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Chinese electric car start-up NextEV launched a new brand Nio with an all-new electric car - what they claim to be the fastest electric vehicle in the world. The Nio EP9 claims a laptime of 7.52seconds at the notorious Nordschleife Nurburgring which puts it straight in supercar territory. Additionally, the carmaker claims that the car smashed the EV record at Circuit Paul Ricard in France, recording a laptime of 1.52seconds, over the previous EV record of 2.40seconds.
Launched at the Saatchi Gallery in London, UK, the EP9 is the new Tesla-rival with just 18 months in the making. The NextEV has been in the Formula E campaign since its inception in 2014, winning the first season championship with Nelson Piquet Jr. behind the steering wheel.
The power for the EP9 comes from four electric motors attached to each wheel and managed individually by four gearboxes. The interchangeable battery packs sit on either side of the car under the door sills and can be charged within 45 minutes, after exhausting a claimed range of 427 kilometres. The 777-volt powertrain develops 1 Megawatt of power – the equivalent of 1,341bhp and 1,480Nm of torque.
The EP9 can accelerate from standstill to a 200kph in mere 7.1 seconds and can go on to hit a top speed of 313kmph. Weighing around 1,735kg, the car isn’t too light. The exterior and interior of the EP9 have an extensive utilisation of carbon-fibre and carbon composite materials. The seats are made of a single carbon-fibre tub. There are four screens in the cockpit. One mounted on a rectangular-shaped Formula 1 inspired steering wheel, one behind it. There is one screen on the centre console and the other sits in front of the passenger seat, which displays a plethora of information, including the occupants’ heartbeats.
There are adjustable front splitters and a full-length floor diffuser running beneath the car, with the bespoke 21-inch wheels wrapped in proper slick tires. Along with the three-way adjustable rear wing, the car produces a downforce twice than that of a Formula 1 car. NextEV claims that the EP9 produces 24,019Newton of downforce at 240kph, it pulls a 3.3g under braking and is capable of producing over 2.5g lateral force in high-speed corners. The EP9 uses technology from the NextEV's Formula E car and is conforming to the same safety standards of an LMP1 racecar. Nio is working with autonomous technology as well, but no details of the same are revealed as yet.
The EP9 will have a production run of only six units, all of which will go to the manufacturer’s founding investors, with each costing approximately $1.2 million (Rs 8.18 crore). The EP9 will be a halo car from the firm to flaunt their prowess until they launch a mainstream passenger EV car under the Nio brand in the coming years.
