After a year and a half of ambiguous updates and a swirling rumor mill, EV automaker NIO has officially launched its first-ever phone. The company shared extensive details of the new Android-based smartphone in China today, during its 2023 Innovation Day presentation that also included its own in-house developed chip to control LiDAR, and its own App Store.
As the rise in EV sales continues to hockey stick around the globe, legacy automakers have been adapting their lineups to electrification. Meanwhile, young and innovative EV automakers are challenging the status quo (as long as they have enough funding, of course).
Additionally, large tech manufacturers have taken note of the shift from from moving mechanical parts to chips and software dominant in EVs and have decided to take their own crack at building vehicles. These days its more common to see cell phone manufacturers like Xiaomi decide to build cars. Here’s also that whole Apple Car that’s been in development for about twelve years now…
What is more rare, however, is to see an automaker decide it’s going to begin manufacturing smartphones – but NIO ($NIO) has done it. The young automaker’s journey to today’s launch started in the March of 2022, when chairman and CEO William Li confirmed a NIO Phone was in the works and would arrive as a direct competitor to Apple… at least at some point in the future.
By last summer, we got a slew of new details surrounding the NIO Phone, including design cues, plans for a Qualcomm SnapDragon chip and deliveries sometime in 2023. Today, NIO has confirmed many of the specs originally promised, and at a starting price lower than originally anticipated. Check it out.
Credit: NIO/Weibo
NIO Phone is here, built to support its EV owners
The debut of this new Android-based smartphone was the key presentation during NIO’s 2023 Innovation Day held in China earlier today. William Li and the NIO team spoke on stage for nearly five hours, showcasing several new technologies in the works in addition to its first-ever phone. Per the company’s Weibo page:
The full stack of NIO’s 12 technologies is presented in a panoramic manner for the first time, including NIO’s first lidar main control chip-Yang Jian, vehicle-wide operating system-Tianshu SkyOS, NIO Link NIO panoramic interconnection, global enhanced navigation assistance NOP+ service, and the first mobile phone NIO Phone is released to continuously innovate to improve user experience.
We’re here to talk about the phone, though, so here are the juicy details. As originally promised, the NIO Phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC processor and utilizes a 6.81-inch curved screen with 2K resolution from Samsung that supports a refresh rate of 1-120 Hz. The phone is equipped with a 5200 mAh battery that supports 66-watt wired charging, 50-watt wireless charging, and 10-watt reverse charging. NIO shared that even one of its new smartphones is completed depleted of battery, it can still unlock the EV its paired to for another 48-hours.
Since this is a phone from an automaker, the NIO Phone was built with its EV owners in mind and caters to those specific consumers. For instance, the smartphone features an action button that allows drivers to launch over 30 different functions pertaining to their EV controls including features like HVAC, seat massages, and vehicle locks.
Thanks to its ultra-wide band (UWB) technology, the NIO Phone can wireless display itself as a virtual phone on the center screen of the NIO EV it is paired too, similar to Apple Airplay. Another similarity to Apple is NIO’s approach to continue innovating in phones.
From early on, the Chinese EV automaker has shared its intentions to release a new NIO Phone each year going forward, so expect to see additional smartphones in the future. Apple’s iPhone 15 debuted last week and NIO appears to have strategically launched hereafter the undisputed global leader in smartphones, but at a slightly higher price. Here are the three versions:
12 GB ROM and 512 GB storage – RMB 6,499 ($889)
12 GB, 1 TB storage – RMB 6,899 ($944)
16 GB, 1 TB storage – RMB 7,499 ($1,026)
Additionally, NIO says it will offer protection plans for its phones, similar to Apple Car for RMB 699 ($96) and 1TB of cloud storage service for RMB 38 ($5) a month. As of today, the NIO Phone is officially available for sale in China with first deliveries expected to begin shipping on September, 28 2023.
You can check out the full presentation from NIO’s Innovation and Technology Day here, but it hasn’t been translated to english yet. Still lots of cool stuff to see including the launch video of the NIO Phone.
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True to Lamborghini’s legacy of speed and excess, the first battery-electric vehicle to wear the raging bull is also the fastest of its kind. Only this time, the badge isn’t on a car — it’s on a personal watercraft. Meet the all-new Seabob SE63 jet sled.
Co-developed with the Italian supercar brand, the Lamborghini-badged Seabob SE63 features a more powerful jet propulsion system than any of the company’s existing personal jet sleds, and is fitted with a carbon fiber motor shaft as a further nod to the Italian luxury brand’s high-performance heritage.
The riding experience is not just ‘a bit faster’, but thrillingly intense and unrestrained. Acceleration off the start line delivers an immediate adrenaline rush. Thrust, agility, top speed: everything is designed for maximum performance and pure emotion.
The new SE63 backs up those claims with a 6.3 kW (~8.5 hp) electric motor. And, while that hardly makes it a supercar, in the world of ePWCs, it’s enough to make the SE63 a monster. The SE63 also features a bigger, more energy-dense battery than other Seabobs, a combination good for up to 60 minutes of go-fast, water-based fun.
Seabob SE63 Lamborghini
The SE63 can recharge its batteries with a standard power outlet in just 1.5 hours, and be back on the water for even more fun in the sun.
The Seabob SE63 made its debut earlier this week at the Cannes Yachting Festival. Production is set to begin in early 2026, meaning you’ll be able to get yours just in time for the summer 2026 beach season. Prices have yet to be announced – but, like any Lamborghini product, if you have to ask you probably can’t afford it.
Check out the world premier of the Seabob SE63 for Automobili Lamborghini (the sled’s official name) in the video, below, then let us know what you think of the brand’s first BEV in the comments.
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A duo of Tesla shareholder-influencers tried to complete Elon Musk’s coast-to-coast self-driving ride that he claimed Tesla would be able to do in 2017 and they crashed before making it about 60 miles.
In 2016, Elon Musk infamously said that Tesla would complete a fully self-driving coast-to-coast drive between Los Angeles and New York by the end of 2017.
The idea was to livestream or film a full unedited drive coast-to-coast with the vehicle driving itself at all times.
We are in 2025 and Tesla never made that drive.
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Despite the many missed autonomous driving goals, many Tesla shareholders believe that the company is on the verge of delivering unsupervised self-driving following the rollout of its ‘Robotaxi’ fleet in Austin, which requires supervision from Tesla employees inside the vehicles, and improvements to its “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) systems inside consumer vehicles, which is still only a level 2 driver assist system that requires driver attention at all times as per Tesla.
Two of these Tesla shareholders and online influencers attempted to undertake a coast-to-coast drive between San Diego, CA, and Jacksonville, FL, in a Tesla Model Y equipped with the latest FSD software update.
They didn’t make it out of California without crashing into easily avoidable road debris that badly damaged the Tesla Model Y:
In the video, you can see that the driver doesn’t have his hands on the steering wheel. The passenger spots the debris way ahead of time. There was plenty of time to react, but the driver didn’t get his hands on the steering wheel until the last second.
In a follow-up video, the two Tesla influencers confirmed that the Model Y had a broken sway bar bracket and damaged suspension components. The vehicle is also throwing out a lot of warnings.
They made it about 2.5% of the planned trip on Tesla FSD v13.9 before crashing the vehicle.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla shareholders used to discuss this somewhat rationally back in the day, but now that Tesla’s EV business is in decline and the stock price depends entirely on the self-driving and robot promises, they no longer do.
I recall when Musk himself used to say that when you reach 99% self-driving, it is when the “march of the 9s” begins, and you must achieve 99.999999999% autonomy to have a truly useful self-driving system. He admitted that this is the most challenging part as the real-world is unpredictable and hard to simulate – throwing a lot of challenging scenario at you, such as debris on the road.
That’s where Tesla is right now. The hard part has just started. And there’s no telling how long it will take to get there. If someone is telling you that they know, they are lying. I don’t know. My best estimate is approximately 2-3 years and a new hardware suite.
However, competition, mainly Waymo, began its own “march of the 9s” about five years ago.
Tesla is still years behind, and something like this drive by these two Tesla influencers proves it.
I was actually in a similar accident in a Tesla Model 3 back in 2020. I rented a Model 3 on Turo for a trip to Las Vegas from Los Angeles.
I ended up driving over a blown-out truck tire in the middle of the road like this. I was Autopilot, but I don’t know if the car saw it. I definitely saw it, but it was a bit late as I was following a truck that just drove over it. I had probably less than 2 seconds to react. I applied the brakes, but my choices were driving into a ditch on the right or into a car in the left lane.
I managed to reduce the force of the impact with the braking, but the vehicle jumped a bit like in this video. There wasn’t really any damage to the front, but the bottom cover was flapping down. I taped it together at the next gas station and I was able to continue the trip without much issue.
However, after returning it to the Turo owner and having the suspension damage evaluated by Tesla, the repair job was estimated to be roughly $10,000. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a similar situation with this accident.
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Chrysler parent company Stellantis is calling its new, Intelligent Battery Integrated System (IBIS) system a breakthrough technology that will make future EVs lighter, more efficient, and quicker. Now, that “breakthrough” tech is now moving from concept to reality.
Co-developed with Saft, Sherpa Engineering, Université Paris-Saclay, and Institut Lafayette, Stellantis’ IBIS embeds the charger and inverter functions directly into the battery pack, an integration that results in reduced design complexity, interior space savings, and lifetime easier maintenance.
That improved efficiency carries on to the battery’s second life, too. IBIS facilitates the reuse of electric vehicle batteries in second-life battery energy storage systems (BESS) applications by reducing the need for extensive (and expensive) reconditioning.
up to 10% energy efficiency improvement (WLTC cycle) and 15% power gain (172 kW vs. 150 kW) with the same battery size
reduces vehicle weight by ~40 kg and frees up to 17 liters of volume, enabling better aerodynamics and design flexibility
early results show a 15% reduction in charging time (e.g., from 7 to 6 hours on a 7 kW AC charger), along with 10% energy savings
easier servicing and enhanced potential for second-life battery reuse in both automotive and stationary applications
Those benefits stem from the fact that EVs spend a lot of time and energy converting Alternating Current (AC) to Direct Current (DC) and back again with the – that’s true whether we’re talking about a L2 home charger or energy harvested from regenerative braking. Doing away with that process and the hardware that goes along with it could unlocks significant weight and efficiency benefits, with some estimates indicating that an IBIS car could weigh in at 40 kg less than a conventionally-equipped BEV, while still offering similar range and performance.
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