NIO, Chinese multinational electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer headquartered in Shanghai, has confirmed that it has started delivering the ET5 mid-size smart electric sedans to customers in China – the world’s largest car market.

Making the announcement, NIO revealed that the first batch of the ET5 electric sedans was shipped to local customers on 30th of September, 2022. As scheduled, the all-electric sedans were delivered to customers in a total of five Chinese cities, viz. Guangzhou, Hefei, Jiaxing, Shanghai, and Suzhou. Other cities are expected to receive the ET5 electric sedans within next few weeks.

The all-electric NIO ET5 sedan is a really important vehicle for the Chinese manufacturer as the vehicles has been put forward as a direct competitor to American rival Tesla Inc.’s Model 3 electric sedan, both in domestic and foreign markets. Exports of the EV to European countries will start sooner than later. The company expects monthly deliveries of ET5 sedans to cross the mark of 10,000 units in December this year alone.

At the Chengdu Auto Show in August 2021, NIO Co-founder & President Qin Lihong, said, “The BMW 3 Series normally sells around 12,000 to 15,000 units in a month, and NIO ET5 aims to surpass it within a year.”

Priced at around $46K, the ET5 is also the first NIO vehicle produced at the company's new Hefei, Anhui-based NeoPark manufacturing facility. The company’s all other models are being produced at the JAC-NIO Advanced Manufacturing Centre, which is also based in Hefei.

The NIO ET5 is being offered in a total of three trim levels: a 75-kWh Standard Range pack capable of delivering 550 km (roughly 341 miles) of range on the CLTC cycle, a 100-kWh Long Range pack capable of delivering up to 700 km (roughly 435 miles) of range, and a 150-kWh Ultralong Range pack capable of offering up to a whopping 1,000 km (roughly 621 miles) of range on a single full charge.

Irrespective of the type of the battery, every ET5 sedan comes equipped with a twin-motor powertrain featuring a 150-kW (201-hp) front induction electric motor and a 210-kW (281-hp) rear permanent magnet electric motor. Twin-motor system churns out 360 kW (roughly 482 hp) and 516 pound-feet of torque.

The NIO Autonomous Driving (NAD) system offering 8 driving modes, one Advanced Driver Monitoring System, LiDAR, multiple 8 MP and 3 MP high-resolution cameras, multiple radars, and 12 ultrasonic sensors come as standard.