There’s a narrative that’s common now: the Chinese market is pushing out all foreign competitors. Whether it’s BMW, General Motors or Volkswagen, the media, analysts, some automotive company CEOs and political pundits have agreed that the writing is on the wall. The war for China’s EV buyers, they say, has already been won by new local brands like BYD.
I think that’s a very shortsighted idea. But I think that Western brands are noticing that Chinese brands, especially premium ones, are swaying buyers who would have opted for a European luxury car on merit and desire, not just price or national pride.
Nio is one such brand. The compact ET5 Touring station wagon holds the title of the best-selling premium EV wagon in the world. Sure, that’s not a huge market segment, but the compact crossover segment is. That’s where the Nio ES6 comes in. It’s a fully electric BMW X3 competitor, and Nio’s biggest seller by volume. In fact, for several months of the year in China, the ES6 outsold the BMW X3 and its electric-powered variants.
What’s missing from the conversation is how good cars like these are, why they’re good and whether they can stand the test of time. It’s time to tone down the patronization and take a real critical eye to these products; are they executed well for what they are?
During a visit to China late last year, I tried to understand the ES6 for what it is: a tech-forward, entry-level luxury crossover that hopes to hit the right notes among high-earning global buyers. After driving one for more than 300 miles around the Shanghai area, I think that Nio might be one of the best manufacturers that understands exactly who its clientele is.
(Full Disclosure: Nio flew me to Shanghai in order to get acquainted with its latest products and chat about its business operations. I drove several Nio models around the greater Shanghai area.)
Gallery: Nio ES6 (2024)
NIO ES6
What Is A Nio ES6?
We’ve talked about Nio at length here before. It’s China’s battery-swap king. Founded in 2015, the brand came onto the scene with a handful of crossover SUVs that could swap their batteries (as well as charge.) Nearly a decade later, the battery-swapping “gimmick” has turned into more than 60 million swaps done, and the brand’s lineup has grown from just two models to more than seven.
The Nio ES6 (called EL6 in European markets, thanks to Audi) might just be one of its most important models. This second-generation model is based on an all-new platform called NT 2.0 that underpins the rest of Nio’s models (except those from the more budget-minded Onvo brand). It is sized right at the heart of the segment, taking aim at some of the most important premium models, regardless of whether they’re ICE or EV.
Depending on where you live, the ES6’s 192-inch length is more mid-sized rather than compact, but its pricing and market position put place it more towards the slightly shorter BMW X3 or Audi Q5. I’m sure that in Europe these extra inches would be segment-defining, but in the U.S. and Canada, we’re a little more floaty with specific size categories and market segments. To the American mind, this is a BMW X3 competitor. If you’re looking for a BMW X5-sized car, Nio has the ES7 and ES8 to choose from.
Nio’s representatives were very clear that the brand considers itself a luxury contemporary to BMW, Audi, or Mercedes-Benz. True, the Nio ES6’s roughly $47,000 base price undercuts the roughly $54,000 BMW iX3 and X3 in China, but it’s priced significantly above everyone’s favorite measuring stick: the Tesla Model Y. Thus, the ES6 is designed to be a little more upscale compared to the Tesla, or it’s own internal Model Y competitor, the Onvo L60. Like the Onvo L60, the ES6 can be significantly discounted if the buyer opts to enter a battery-as-a-service leasing program.
Like all Nio products, the ES6 is powered by a dual-motor AWD setup good for a combined output of 490 horsepower. Those motors are fed by either a 75, 100, or 150 kWh battery, although the last one is only available via short-term rental. On-road efficiency was just OK, considering the cool temperatures and my general unfamiliarity with driving in China. The vehicle’s trip computer calculated the ES6’s efficiency at about 3.2 miles per kWh. Not bad, considering this wasn’t an economy run and about 70% of my driving was at or above 60 mph.
The sleek styling looks neat and sophisticated without being bland, derivative, or overly fussy and amateurish. The proportions are tidy, the car looks stylistically on-trend, with the same array of floating roofs and thin lighting elements that make such a big and boxy body look sleek, and flat-aero wheels to aid range. It’s a handsome car that would look at home in any modern city without falling into the copycat look that so many Chinese brands are either wittingly or unwittingly guilty of doing.
The interior is upscale, too. Yes, the ES6 is a still screen-heavy design, but thankfully Nio hasn’t gone overboard. There is only just one screen in front of the driver that shows speed and range, and another tablet-style screen for everything else.
Admittedly, it's fairly paired back compared to some of the button-laden designs from European automakers, but the ES6 still has some buttons for gear selection, turn signals, and cruise control. Onvo, for better or worse, runs the same playbook as Tesla.
There are minimal materials, surfaces and touchpoints, with just a big ass screen that holds literally all driver interactions. By contrast, Nio doesn’t think that a Tesla-style interface is right for a luxury car.
To top it off, Nio offers a surprisingly high amount of interior customization. Interiors run the gamut of the traditional grey, cream or black, but the ES6 also offers an almost BMW-esque Camel color. Sadly, the Slate Blue and Mauve interior combos offered on its coupe-crossover EC6 sister model aren’t available on the ES6.
Nio’s products differ in other mechanical ways, too. For example, all Nio products use LiDAR for its semi-autonomous driving software, while Onvo makes do with a Tesla-style camera-only setup. Nio’s cars come with a charming Bob-Omb-shaped digital AI assistant that memorizes faces and tells jokes. It can even be customized with little hats, although Nio says those are all aftermarket and they don’t sell any officially sanctioned ones at its dealerships or merch stores. That’s a shame because the little felt cowboy hat was the cutest thing I’ve seen in a modern-day car in a very long time.
Well-Finished, Soft, And Smooth
As a kid in the 2000s, I was obsessed with the reviews in car magazines. My mother lusted after Cadillac cars that we would rightfully file under“malaise”—the front-wheel-drive “downsized” Deville and Seville of the mid to late 1980s. She loved them, I was convinced her insistence on supporting the American car industry clouded her judgment, allowing her to look past the atrocious design and bad build quality.
So, when Cadillac popped back on the scene with the (initially) well-reviewed Cadillac CTS, I was sure she’d love it. She did not. To her, the CTS’s relatively fast and communicative steering was an unwelcome change from the incredibly overboosted, finger-light steering of the GM C-body cars she loved. The interior may have been screwed together a bit better, but the plastics were hard and ugly, where was the velour and fake wooden trim she loved? To her, Cadillac wasn’t luxury anymore. To her, a luxury car was something she didn’t want to feel driving. She didn’t want an American BMW, she wanted a Cadillac.
My point is that people’s perceptions of luxury and wealth aren’t necessarily universal. By and large, the Chinese market values a smooth ride and light steering. It’s not necessarily my cup of tea, but I think sometimes that throws foreigners off when they get behind the wheel of a vehicle in China. Their tuning is quite different; even models you’ve experienced at home could drive differently in China. There’s a way to critique execution while keeping in mind taste.
Thus, my initial dynamic impression of the Nio ES6 is that of a car that is very, very light and soft—think Lexus, not BMW. In comfort mode, the ES6’s adaptive damper suspension and steering are set at their maximum to completely isolate any semblance of road imperfection (or driving enjoyment.) It made maneuvering around tight Shanghai cities a breeze, but the second traffic got better, I had to change the vehicle mode to Normal.
There, the steering weighed up to a more tolerable level to my taste. I hesitate to call the ES6’s steering anywhere close to outright fun, but once again, this thing is designed for comfort and it’s generally good at doing that. The steering is accurate and confident, and the ride is smooth if incredibly soft. If the ES6 were to come to the U.S., I suspect it would get its own market-specific dynamic tuning, as it did for its European market version. To Nio’s credit, the ES6’s suspension, regenerative braking, steering weight, and even acceleration times are highly customizable within its five drive modes.
However, like the Onvo L60, the ES6’s dynamics make more sense in the context of the market, where it sees much of its sales. So much of the Shanghai area feels akin to Los Angeles—a place where traffic is bad, and most drivers just want to shut out the world while they zip from traffic jam to traffic jam.
The ES6 is good at isolating the cabin from the outside world; It’s wicked quiet and outstandingly smooth – a breath of fresh air in an era of firm-riding, loud crossovers that aren’t really all that sporty. Add in the satisfyingly well-finished interior, supremely soft seats and faultlessly hefty build quality and I understood the ES6’s vibe, even if it wasn’t my particular groove. It’s just such a well-thought-out, smart package. Nio clearly has a buyer in mind for the ES6, it knows exactly what they’re looking for, and just how to give it to them.
NOP+ Semi-Autonomous driving
I don’t really like semi-autonomous driving software. I’m one of the first to admit that I think most of this is a cynical stock market pump and grab from every manufacturer, and there’s no real utility here yet aside from making that stock number go upward.
But Nio wants to be a sort of jack-of-all-trades brand, so it puts a lot of energy into its Level 2 hands-on, eyes-on system. Called NOP+ (Navigate on Pilot Plus), this software is powered by a Nvidia Orin chip and adds LiDAR for an extra degree of precision.
Like SuperCruise, BlueCruise, or Tesla Autopilot the car can drive, change lanes, and navigate on its own. At first, it was only available on freeways, but now it can be used in cities. Nio’s representatives claim that the car can even navigate to swap stations, and swap its own battery if needed. In practice, it works pretty well. The system is similar to GM’s SuperCruise: tap a button on the steering wheel and the car will happily plod down the road on its own, keeping pace with chaotic Chinese traffic without a hitch.
However, in heavy congestion, the system has the same pitfalls as other semi-autonomous systems—it’s just a little too slow to react to angry, selfish drivers and it generally errs on the side of caution. Honestly, there wasn’t to say about the system, which is good, no?
So What Does It Mean For The Rest Of Us?
Nio has been a little less coy about its potential to come to the United States than some rivals. In its latest statement, it’s still “searching for the right time to enter,” not an easy task given the geopolitical wildcard that the Trump administration will likely be.
We know these brands have global ambitions. Sometimes, I wonder if European expansion is simply a stopgap for most Chinese manufacturers on their export-from-China journey. Sure, Europe in some instances is more EV-amicable, but when we consider automotive tastes in most of Europe compared to China, it just seems like such a far leap for manufacturers to truly captivate that market aside from a few small hatchbacks and subcompact crossovers here and there.
I mean, I like small hatchbacks too, there should be more of them. But we all know that the bulk of these automakers' profits will likely come from the sales of bigger, pricier cars.
Nio isn’t really killing it in Europe yet, though. Nio entered some European countries in 2021, but sales have been dismal. Perhaps Nio has misread the market and the ES6’s price and market localization changes aren’t what Europeans are looking for.
Or, perhaps the ES6 is inherently too large for a market where a BMW X3 is considered a “big car”. Maybe most Europeans aren’t as willing to take a chance on a foreign luxury brand when they can buy something from a local brand they know. Does that mean that Nio’s bound to flop if it were to ever come to the United States?
I don’t think that’s fair to assert. Europe isn’t America; our tastes aren’t the same, and we don’t think alike. The Nio ES6 feels so much like what Americans like: it’s a (relatively) big, girthy crossover with a pretty exterior and nice interior.
True, it’s from an unknown brand, but Americans are more willing than most to experiment with unknown luxury brands if the quality is good or the technology is groundbreaking. Look at how much better we’ve treated Lexus and Genesis, while those brands have struggled to take off in most of the Old Continent. Heck, look at how we propelled the Tesla Model S to the top when it first hit the streets. The point is, we’re less married to tradition than other countries are.
Yes, sure, long-term reliability for a Nio product, or any EV from a new brand is unknown. But, ES6 is yet another solid, compelling EV that would likely find happy premium commuters if it were to launch in the United States. It’s basically the same flavor of the stuff we already like, but arguably executed a little better.
And that’s why so many legacy automakers are having such an existential crisis. This is good, and they know it.
Contact the author: Kevin.Williams@InsideEVs.com
