRide intelligent chassis system, which Nio said is the world's first integrated hydraulic fully active suspension.
The suspension system enables transient adjustment of stiffness, damping and height, resulting in better ride comfort and increased safety, the company previously said.
Nio hopes to use the more advanced technologies to convince executives to ditch traditional luxury executive models, including the Mercedes-Maybach, in favor of the ET9.
Delivering new models to successful entrepreneurs is one of the common maneuvers in China's automotive sector.
In May 2024, He Xiaopeng, chairman and CEO of Xpeng, delivered an X9 MPV (multi-purpose vehicle) to Nio's Li.
Yesterday, Xpeng began pre-sales of the updated X9.
($1 = RMB 7.3496)
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