On a late afternoon on a sunny day, I went to downtown Beijing to visit a NIO experience store in a shopping mall, mystery-shopper style. I checked out the cars, the atmosphere, and the staff.
The experience store was based in the Solana shopping mall in central Beijing, near the embassy district and the Sanlitun entertainment area. I worked nearby and often visited the mall’s parking lot. I always liked lots better than the malls, but that has changed since car brands discovered the mall as a new channel to attract and interact with customers.
NIO EC7
The store was located right across from a Godiva shop. Godiva is a famous Belgian chocolate brand. My wife used to promote the stuff in China. Eat one and you have enough sugar for a whole week.
NIO does great interiors, but they all look the same. The screens are small compared to the competition: a 10.2-inch driver’s display and a 12.8-inch touch screen. NIO doesn’t do any screens for the passengers, neither front nor rear. Another NIO notable is the single wireless smartphone charger where most competitors in this segment have double chargers.
But this is cool! Every NIO has the words ‘Blue Sky Coming’ somewhere on the car, usually hidden at the back. At the EC7, the text sits under the spoiler, so when the spoiler is down you don’t see it. The text describes NIO’s brand philosophy of “A brighter, positive future, and a more sustainable tomorrow.”
NIO ES6
The NIO ES6. Behind the counter stands a young gentleman wearing a black NIO polo shirt. Well, at least he looked at me! The rest of the staff was occupied with their mobile phones, something I have seen in other shops too. This NIO girl was walking with me for a while, she kindly answered all my questions, but she didn’t look up from her phone once. Amazing that she didn’t bump into one of the cars. She must have been an experienced employee, knowing every inch of the shop.
NIO does great interiors, but they all look the same.
There are two kinds of experience stores in malls: larger ones with their own space, like the one I visited, and smaller ones that share a space with other experience stores. NIO has both in China, and they also have a network of delivery centers that double as shops and service centers. The latter are technically dealers but NIO doesn’t call them as such.
The mall-based stores rarely display all the cars of a brand, there just isn’t enough space. The NIO shop had the EC7, the ES6, the ET5T, and the ES8 on display. The ET5, ET7, ES7, and EC6 were missing. The new NIO ET9 hasn’t been launched yet.
NIO home charger
NIO is famous for its battery-swapping technology. At this moment, NIO has 2435 battery-swap stations in China that performed a cumulative 46.673.934 battery swaps! That is impressive, swapping works in China. NIO has a cool interactive map on its Chinese website that shows the number of swaps in real-time.
NIO ET5T
The ET5T is probably the coolest NIO in the current lineup. The ‘T’ stands for Touring. It is the wagon version of the ET5T sedan. It is a good-looking car, especially in this Airspace Blue color.
NIO does great interiors, but they all look the same.
Hello Nomi! Nomi is NIO’s famous digital assistant. NIO recently rolled out an OTA update of Nomi, adding NOMI GPT, a ChatGPT-like AI functionality. Nomi can do cool stuff now, like having a chat about your clothes (she can see and understand what you wear), your mood (she can see your emotions, responding to voice, facial expression, touch, and gesture), about your family (she remembers what you told her), and about everything you want (she has encyclopedia knowledge). She can do all that with multiple persons inside the vehicle. With Nomi, you never need a friend.
NIO is on a roll in China. In May 2024, it set a new sales record with 20.544 cars. However, NIO heavily depends on two models: the ES6 and the ET5T. The breakdown for May was:
NIO ES6 SUV: 8049 (39.4%).
NIO ET5T wagon: 4785 (23.29%).
NIO EC6 SUV-coupe: 2732 (13.3%).
NIO ET5 sedan: 2497 (12.15%).
NIO ET7 sedan: 1098 (5.34%).
NIO ES8 SUV: 937 (4.56%).
NIO EC7 SUV-coupe: 298 (1.45%).
NIO ES7 SUV: 103 (0.5%).
The EC7 and ES7 have been at the bottom for a very long time. These two poor cars are too similar in size and kind as the EC6 and ES6, but much more expensive. Too bad, because I think the EC7 is the best-looking NIO.
The sun was slowly going down on the NIO shop. It was dinner wasn’t very busy inside. It was around 18:00 so most folks in the mall had gone to the many restaurants. Still, I expected a bit more people.
That’s that NIO girl right there on the left! She was still immersed in her phone. The ES8 was the only car with customers inside. They seemed to like the big SUV and stayed there all the time. Perhaps they were just having a chat and a snack. Well, that’s nothing. I have seen people sleeping in cars in shopping malls. That’s fine, it is all cool, this is China, weird stuff happens.
The swapping stations are a great UPS for NIO. But it brings disadvantages too. The swapping network works best with a standardized battery size, which means NIO doesn’t have much flexibility when it comes to the wide its vehicles, and the size of the batteries. Even the relatively small ET5T is 1960 millimeters wide with a length of 4790. The enormous ES8 is 1989 mm wide and 5099 mm long. NIO offers 75 kWh and 100 kWh batteries in its entire lineup and only recently added a 150 kWh battery pack for the ET7. Each pack has the same dimensions.
Another corner to have a rest after a hard day of shopping. The screen showed a blue sky with the sun coming up, with the NIO logo in the middle. It was an animation, the clouds moved and the sun went up and under. The flowers on the right side were fake.
Then it was time to leave, I had friends waiting for me at a restaurant. The gentleman on the right is a guard, keeping an eye on the door and the situation. There was nobody left in the store.
It was a nice visit, I had a good look at the cars and came away impressed but also a little worried. The build quality and design are top-notch, but the interior tech is behind the competition, apart from Nomi. And like I mentioned a couple of times in this story, the cars are a tad too similar to one another. Still, NIO is doing well in China at the moment and the battery-swap network is rapidly expanding. The brand seems to be a stayer and I can’t wait to see what’s coming up next.