Three months after opening up gross sales of its ES8 SUV in Europe, NIO has begun buyer deliveries. The refreshed all-electric SUV, renamed the EL8 for the European market, is the sixth NIO mannequin to enter Europe, and the Chinese language automaker is displaying no indicators of slowing down, even because the EU Fee imposed tariffs on imports.
Earlier this summer season, NIO rolled its 500,000th passenger EV off its Hefei meeting line. That milestone construct was the Chinese language automaker’s ES8 SUV, which began all of it. That mannequin has develop into a cornerstone of NIO’s growth into Europe, which started in Norway in 2021.
Beforehand, NIO bought 5 all-electric fashions within the EU, together with ET7, ES7, ET5, ET5T, and ES6. Nonetheless, on account of nameplate disputes with Audi, the Chinese language automaker needed to change the mannequin badges of its SUVs to “L” as a substitute of “S.”
In December 2022, NIO introduced a refresh for the ES8 (EL8), initially constructed on the automaker’s NT 1.0 platform. The refresh included the newer NT 2.0 platform and LiDAR, plus later updates to the 2024 fashions, similar to a chip improve to the cockpit.
In June, NIO introduced that its flagship ES8 SUV had formally launched in Europe because the EL8, regardless of not too long ago introduced tariffs on Chinese language imports. In the present day, the Chinese language automaker is celebrating preliminary deliveries of the SUV to prospects in Europe.
NIO’s EL8 SUV makes its approach to prospects in Europe
NIO shared photographs of its first EL8 SUV deliveries to prospects round Europe through its Weibo web page earlier right now, imploring native prospects to hunt out extra details about the Chinese language model to advertise EV adoption and sustainable journey. Per the put up:
On September 16, NIO EL8 (ES8 within the Chinese language market) began delivering the primary batch of customers in Europe. We welcome extra mates to affix the NIO household and begin a brand new journey of “calmness and moderation” collectively to create a sustainable and higher future. Observe NIO and repost the remark about which landmark in Europe you most wish to see ES8 go to. We’ll randomly choose 3 mates to provide away NIO Life espresso mugs.
The EL8 SUV on the NT 2.0 Platform is now the sixth NIO mannequin to formally enter the Europe and is at the moment obtainable in Denmark, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands. The persistence to increase comes at a tumultuous time abroad, because the EU has imposed tariffs on Chinese language-built EVs by as much as 48%.
NIO, which has cooperated with the EU Fee’s investigation, is at the moment dealing with a 20.8% tariff on all its fashions imported into the area. Regardless of the cooperation, NIO has publicly opposed the tariffs, and its founder and CEO, William Li, has acknowledged that the automaker’s stance stays unchanged and can proceed to promote its imported BEVs.
A part of that growth additionally contains battery swap stations, which had tallied 43 areas as of June 2024, alongside 45 regional superchargers and over 600,000 third-party chargers obtainable to its prospects. In the present day, NIO says it has 56 battery swap stations in operation all through Europe, together with 19 in Norway, 18 in Germany, and 10 within the Netherlands.
The NIO EL8 SUV is on sale in Europe now.
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