- Nio EL6 is a fully-electric SUV with a range of up to 329 miles between charges.
- Mid-size EV will compete with the Porsche Macan Electric, BMW iX3, Audi Q6 e-tron and Tesla Model Y.
- Gets power of up to 489 hp and rapid 0-62 mph time of 4.5 seconds flat.
- Due to arrive in the UK late 2024.
NIO is a Chinese premium brand that hasn't yet launched in the UK, but it’s coming to market soon, and with cars as competitive as the EL6 SUV, it’s going to provide solid opposition to the established brands.
You may not have heard of Chinese car maker Nio, but you soon will.
The company has made a foray into the world of Formula E, but it’s still a relatively unknown brand in the UK, which isn’t really a surprise given it doesn’t yet sell cars here. That’s about to change, however, and Nio is planning to burst into the market with a selection of upmarket electric models.
Chief among these is the EL6, a premium SUV designed to contend with the new, all-electric Porsche Macan EV and the BMW iX3, as well as various others. A key part of the brand’s offering is a new battery swap proposition, allowing batteries to be changed in a matter of minutes, but for that to take off, the cars have to be competitive first.
So is the EL6 up to the job, or is it a one-trick pony? Read on to find out.
At a Glance
The EL6 isn’t the easiest thing to look at, thanks to the sensors that live on the roof. Apparently that’s a deliberate decision intended to show off the tech, but it’s one that instantly makes the car look like a black cab. That aside, though, the EL6 looks every inch the modern premium SUV, with a fresh and clean overall design that puts it somewhere in between the likes of Tesla and Polestar with its modernity and cool.
Inside, it’s much the same story, with a minimalist cabin dominated by a massive touchscreen and a digital instrument display. The tech isn’t brilliant at present, but then it hasn’t been optimised for the UK as yet, so that’s forgivable. And given the rate at which companies such as Nio are developing technology, it will likely be up to snuff in pretty short order.
The driving experience is not in any need of development, though, because the EL6 drives exactly like a premium SUV should. Perhaps it isn’t the most dynamic thing on the market, but it rides smoothly, the cabin is quiet and the handling is perfectly adequate. The 489hp, all-wheel-drive system provides more than enough performance, too.
But arguably the most exciting thing about Nio is not tech development or the capability of the EL6. No, it's the prospect of battery swapping tech, with batteries changed in a matter of minutes at bespoke facilities, allowing drivers in a rush to avoid charging waits. And don’t go thinking this is sci-fi stuff – Nio already has around 30 functioning battery swapping facilities in Europe, and around 2,000 worldwide.
Key Features
Nio is clearly focussing on its technological offering, and the Nomi assistant is a key part of that. Available in a choice of two different guises – one with a digital ‘face’ on the dashboard and another that looks more like an Alexa device – it’s there to make life easier in the Nio’s cabin. To be honest, the model we tried didn’t work brilliantly. Stubborn disobedience of every other command made it a bit frustrating, but Nio will develop it further before bringing it to the UK, and we’re expecting huge progress to be made. When it works, the system is great for allowing drivers to keep their hands on the wheel while driving, but we find the rotation of the digital ‘face’ that looks at you as you address it somewhat disconcerting.
Nio’s other big selling point is battery swap technology, which would see drivers able to drive into a kind of car wash-style building and trade their almost-empty battery for a fresh, almost-full replacement in a matter of minutes. Now, before you write this off as pie-in-the-sky dreaming, bear in mind Nio is already putting this technology in place on the European mainland, and it works. Eventually, the brand hopes to integrate the technology into UK infrastructure, effectively allowing drivers a recharge that’s as quick as filling with petrol or diesel. It has the potential to be a game-changer, assuming the company can put enough battery swap stations in place.
Range & Batteries
The EL6 will be available with a choice of two batteries: a 75kWh ‘base’ version and a larger 100kWh option. Naturally, the 100kWh version will have greater range, achieving 329 miles between charges on the official economy test, whereas the 75kWh version only manages about 250 miles. Admittedly, you won’t manage those figures on the motorway, but driving with a light touch on a mixture of roads should allow you to get the best part of 300 miles from the 100kWh option.
Performance & Drive
No matter whether you choose the 75kWh or 100kWh battery, you get the same brace of electric motors providing the EL6 with more than enough performance. The 150kW front motor and 210kW rear motor combine to provide 489hp and 700Nm of torque, which heads straight to all four wheels.
Even in a fairly large, fairly heavy luxury SUV, that’s enough to offer pretty serious acceleration, and the EL6 will get from 0-62mph in 4.5 seconds flat. That’s the sort of performance you get from a sports car, not a big 4x4. Admittedly, the 124mph top speed isn’t so impressive, particularly on German motorways, but how much of your time are you likely to spend there? In the UK, even the speediest of drivers won’t want to do more than 100mph or so, and those that do will lose their licence pretty rapidly.
But the EL6 feels quick and effortless, which only adds to the sense of luxury. A choice of settings mean you can tune the throttle response to suit your needs, but the standard Comfort mode will do most drivers very nicely indeed. A reasonable turn of pace and adequate range will be music to drivers’ ears.
Except there won’t be much noise at all, because the car is pretty quiet at all speeds. Some road surfaces seem to make a bit of a racket, but it’s generally very quiet whether you’re in town or on the motorway.
And with software-controlled suspension, the EL6 is quite a comfortable thing, too. It doesn’t necessarily ride as pristinely as some, but it’s more than a match for the BMW iX3 and Mercedes-Benz GLC with which it’s trying to compete. And the handling is also up to scratch, with reasonable body control preventing any lurching motions, even if it can’t eliminate body roll in corners, and powerful brakes to slow it down, it’s the full package. Only some slightly inert steering keeps it from competing with the very best in class in the corners.
Charging
Nio will offer the smaller 75kWh battery with 140kW charging, allowing it to charge from 10% to 80% in about 40 minutes at maximum charge speed. That will depend on you finding a charger that can deliver 150kW charging, however. For those that choose the 100kWh battery, meanwhile, 180kW charging capability is provided, allowing that 10%-80% charge time to fall to 30 minutes, again assuming the charge point is up to the job. Filling the battery from empty to full using a 7kW domestic ‘wallbox’ charging point, however, will take eight hours with the 75kWh battery and 12 hours for the 100kWh battery.
But Nio is working on something that might mean drivers never bother charging at all. In Europe, Nio offers a battery swap system that sees the car drive into a kind of car wash-type building to have its battery changed in a matter of minutes. Out goes the empty one, and in comes a fresh, almost fully charged, battery. Quite how it will all work with drivers’ lease deals is yet to be ironed out, but the system has the potential to make charging as quick as refuelling a petrol or diesel car. And Nio is planning to have dozens of these stations across the country.
Running costs & Emissions
Nio hasn’t worked out what battery swapping will cost, either, but the EL6 is expected to be just as cheap to run as any other electric SUV. If you prefer to charge, and you have cheap-rate electricity at night, you should be able to charge overnight for relatively little outlay, although filling the battery at an ultra-rapid charge point won’t be quite so cheap. Nevertheless, it should still be cheaper than running a comparably powerful petrol SUV. Particularly if you have membership of one or more of the charging networks.
Better still, the Nio will be subject to all the same company car tax benefits as any other premium electric SUV. That means Benefit-in-Kind tax bills are tiny, considering the RRP of the vehicle, and if the battery swap tech materialises, then it could be a very promising proposition even for those who travel long distances with work.
Interior & Technology
Given the somewhat budget nature of some Chinese car makers’ interiors, you might be expecting the EL6’s cabin to fall short when compared with the likes of Audi, Volvo and BMW. And to a point, it does. But only slightly. Admittedly, an Audi or BMW will feel a little more solidly constructed, and a Volvo dashboard looks a bit more stylish, but in terms of quality, the EL6’s minimalist dashboard is easily a match for anything from Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo or Mercedes-Benz.
Supple, tactile materials are everywhere, and the dependence on touchscreen tech means there are very few buttons. It’s quite a Tesla-ish experience, and we suspect that’s intentional, but the Nio feels much better put together than any Tesla we’ve been in.
The tech is a bit hit-and-miss at present, though, partly because it has yet to be optimised for the UK market. But the touchscreen works fairly well as it is and Nio is big into over-the-air updates, which means the systems are evolving on an almost daily basis. For the time being, there’s no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto integration, which is a shame, but there’s Bluetooth connectivity and Spotify integration, so you don’t miss it too much.
But the thing Nio is most keen to celebrate is Nomi, the company’s digital assistant, which works a bit like your Alexa or Siri devices. In basic form, it assumes the form of a little glowing pod on the dashboard, but you can upgrade to a little nodule on a stalk with a digital ‘face’ with which you can interact. Whichever you choose, the system is designed to respond to your voice commands, offering access to various functions, but the more upmarket design is a bit disconcerting as it turns to face whichever occupant spoke to it. Remember the bit in Toy Story where one of Sid’s toys – a one-eyed doll’s head on spider legs – rotates to look at Woody? It’s like that.
Nevertheless, the Nio’s cabin still feels like that of a premium car, and with a bit of fine-tuning, it could become a real contender in this class. Fortunately, Nio has a bit of time to do that fine-tuning before the car goes on sale in the UK.
Practicality & Boot Space
Chinese brands often favour cabin space – particularly in the rear – over boot space, and that seems to be the case in the EL6. But though the boot looks a bit cramped, the official figures suggest it’s much more capacious than it looks. At 668 litres, it’s bigger than that of the new Audi Q6 e-tron, and that of the new and all-electric Porsche Macan. And, of course, the rear seats fold to provide even more space, although the 1,430-litre space sounds more in keeping with the view when you open the tailgate
There’s nothing deceptive about the space in the cabin, though. The rear-seat space is enormous, with loads of legroom and headroom that means four tall adults can occupy the EL6’s cabin without any issue whatsoever. And for those in the front, there’s plenty of seat adjustment and the driving position is more than comfortable enough.
Safety
Interestingly, the EL6 is still yet to be tested by Euro NCAP, so we don’t know exactly how safe it would be in a crash, but the signs are promising. For a kick-off, Nio has had several other models tested by the independent European body, and all have come away with a top five-star rating. So when the EL6 is eventually tested – and we expect it to be tested in the coming months – we’d be surprised if it didn’t match its stablemates.
To help it achieve that goal, the car comes with plenty of safety technology, most of which is there to help drivers avoid accidents in the first place. All those sensors on the roof, for example, help the car ‘see’ the environment around it, allowing the car to warn of impending dangers. And as with all modern premium vehicles, all the usual safety features such as autonomous emergency braking are included. There’s no self-driving tech as yet, but with all those updates, who knows what the future will hold?
Options
It’s difficult to talk too much about what the EL6 will come with, because the truth is we don’t know. Nio hasn’t even launched the brand in the UK as yet, and though we’re told it’s coming at some point, we don’t know anything about lease rates and what’s included as yet. What we do know is that in other markets, the EL6 range will fall roughly in line with that of the BMW iX3, albeit with customers getting a choice of battery sizes and the option of access to the swapping scheme. We don’t know how residual values will look, either, so there’s no way of telling how much it’ll cost to lease an EL6, but we can be fairly confident it’ll be somewhere in the same ballpark as its rivals. More on which in a moment…
Rival Cars
At present, the EL6 may not be available in the UK, but it does have a growing cohort of rivals with which it must eventually compete. Chief among these is the Mercedes-Benz EQC, which has managed to make inroads in the electric SUV market by dint of its stylish design and cool interior, as well as its solid range and performance.
Much the same can also be said of the EL6’s other big rival, the BMW iX3, but that’s an even more appealing car to drive. Yes, it’s very closely related to the conventional X3– so much so that it isn’t always easy to tell the difference – but that will be as desirable for many as it is undesirable for others.
Then there’s the other big German contender, the forthcoming Audi Q6 e-tron, which is set to be a brilliant electric SUV, and the new Porsche Macan, which is based on similar underpinnings. We’ve driven a prototype of the former and ridden shotgun in the latter, and found plenty to like about both, so watch this space very closely indeed.
Perhaps the surprise contender in this market is the Genesis Electrified GV70, which is based on the conventional, petrol- and diesel-powered GV70 models. Like those cars, it’s brilliant, and it offers great cabin quality and range, as well as smoothness and refinement. It’s well worth considering.
Verdict & Next Steps
While Nio may not have launched in the UK just yet, the EL6 is quite the statement of intent. Not only is it surprisingly well made, remarkably pleasant to drive and promising the possibility of clever battery swap technology, but it will also be developed further before it arrives on these shores. That means better tech, possibly greater range and improved capability. If it can tick all those boxes, it won’t just be a rival for the Western establishment; it’ll be one of the best in the business.
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