Nio opens pre-order books for second Onvo model
The market launch of the Onvo L90 is scheduled for the end of July and deliveries will begin on 1 August, according to Nio. With prices of the equivalent of 33,400 euros with a purchased battery and 23,100 euros plus battery hire, Nio wants to “set new standards in the segment of large SUVs with three rows of seats” with the “attractive pre-order prices” of the L90.
The Nio brand Onvo presented its second model after the mid-size SUV L60 this April in the run-up to Auto China in Shanghai. The L90 is a full 5.15 metres long, two metres wide and 1.77 or 1.79 metres high, depending on the configuration, with a wheelbase of 3.11 metres. The battery has an energy content of 85 kWh and is offered with either a 340 kW rear-wheel drive or a two-motor all-wheel drive version with a 100 kW motor on the front axle.
At the pre-sales launch, Nio is now also quoting a range of up to 605 kilometres for the rear-wheel drive vehicle in the Chinese CLTC standard test, which should be possible thanks to “best-in-class energy consumption of just 14.5 kWh/100 km.” However, the CLTC standard generally results in lower consumption than the WLTP standard used in Europe, for example. Although Nio claims a drag coefficient of just 0.25, which has been achieved with “107 ingenious aerodynamic optimizations,” the steep front and generous dimensions could result in slightly higher real-world consumption.





In fact, range and fuel consumption were not the top priorities in the specifications for the L90, as Nio wrote: “Space is the foremost priority for large three-row SUV users.” However, many models in this segment are hybrids or range extenders, and therefore “struggle to meet real-world family needs,” such as the uncomfortable access to the cramped third row of seats. Nio wants to improve this with the L90, also based on the company’s own full-domain 900 V high-voltage platform: The Onvo offers an “4,195 mm of effective cabin length, 670 L storage space, and a 240 L smart power frunk which is the largest in the Chinese market.” Nio wants to counter range anxiety (which is why large hybrids or range extenders have been driven up to now) with its battery swap system. However, the company does not provide any information on charging capacity.
What Nio also fails to mention is that the ES8 (EL8 in Europe for trademark reasons), an SUV over five metres long with a wheelbase of more than three metres, is also available as a six- or seven-seater under its own main brand. In June, Nio published images of the third generation of the ES8, which, like the L90, has a particularly large frunk. The outgoing second generation is sold in China at prices between 498,000 and 598,000 yuan (59,400 to 71,300 euros) – in other words, significantly more expensive.
Nio is positioned internally as a premium brand, while Onvo, as a volume brand, is intended to serve families and more price-sensitive customers with technically similar but somewhat simpler cars. The third Nio brand, Firefly, on the other hand, is intended to occupy the entry-level segment and therefore uses independent vehicles; there are synergies between a Nio ES8 and Onvo L90, but not with a four-metre-long Firefly small car.
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