Nio ES9 road test: 1,150 km in China with four battery swaps

The width is felt on the narrowest country roads, where the driver has to slow down and watch the verge. In Shenzhen traffic, however, the ES9 proved easy to handle, helped by a high driving position and rear-wheel steering of up to 8.3 degrees per side, which gives a 10.9 m turning circle.

Built for the second row

The cabin has six seats and puts the second row first: 59.5 cm of knee room, a 42-point massage function and a 20-point massaging footrest. An 8.8-litre fridge, running from -2 to 55 °C, kept drinks and snacks within reach of the children, and two 40.6 cm 3K screens in the front seatbacks turned a Nintendo Switch into a rear-seat games console. Luggage space totals 716 litres, including a 216-litre front trunk, and the bags of four people for four days fitted easily.

Underneath sits Nio's third-generation platform with a 102 kWh NMC battery and a 900 V architecture. The in-house stack includes the SkyOS operating system, the Shenji NX9031 driver-assistance chip, which Nio says matches two Nvidia Thor chips, and the SkyRide chassis with active hydraulic suspension and steer-by-wire. The AQUILA perception system relies on 31 sensors, including a long-range lidar.

Caveats

The sensor modules on the body are, in the author's view, a little too visible. Whether the assisted-driving system can match Huawei's new ADS 5 remains to be established.