NIO recently debuted its upcoming ET7 sedan in Germany, representing the EV’s European debut. While the Chinese automaker continues to roll out its electric ES8 SUV in Norway this month, we now know plans to expand further into Europe next year, beginning with Germany.
NIO ($NIO) is a publicly traded Chinese automaker founded in 2014. Since then, it has quickly established itself as a leading brand for electric SUVs with its ES8, ES6, and EC6 offerings.
Not to pigeonhole itself to large EVs only, NIO unveiled its flagship sedan ET7 at NIO Day this past January. In May, NIO announced plans to expand to markets outside of China, beginning in Norway.
While we covered news of NIO making way for its ES8 SUV in Norway, we followed hints to further expansion plans for Europe, particularly in Germany.
Now, that previous speculation has been confirmed, as NIO has announced plans for EV sales in Germany, although it’s surprisingly not selling the ES8 — at least not yet.
NIO will begin selling the ET7 in Germany in late 2022
According to a report from CnEVPost out of China, NIO has officially announced plans to expand to the auto market in Germany, alongside the European debut of its ET7 sedan.
The ET7 will mark NIO’s first EV model to be sold in Germany, joining NIO’s ES8 SUV, which will begin deliveries in Norway this month. The automaker has shared plans to export the ET7 to Norway in 2022 as well, although German customers will not see the ES8 for sale, or at least not yet.
Unique to the NIO sedan, the upcoming EV will come standard with NAD (NIO Autonomous Driving), which will gradually deliver point-to-point autonomous driving in multiple scenarios.
NIO confirmed that if there is significant demand for ET7 throughout Europe, it is open to the possibility of establishing local production facilities and would even consider collaborating with local OEMs via joint production. NIO founder and CEO, William Li, spoke to the Germany announcement:
Entering Germany is the objective that we’re striving for. Interest is very high with many requests from potential users there. Our target is to have ET7 in Germany by the end of 2022.
The ET7 is currently available for pre-order in China and is anticipated to go on sale in the first quarter of 2022. Sales in Germany should soon follow with a goal of delivering ET7 EVs to customers in Germany in Q4 of 2022.
So far, we have no indication of pricing of the ET7 in Germany, although NIO has previously shared the 70 kWh version will start at a price of around 448,000 yuan in China. That’s about 59,000 euros or $69,000.
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