What happened
Shares of Chinese electric-vehicle maker NIO (NIO 2.30%) opened sharply higher on Monday. The company unveiled a new electric luxury sedan, a longer-range battery, and other promising technologies at its annual "NIO Day" event on Saturday.
As of 9:45 a.m. EST, NIO's American depositary shares were up about 7.5% from Friday's closing price.
So what
NIO showed off the production version of its new ET7 electric luxury sedan on Saturday. The ET7, a sleek sedan with a claimed range of over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) in top trim, is expected to go on sale in about a year at a starting price of 448,000 Chinese yuan (about $69,100). Like other NIOs, the ET7 will be available at a lower price (378,000 yuan, or about $58,300) if the buyer opts for the company's battery-subscription program.
CEO William Bin Li presented NIO's new ET7 luxury sedan at an event in Chengdu on Saturday. Image source: NIO.
NIO said that the ET7 incorporates a slew of hardware sensors -- 33 in all, including a lidar sensor -- intended to support fully autonomous operation once the software is made available. It's a dual-motor all-wheel-drive design with a Tesla-like claimed 0-100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour) time of just 3.9 seconds.
As expected, NIO also showed its new 150 kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery pack and the latest versions of its sensor and on-board computing systems, all of which will be available on the ET7.
Now what
Auto investors take note: In a hint at NIO's possible plans for the vehicle (and its business), the company said that the ET7 is engineered to meet both Chinese and European safety standards.
We'll learn more when NIO reports its fourth-quarter and full-year 2020 earnings, likely in mid-February.
