The ET5 Touring: NIO's Smart Electric Tourer Is Ready To Challenge More Established Brands

The ET5 Touring is the 'world's first smart electric tourer', while the EL6 is a 'sophisticated and progressive' mid-size SUV that combines performance and luxury in its own unique fashion. Both models are designed with families in mind, offering versatility, space, and practicality along with a dynamic and elegant style. The ET5 Touring and the EL6 will also enter the European market later this year, competing with premium automakers such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW or Porsche.

The ET5 Touring and the EL6 are based on NIO's next-generation NT 2.0 platform, which features a high efficiency and modular design. Both models are equipped with NIO's latest battery tech and most advanced autonomous driving capabilities and also support NIO's fast charging network, which includes over 1,000 battery swap stations in China and a rapidly proliferating infrastructure in Europe.

In this coverstory, we will focus on the ET5 Touring, NIO's first electric tourer, and discover what makes it stand out from the crowd. Let's explore its design and styling, which reveal an alluring and elegant profile and an athletic body contour, its interior and on-board technology, offering an immersive experience with a wrap-around design and a fully-digital cockpit, and behold the performance and driving capabilities of the powerful dual-motor-equipped all-wheel-drive family hauler.

NIO: A Rising Star in the EV Industry

NIO is a global electric vehicle company that was founded in 2014 under the former 'NextEV' name by William Li, a visionary entrepreneur who wanted to create a user-centric smart electric vehicle brand. NIO's name means "Blue Sky Coming" in Chinese, reflecting its guiding philosophy of creating a brighter and more sustainable future with intelligent electric vehicle solutions and enabling the ultimate user experience for its customers.

At the present time, NIO operates R&D centers at a global scale, including manufacturing facilities in China, the US, Germany, the UK, and Singapore, and has established sales and service networks in China, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark. NIO's products include the EP9, one of the world's fastest electric vehicles; the ES8, ES7, ES6, EC7, and EC6 SUVs; and the ET7 and ET5 sedans, now including the newly-released tourer variant of the latter model. NIO also offers innovative services such as battery swapping, a charging network, autonomous driving technology, and the NIO Life lifestyle platform.

Since its inception, NIO has achieved remarkable milestones. For instance, in 2015, the NIO Formula E team secured victory in the inaugural FIA Formula E Drivers' Championship. The following year, NIO made waves by launching the EP9 sports car, breaking multiple world records for electric vehicles. In 2017, NIO captivated audiences with the unveiling of EVE, its visionary vehicle project.

Subsequently, in 2018, NIO commenced deliveries of the ES8 SUV in China and underwent a successful initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange. Demonstrating continued growth, NIO celebrated the delivery of its 100,000th vehicle in China in 2020. Expanding its horizons further, NIO announced its entrance into Europe, with Norway as its first overseas market in 2021. Finally, in 2022, NIO achieved another significant milestone by listing on both the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the Singapore Exchange.

A stylish and versatile electric tourer

The ET5 Touring is one of NIO's latest creations and gets the designation of the company's first 'smart electric tourer.' It is based on the ET5 sedan, which was launched in December 2021 as NIO's fifth production model. The ET5 Touring adds more functionality and space to the sporty and elegant character of the sedan, making it an ideal choice for families who value both performance, great looks and practicality.

The ET5 Touring features NIO's second-generation design language, which revealed the perfect proportions for a tourer. The hatchback design highlights its alluring and slippery profile and sets off the dynamic and elegant body contour. For instance, the front Watchtower sensor layout seamlessly blends each sensing unit, such as the LiDAR and cameras, with the vehicle's roofline.

The ET5 Touring measures 4,790 mm (188.6 inches) in length, 1,960 mm (77.2 inches) in width, and 1,499 mm (59 inches) in height, with a wheelbase of 2,888 mm (113.7 inches). Unlike the ET5 sedan on which it is based, the rear of the ET5 Touring is extended, with the rooflines naturally connecting to the rear spoiler.

The elegantly upward sloping lower rear section of the car lends a sense of harmony, resulting in a visually pleasing and well-balanced appearance, while the iconic rear spoiler and illumiBlade lightbar complete this tourer's unmistakable look. Got to admit it, when viewed from the rear, this beautiful electric machine gives off Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo vibes, which is no bad thing!

Not least, the ET5 Touring comes with a one-piece panoramic glass sunroof measuring an impressive 14.52 ft² (1.35m²), featuring intelligent dimming, as well as protection from up to 99.99 percent of harmful UV rays and 80 percent isolation from heat.

State-of-art practicality

The ET5 Touring boasts a captivating cockpit design that creates an immersive and comforting experience for all occupants. Its wrap-around layout envelops passengers, while the PanoCinema system offers an unforgettable night-time experience with 256x256 color combinations of ambient lighting available and a 7.1.4 surround sound system at one's fingertips. For those seeking truly extraordinary experiences inside the ET5 Touring, the optional NIO Air AR Glasses can transcend its occupants to a private cinema-like setting, as if watching a captivating 201-inch screen positioned six meters away.

Regarding interior space, the ET5 Touring sets a new standard with its tourer-specific styling and design. Its generous longitudinal space grants occupants in both the front and rear seats a remarkable 6.1 ft (1,857 mm) of legroom. With a keen eye on functionality, the design of the ET5 Touring optimizes the rear row, particularly in terms of headroom, while offering great versatility with its 40:20:40 independent folding rear seats.

Flexibility and practicality define the ET5 Touring's loading area, providing a total space of 1,300 liters. The trunk cover is thoughtfully designed to be flush with the sill, facilitating easy loading and unloading. It can be opened separately, offering an additional 42 liters of space, or lowered to accommodate taller items and expand the vertical cargo area. Also, the ET5 Touring provides an array of storage spaces throughout the cabin, allowing users to efficiently organize various items and maximize the available space.

Furthermore, the vehicle's exterior cargo space is expanded, with seamlessly integrated roof rails that ensure secure mounting of racks or roof boxes. Maintaining the sleek, low-profile appearance but enhancing functionality even further, the roof rails can handle a substantial maximum load of 165 lbs (75 kg).
Advanced and autonomous but still thrilling to drive

Embodied within the ET5 Touring is NIO's unmistakable high-performance DNA. This exceptional vehicle showcases a renowned dual-motor all-wheel drivetrain, testament to NIO's engineering prowess. Aided by progressive aerodynamics, the vehicle boasts a remarkable drag coefficient of (Cd) of 0.25, making it able to accelerate from a standstill to 62 mph (100 kph) in 4.0 seconds flat. The impeccable weight distribution, perfectly balanced at 50:50, contributes to improved on-road stability, while a low center of gravity, calculated at 19.65 inches (499 mm), enhances overall dynamic control.

The ET5 Touring's advanced front and rear five-link suspension have been meticulously tuned to cope with most surfaces. The standard Hydraulic Rebound Stop (HRS) system fitted on both the front and rear axles further absorbs road imperfections while minimizing suspension system noise, vibrations, and ride harshness.

The ET5 Touring also benefits from the highly intelligent NIO AQUILA Super Sensing system, which is comprised of a wide array of 33 high-performance sensors. This cutting-edge technology, in conjunction with the ultralong range and high-resolution LiDAR camera, delivers unparalelled perception of the road and its surrounding environment.

At the heart of all the ET5 Touring models sits the NIO ADAM Super Computing platform, equipped with four Nvidia Drive Orin X chips which provide 1,016 TOPS of computing power. Consequently, users can benefit from an extensive range of 23 standard safety and driver assistance features, with regular add-ons made possible through over-the-air updates, seamlessly integrating into the NIO ecosystem of products and services.

Getting behind the wheel and taking manual control of the ET5 Touring is also a truly delightful experience, made possible by its nine driving modes. Beyond the five usual ones like Eco, Comfort, Sport, Sport+, and Custom, the ET5 Touring presents four additional scenario modes which include Snow, Sand, Wet, and Trailer, a comprehensive suite which ensures that the vehicle is ready to tackle any driving scenarios with ease and confidence.

Equipped with NIO's latest battery architecture, the ET5 Turing can be equipped with three battery alternatives: a standard-range 75 kWh pack with an estimated range of 270 miles (435 km), a long-range 100 kWh variant with an capable of 348 miles (560 km), and a BaaS (battery-as-a-service) option that allows users to subscribe to different battery capacities according to their needs.

The ET5 Touring is available to order in China, with deliveries expected to start June 16, 2023. The Chinese starting prices are around RMB 298,000 ($41,817) for the standard-range version, RMB 356,000 ($50,000) for the long-range variant, and RMB 228,000 ($32,000) for the BaaS option, which requires a monthly payment of RMB 980 ($138) or RMB 1680 ($235), respectively. More importantly, the ET5 Touring will also be launched in Europe, with deliveries expected to commence in the fourth quarter of this year.

The ET5 Touring is a breakthrough product that showcases NIO's innovation and ambition in the EV industry. It is not only the company's first intelligent electric tourer but also a versatile and stylish family car that can meet the diverse needs of users, which, in turn, is expected to attract more customers to NIO's brand and enhance its competitiveness in the global markets.