On NIO Day 2021, Li Bin said a paragraph that caused great controversy on the Internet.
"I just don't understand, why are people still buying gas trucks now?" It's how nostalgic it is to buy a petrol truck."
The biggest point of controversy in this passage is that not all users at present agree that trams are surpassing fuel cars in all aspects. However, when Li Bin said this, the first product of the Weilai NT 2.0 platform, ET7, had not yet officially met with everyone. Just today, 14 months after the release of the NIO ET7, we finally had the opportunity to experience this car for the first time.
So take the opportunity to test drive ET7 this time, let's re-examine this passage of Li Bin. What kind of product power does ET7 have to give Li Bin such confidence to say this? As the first product of NIO NT 2.0 and the first car of NIO, can ET7 make coin holders abandon the 56E (BMW 5 Series, Audi A6, Mercedes-Benz E-Class) instead of choosing it?
01
Familiar but fresh
I believe that you are no longer unfamiliar with the appearance of NIO ET7. Before today's test drive, the exterior and interior of the NIO ET7 had been featured several times at major auto shows. But in several appearances, almost always the Antarctic star blue car paint with 21-inch carbon fiber aluminum alloy wheels appearance configuration, even the most handsome main color, after a long time will still appear a certain aesthetic fatigue.
And the exhibition car that debuted on the stage also has a half-meter fence and security personnel around it. Arguably, one of the farthest distances in the world is half a meter away from the ET7.
However, at today's test drive, it is very rare for the NIO ET7 to appear at the same time with various car paints and various wheel hubs. So, let's take a look at which combination is more in your eyes.
Because the test drive on the spot is equipped with 21-inch wheels, the 4 kinds of paint aura are very powerful, and we are looking forward to seeing the posture of the 20-inch wheels in the future.
In terms of size, the length, width and height of ET7 are 5,101 × 1,987 × 1,509 mm, which is the same size as the domestic extended version of 56E.
The difference is that ET7 adopts a slippery back design, at such a height, the design skills to make a beautiful slippery back are extremely demanding, but you can always trust the aesthetic of Weilai.
The lower waistline gradually rises from front to back, accompanied by low ground clearance and a large 21-inch wheel hub, which effectively reduces the weight of the vehicle while creating a stronger sense of sport.
Here is also a recommendation for everyone, there is no selected color of the predetermined owners, you can try aurora green paint with 20-inch low wind resistance wheels.
As a sedan, the ET7 has become more concise under the front face design of the Nio family. The front face does not have too much color collocation and chrome decoration, compared with Weilai's SUV series on sale, the front face is also more closed and more technological. Aurora Green's paint not only highlights the personality, but also strengthens the scientific and technological attributes of the vehicle.
The 20-inch low wind resistance wheel is also a compromise choice in energy consumption, comfort and appearance.
Body design, the roof bulging lidar and the left and right two 8 million pixel cameras have always been controversial places, here I do not comment too much, compared to other roof layout sensor models, it can be said that the shape given by Weilai is already an optimal solution that takes into account the function and design.
Another point of the more ingenious design is the visual camera and high brake lights at the rear. Traditional models will have a "shark fin" with an antenna device on the rear position of the roof, and the high brake lights of the NIO ET7 are independent of the outside of the body, integrating a rear visual camera, a bit like the ray of the animal kingdom.
Coming to the rear of the car, the trunk of Weilai ET7 is also a point that many friends pay attention to, and it is a pity that although Weilai ET7 is a sneakback model, the trunk is not the opening method of the hatchback, so the opening is not too large.
In terms of trunk space, thanks to the length, the depth is still excellent, but the overall platform of the trunk is higher, and there is almost no storage space under the platform, and the rear seats do not support being reclined, so the practicality of the trunk is a weakness of the WEILAI ET7.
The improvement in the doorknob is worth mentioning when opening the door.
Originally, whether it was ES6, EC6 or ES8, it was a one-sided pop-up door handle, and often this way of opening the door would look particularly awkward when pulling the door, which felt like you were tearing the easy-to-tear line on the paper packaging.
Now the entire pop-up door handle on the ET7 will be much more convenient than the Weilai currently on sale. It is worth mentioning that the back of the ET7 handle has touch sensing, even if you do not do the pulling action, just touch the back of the handle, the door will automatically pop open.
In addition, the ET7 series is equipped with electric suction doors as standard, so it only needs to be gently closed when closing the door, which is also an advantage of the ET7 over the configuration of the same class.
02
Simplicity is the title song
Interior design
Pulling the car door open and sitting in the driver's seat, we are still greeted by the interior layout of Weilai, but there have been great changes in style, starting from the points we have reached.
First of all, the style of the steering wheel has changed, from the original three-frame to two-frame. The number of buttons on the steering wheel has also been simplified from the original one-sided 7-way to one-sided 5-way; in addition, the icons of the remaining keys have been cancelled except for the middle buttons. In terms of actual use, it can still be used skillfully after simple hands-on.
Also minimalized is the control button on the door, first of all, the physical button adjusted by the rearview mirror is integrated into the car machine, in the eyes of many people, the physical adjustment button is cut, which is greatly reduced in practicality, but after I have long used the Tesla Model 3 and Xiaopeng P7 without physical buttons, I think the demand for adjustment in daily driving is mainly concentrated when reversing and changing seat positions for drivers of different heights.
Therefore, if you can do a reasonable reversing automatic downward flip, and the rearview mirror adjustment and seat memory to do a deep correlation, basically no longer need physical adjustment buttons.
In addition, the ET7's window buttons have become levers, changing the traditional habit of buckle and push.
The door opening method has also been upgraded from the previous manual opening to electric opening, but everyone does not have to worry about not being able to open the door after the power outage, and the ET7 has reserved a mechanical handle for emergency use on the four doors.
We set our sights on the center console, due to the SUV to the car, the thickness of the center console has also been reduced, in order to save space, the air conditioning outlet adopts a hidden design, the adjustment method is the same as Tesla, can adjust the wind direction and wind volume through the central control screen.
Karuun renewable vine wood in the middle of the air-conditioned air outlet also enhances the sophistication of the interior to a certain extent. Of course, the refinement in the minimalist style is only Weilai's own understanding of the cockpit. In my opinion, the ET7's interior is indeed as spacious, comfortable, refined, and warm as he calls it.
However, the minimalist interior is not everyone's favorite, and I believe that many friends prefer Porsche's cockpit full of adjustment buttons.
The point that the center console feels that there is little change is that the 12.8-inch central control screen in the middle is still a vertical screen design. It is indeed convenient to see the navigation, but the viewing effect in the car is thrown out of the horizontal screen model a few streets.
Fortunately, the screen material has become AMOLED, and the narrowest part of the border has been shortened to 5.5 mm, which greatly reduces the black edges on the top and bottom of the film. The resolution of 1,728 * 1,888, the contrast ratio of 100,000: 1 plus the 8155 chip are worth affirming in terms of how it feels.
For the vertical screen, Weilai explained that it will use AR and VR devices to achieve an immersive experience in the car. We might as well wait to see if the introduction of et5 will bring a new experience in the cockpit.
In the ET7 car machine system, the official said that after upgrading Sony's 3 million pixel camera, the effect of 360 surround view will be greatly improved. We didn't feel much of an upgrade in the actual experience. This may also be a problem with the current 0.7.0 version, which may show a better effect after the vehicle is officially delivered.
Another interesting point in the ET7 set of car machines is his shortcut function, friends who have used iPhone shortcuts must have the same feeling, when a switch is triggered, the phone will help you complete a series of operations.
For et7, too, the vehicle also invokes various sensors to complete a list of custom actions. If you set a set of shortcuts for automatic cooling above 25 degrees Celsius, the operating logic of the ET7 will be like this. The vehicle temperature sensor recognizes that the outdoor temperature is higher than the temperature you set, the system will automatically turn on the air conditioner and the maximum air volume to quickly cool down, in addition, the vehicle will also open the seat ventilation and other settings according to your pre-set temperature.
Due to the limited time available at the test drive site today, we couldn't experience this set of features more closely. When our ET7 arrives, be sure to take advantage of the convenience of this set of shortcuts.
Sound system
The loss of visual experience is compensated by the auditory experience. The NIO ET7 series comes standard with a 7.1.4-channel Dolby Atmos system with a power of 1,000 W and a terrifying number of speakers of 23.
I believe that the friends who have experienced Dolby Atmos in the theater must have a deep impression of this panoramic sound system, especially the promotional video played by Dolby before the opening of the movie, which really has an immersive feeling. Whether it is the sound of rain or the sound of birds in the forest, it seems to happen before and after themselves.
Similarly, in THE NIO ET7, click to play a 7.1.4-channel music album in NIO Radio, and we can enjoy high-quality music in a confined interior space.
Close your eyes and you can tell very accurately where the drums are coming from, where the singer is and the melody that surrounds you. It's no exaggeration to say that thunder from behind can make you feel like it's about to rain; the sound of water coming from all around you makes it feel like a vehicle is leaking. We also compared harman carton from the BMW 5 Series, and suddenly felt that this standard was not fragrant.
Under the premise of such a high audio quality, we may wish to look forward to whether there will be more 7.1.4 channel video in the video software of the car machine in the future to make this set of sound systems play to the extreme.
Of course, for a good audio experience, the number of units, power, etc. are the foundation. Often when you lay out the sound in your home, the first thing you arrange is the sound-absorbing sponge kit. NVH is also crucial for vehicles, whether it's a test drive on a field or a test drive on the road, et7 gives me the feeling of a word – quiet.
The moment you close the door, you can feel the obvious space inside the car is cut off from the outside world, and even if the vehicle is moving dynamically, the suppression of wind noise and tire noise is still good. I thought that one of the credits came from the silent comfort tire, and when I got out of the car to see the Pirelli P ZERO, I couldn't help but drive fiercely.
03
"Reborn"
Venue test drive
When I first sat on the ET7, I didn't expect much from the handling of the car. Because the entire interior design is still the consistent inheritance of Weilai's family style, the whole color collocation seems to tell me that this car is not born for sports. Secondly, the company's original NT 1.0 platform OFO EC6 has not been able to build up much driving confidence with me, and the braking and handling performance does not match its acceleration.
Until I parked the car on the starting line and pressed the accelerator pedal, the 0.98 G instantaneous acceleration brought by the maximum torque of 850 N·m pressed my body tightly to the seat, and I saw that the buffer zone was in front of me, and the brake pedal was at the bottom, and I clearly felt that the tire was scratching the ground. Before the brain could react, the vehicle had come to a continuous loop of the pile. Intuitively, the vehicle at 60 km/h was thrown into the corner, and the heavy steering wheel precisely maneuvered the front wheels around the pile barrel. In just 1 minute, I changed my preconceived notions about ET7.
In just 1 minute, half-convinced, I took a BMW 530 Li and ran it again. The 2.0T engine roared and crossed the end of the straight-line acceleration section, and the 530 Li had a tail speed of 74 km/h. Comparing the ET7's 100 km/h late tails, I find the power boring. Speaking of the ET7 front and rear dual motors, the maximum power is 480 kW, the maximum horsepower is 650 hp, this data parameter has been properly M Power, AMG and RS level, and the price is only a fraction of them. Imagine if ET7 would appear next in Horizon 5?
In the pile winding section, the two cars gave me a completely different feeling, and the 5 Series that was good at sports gave me a feeling of a big car, and it had a greater amplitude than the ET7's posture in the pile winding. Steering feel, the difference between the two cars is not large, are in the middle of 1-3 degrees there is a small range of gaps, to a large hit the direction of the direction and steering feedback will give people a strong confidence.
I have a little bit of a fuss on the steering wheel, and the ET7 doesn't have a grip groove at 3 or 9 o'clock. Therefore, when driving intensely, the driver can only turn the steering wheel through grip and friction. However, considering that the positioning of WEILAI ET7 is still biased towards administrative and higher age users, it is harmless to have no groove.
04
Nothing wrong with comfort
Dynamic comfort
For ET7's audience, no one is going to be on the road without a hitch. On the road, driving strictly according to the speed limit is the use scenario of this car. Driving out of the venue and onto the surface road, I pretended to be the owner of the ET7 to feel it.
Originally, I was going to try out how the ET7's suspension performance was on the ground road, but the moment I drove out of the field, I felt a strong sense of spatial isolation. This sense of isolation mainly comes from two aspects, the first is the quietness of the car, even if the only 4 tires in contact with the ground of the vehicle are from the Pirelli P ZREO, the noise control of the whole vehicle is still a very good level, at a speed of 60 km/h cruising on the streets of the downtown, we can still communicate normally even if we are whispering. Turn on the music and you won't even notice the buses and earthmoving cars passing around, it feels like you're walking down the road with noise-cancelling headphones on.
The second point is the chassis, we have just tried the Sport + mode in the field, and we already have a certain understanding of support manipulation. On the road experience, we switched to comfort mode, and the ET7 took on a different personality. Driving steadily on the road, encountering bumps on the road or the seams of the viaduct, it can directly filter without a word. When pressed against a large pit or at a faster speed through the manhole cover, the ET7's filtration is very crisp and clean, without producing a little extra jump, and the only jump is as crisp and tough as if you were bouncing on a brand new Simmons.
Ride comfort
In the past, when we ran 42Mark, the EC6 sat for a few hours and always made me feel sore back pain. On ET7, I sat for almost 3 or 4 hours, and my body was honest about telling me that I wanted to sit a little longer.
Ventilation and heating are readily available on the front seats, and the 14-way electric adjustment is two-way electric leg rest adjustment, which is much more advanced than the manual push-pull type in the 56E.
One of the most impressive to me was the massage on the ET7, the seat massage component is a genuine roller, compared to the airbag massage on other models, the ET7 can really press on your back.
As an executive-class sedan, all the functions of the front seats and the rear seats are also arranged. Passengers in the back seat can also enjoy heating, ventilation and massage. Yes, this is also standard in the entire series.
In terms of space, the front row is a suitable driving position for me (height 175 cm, weight 70 kg), and the rear row is 63 (height 175 cm, weight 80 kg) seating space.
The leg space is very rich, the head space has a distance of 4 fingers, this space is not rich, fortunately, the panoramic canopy overhead is still quite transparent, so there will be no obvious sense of depression.
Another regret is that in order to be compatible with the power exchange mechanism and the use of the same battery of the ES8, the overall height of the platform is still high, and the position of the legs is not particularly relaxed.
Fortunately, the cushion is particularly long, giving the thigh a good support, so we secretly took out a tape measure, and the measured length of the cushion was about 54 cm, which was indeed counted as a relatively long cushion.
When I experienced the back row of the ET7, I was unfortunately caught in the middle. So I seem to have spotted a groove in the back of the ET7, with the headrest in the middle of the rear so low that I could understand if it was a 4-seater car. As a standard 5-seater car, the middle headrest is too low to be safe.
I even experienced a zero-hundred-hundred-spin in this position, with acceleration close to 1 G causing my head to instantly tilt back and even feel like it was being rear-ended. If you don't have the thick neck of an F1 driver, it's not recommended that you experience intense driving in this position.
Regardless of this issue, the ET7 also gave me a very airy ride, especially in the rear. Although the SUNROOF of the ET7 is also dark UV-proof glass, the glass color of the ET7 will be much lighter than that of Tesla and Xiaopeng. And the ET7's window extension is particularly good, the back of the headrest is a small triangle glass, the top of the head is also covered by the sunroof.
Gradually, the time came to night. As the lights are turned on, the screen shifts to dark mode, the ambience lights inside the car are lit up, and the lines of the vehicle's interior are outlined by the 256-color ambience lights.
Listening to the music that surrounds me, sitting on the soft seat and pressing the motorcycle, I can't help but think, ET7 impressed me, but really stand out in the 56E?
05
summary
My answer is yes, with the improvement of the Weilai energy system, the increase of the replacement power station, and the improvement of the endurance, 5 minutes to complete a replenishment, has been able to make most of the Weilai car owners to eliminate the mileage anxiety.
The starting price of 448,000 yuan, the exemption from purchase tax and license plate fees, and the standard installation of a large number of comfort features, coupled with the improvement of mechanical quality, give ET7 the ability to divide the market of traditional fuel administrative vehicles such as 56E.
Here, too, I'm looking forward to the arrival of the end of March and the beginning of April. Today's test drive gave me a basic understanding of ET7, and a more nuanced experience cannot be felt in a day's experience.
After a month of improvement, I will continue to test the auxiliary driving and energy consumption performance of the ET7. See what the LIDAR on the ET7's head can do, and how much the daily use of the 180 kW front permanent magnet synchronous motor can reduce energy consumption in the application of silicon carbide.
What I'm looking forward to more than just the ET7 pick-up. There are also Weilai's main hits, the young ET5 and the ES7 that has just revealed the news. As for why everyone still buys fuel trucks now? We let the bullets fly a little longer, and we're not in a hurry to make up our minds yet.
Author: Jiang Xiaohei
Edit: June 3
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