Nio has developed a 150-kwh battery that might doubtlessly increase the vary of electrical autos considerably greater than what present vary kings just like the Lucid Air can ship.

The Chinese language electrical automobile firm introduced on Tuesday the profitable take a look at of its new Extremely Lengthy Vary battery, which noticed Chairman William Li cowl 1,044 km (roughly 648.7 miles) behind the wheel of a Nio ET7 mid-size sedan. The EPA-rated vary for the Lucid Air tops out at 516 miles.

The true-world take a look at noticed Li and two others drive from Shanghai to Xiamen, in temperatures that at some elements of the journey had been beneath freezing, an element that usually harms a battery’s vary.

The journey took roughly 14 hours to finish and used up 97% of the battery’s cost, in line with Nio.

Nio CEO and founder William Li with the 2022 ET7

Nio mentioned the battery is designed to suit all of its fashions, and is already obtainable at a few of its battery-swapping stations in China. Nio mentioned a buyer might go for the Extremely Lengthy Vary battery when planning an extended street journey, after which revert to a smaller and lighter battery for regular driving duties. Nio makes it simple for patrons to vary batteries by way of versatile choices for upgrading the packs when wanted.

The information comes the identical week that Nio President Lihong Qin mentioned the corporate plans to launch two extra manufacturers centered on autos extra reasonably priced than these offered by the present Nio model. The primary, dubbed Firefly, is because of launch in Europe as quickly as 2025.

Nio was as soon as billed as China’s Tesla, however its gross sales have been damage by Tesla’s latest spherical of value cuts. Nio’s gross sales in 2023 are on monitor to succeed in simply over 150,000 items, whereas Tesla is on monitor to succeed in greater than 10 instances that determine. To lift capital, the corporate has been issuing new shares. The newest concern came about this week and noticed Abu Dhabi-based CYVN Holdings buy $2.2 billion price of shares. CYVN’s stake in Nio has now grown to about 20%, following the newest funding plus a earlier $1 billion funding in July.