A streamlined electric station wagon should come with low consumption, but that is not the case with the Nio ET5 Touring, which also charges far too slowly.
TEXT AND PHOTO Morten B. Bek
The snow turns Aarhus white, and the heavy rainfall has also settled on the Nio ET5 Touring, which I take over from a Nio representative below my apartment. It is not so important, in fact not important at all, that it happens below my apartment, but it is important because charging operator Aura has recently installed two 300 kW lightning chargers with two outlets each 100 meters from my home.
There is 23 percent on the battery when I back up to one stand and hold my credit card up in front of the reader. The battery in the test car is the larger of the two you can choose for the ET5 Touring. It is 100 kWh, which is large in a medium-sized electric car with a low body. Because as one of the few electric station wagons, the ET5 Touring is comfortably lower than many impossibly tall electric cars.
I want to go from the 23 percent to 80 percent while staying with Aura. How long can it take? The maximum contribution to the large battery is 125 kW, and this has been seen better in many electric cars, both cheaper and more expensive. If it goes steadily up to 80 percent, 125 kW can be a good charging speed.
Is the charger fully operational?
From 80 to 100 percent, I will leave it at my own box in the basement, so that I will be ready to test the consumption in the Chinese station wagon. It won’t be right away, because the car doesn’t come close to absorbing 125 kW from the Aura charger. It starts from the starting point, 23 percent, with 61 kW, and up to 80 percent it is with 56-65 kW.
It’s so weird that I call Aura and get hold of a technician. Just to hear if the new chargers are “fully operational”. They are fully operational. And I’m the only one charging, so I don’t have to share the power with anyone else. The technician hears what kind of car I’m charging. A Nio… Okay, it’s not the first time he’s heard that it’s slow.
The battery change station, as station in the singular, is located in Slagelse, and before Nio builds one in Aarhus (and Odense, Aalborg, Esbjerg…), it is completely wrong that a car from the brand charges with such little power at a lightning charger. Sitting for 53 minutes and 37 seconds to charge 55.6 kWh is no fun, even if I have time for it. Then imagine that it happens when you are busy.
Snow and slush
I get the last 20 percent up to 100 percent at home, but time has slipped so much that the consumption test is postponed by a day, so it’s light enough to take pictures on the trip.
It is downright uncool to be an electric car when the temperature is around the freezing point, and it is uncool to be a driver when there is snow and slush – and perhaps ice – on the road. I am extra careful as I drive from the port of Aarhus to the motorway and drive directly towards Randers.
The ET5 Touring is lovely. A lovely car for the motorway, where the calm steering and the subdued, well-dampened suspension make the trip a pleasant game. Four-wheel drive has the 489 hp strong electric car with an electric motor at each axle, so I feel safe, but I refrain from overconfidence.
After a short stop at the Info-teria Gudenå rest area, I drive through the outskirts of Randers, into the center and Randers Regnskov. I don’t think I’ve summoned more than 30 per cent of the car’s 700Nm anywhere, and I’m told again, as often, that the ET5 Touring could do with 250bhp.
Mixed driving with high consumption
The rest of the trip, which ends up being 163 kilometers with a good mix of the fast, the slow and the curvy, goes through beautiful countryside. Øster Alling, Pindstrup, Nimtofte and on to Grenaa, where there is a break of a few hours.
The trip is pleasantly eventless. From Grenaa, it goes directly home to Aarhus via country road, motorway, motorway and city. The ET5 Touring has the comfort that should be in an expensive electric car, and the interior and colors make it stand out compared to cars from BMW and Tesla.
The instrumentation can show two range figures at the same time; The WLTP figure on one side, the realistic one on the other. The realistic certainly does not impress me. Fully charged, the WLTP range is 560 kilometers, which for a streamlined estate car with a 100 kWh battery should be much higher. I am not convinced that with mixed driving you will be able to reach more than 350, maybe 400 kilometers on a full charge.
Back in the basement, I put the Nio in my charger. I start charging at 54 percent, and towards evening the charger stops again. The battery is filled to 100 percent, and 45 kWh have been consumed with charge loss. 45 kWh used in 163 kilometers gives an average consumption of 27.6 kWh.
I had expected somewhat lower consumption. It’s winter, but I’ve been driving quietly, not pushing it off, and this is what I get out of it in a low, aerodynamic station wagon?
SPECIFICATIONS
Nio ET5 Touring 100 kWh
Engine: Electric motors (front and rear)
Performance: 489 hp/700 Nm
0-100 km/h: 4 seconds
Top speed: 200 km/h
Spending: 18.6 kWh/100 kilometers
Battery Size: 100 kWh
Charging capacity: 125 kW
Range: 560 kilometers
Dimensions (L/W/H): 479/196/150 cm
Curb weight: 2,210 kilos
Draw weight: 1,400 kilos
Trunk volume: 450-1,247 litres
Price: DKK 637,000 (ET5 Touring available from DKK 517,000)
Private leasing (one-off payment/monthly payment): Not informed
Tax basis, company car: Not informed
