The ES8, an electric sports utility vehicle has been released into the market by NIO, an electric
car company in China, Financial Express reported. Since incentives in China have been put in place to urge companies to make the move away from fossil fuel use, companies like NIO have begun to develop electric vehicles which help with the issues of air pollution.

“Electrification of automobiles provides us an opportunity to change lanes to lead,” said William Li, a founder of NIO. “Our goal is to make charging more handy than refuelling.” The ES8 comes equipped with seven seats, radar guided cruise control, an artificial intelligence-based drivers’ assistance package and can accelerate to 100 km in 4.4 seconds. The car can run 500 km on each charge.

The batteries used in the SUV can be replaced in two ways, the first being at a power-swap station which would take around three minutes. The second is via a “Power Mobile” service, one which sends assistance to drivers. According to Liu, a power-swap station takes only a day to build.

Founded in 2014 by William Li and other entrepreneurs, the company formerly known as NextEv raised $1 billion in funding in November, led by Tencent Holdings Ltd. Other investors in the electric-car company include Baillie Gifford & Co., Lone Pine Capital LLC, CITIC Capital Holdings Ltd. and China Asset Management Co.

Plans in the company’s future include running over 1,200 “Power Mobile” vehicles which assist in charging, building over 1,100 power-swap stations in China by the year 2020 and bring in additional services for drivers such as rescue efforts. With its electric SUV, NIO is competing against companies such as Tesla, BYD Co., Volkswagen AG and General Motors Co. Tesla’s Model X runs for 836,000 yuan as opposed to NIOs ES8 which costs 448,000 yuan or $67,783.

Other automakers have also begun moving toward electric-vehicles, including Volkswagen and Ford Motor Co. Volkswagen has collaborated with Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Corp., with an investment worth $11.8 billion while Ford has partnered with Anhui Zotye Automobile Co., in a 5-billion- yuan investment.

(Picture courtesy: CarSpiritPK)