NIO’s new ET9 sedan will feature 900V architecture, upgradable wire-controlled chassis
Three days before NIO pulls the sheet of its highly anticipated executive flagship ET9 sedan, some of the Chinese automaker’s higher-ups have shared some juicy details pertaining to the EV’s architecture and upgradeability. Here’s what we’ve learned.
Things are heating up as we approach NIO Day 2023 this weekend, which is already promising the debut of a new top-tier model called the ET9. When the date for NIO’s annual tech day event was locked in, the Chinese EV automaker was already teasing a new model debut, leaving us to speculate it could be the ET9.
Earlier this week, NIO founder and chairman William Li confirmed the ET9’s debut, stating it will arrive as an executive flagship sedan to compete against Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Maybach in the luxury EV segment.
While we’ve gotten confirmation of the new sedan’s coming out party, the rest of its details have remained shrouded in mystery… at least until today.
NIO’s ET9 will sit atop an industry-leading 900V platform
As reported by CnEVPost this morning, two executives at NIO have confirmed the upcoming ET9 sedan is built upon 900-volt architecture, allowing for faster charge speeds. Better yet, the platform will “break the industry’s upper limit,” according to NIO’s assistant vice president of electric drive and high-voltage system, Bi Lu, on his personal Weibo account:
On the upcoming flagship model ET9, we adopt a ‘900V’ high-voltage architecture that breaks the industry upper limit, which means that on the premise of further reducing the weight of the high-voltage wiring harness in the car, we can achieve the ultimate experience of faster charging performance for the entire vehicle. Combined with NIO’s unique ultra-fast power replacement system, it creates the best solution for comprehensive energy replenishment experience. At the same time, on the new intelligent electric drive platform, in order to meet the higher requirements for flagship models in terms of space and comfort, we have further reduced the weight and volume of the motor, and adopted a number of ‘black technologies’ in product design to achieve higher power density.
The NIO ET9’s 900V architecture requires less high-voltage wiring and thus less overall vehicle weight while increasing the rate of charge the upcoming sedan can receive. The platform also enables smaller and lighter electric motors, offering higher power density in a smaller footprint.
Currently, a majority of EVs operate in architecture between 230V-450V, generally referred to as “400V technology.” Since then, we’ve seen premium models like the Porsche Taycan deliver platforms between 550V-900V, generally termed “800V architecture.” In recent years, we’ve seen certain OEMS, like Hyundai Motor Group for example, offer more affordable 800V EVs on its proprietary E-GMP platform.
In addition to the new high-voltage platform, the NIO team also said the new sedan will feature a wire-controlled chassis, enabling easier upgradeability over time. Furthermore, NIO’s vice president of battery systems followed Lu’s Weibo post with one of his own, outlining some of the battery technology we can expect to see on the 900V platform.
When the NIO ET9 debuts in a few days, it appears we will see some potentially industry-leading platform technology. We will report back after the NIO day event and debut of the ET9 on December 23.
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Environment
Elon Musk Tapped to Lead New ‘DOGE’ Department—Despite the Government Already Having One for Efficiency
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is to officially join Trump’s administration as the co-head of the new US Department of Government Efficiency – a second federal department with the goal of making government spending more efficient.
You can’t get more ironic than that.
Throughout the elections, Musk, who is already CEO of Tesla, and SpaceX, a well as the defacto head of X, xAI, Neuralink, and the Boring Company, has been floating the idea to add to his workload by joining the Trump’s administration to lead a new department aimed at making the federal government more efficient.
He has been calling it the “Department of Government Efficiency”, which spells out ‘DOGE’, a meme that Musk appears to enjoy.
Well, now Trump appears to want to be going through with this idea.
He announced the new department and Musk as head, along with Vivek Ramaswamy, in a statement today:
I am pleased to announce that the Great Elon Musk, working in conjunction with American Patriot Vivek Ramaswamy, will lead the Department of Government Efficiency (“DOGE”). Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies – Essential to the “Save America” Movement. “This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people!” stated Mr. Musk.
What’s most ironic is that there’s already a federal department with the goal of cutting government waste and ensuring efficiency: the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The GAO’s main objectives are:
- auditing agency operations to determine whether federal funds are being spent efficiently and effectively;
- investigating allegations of illegal and improper activities;
- reporting on how well government programs and policies are meeting their objectives;
- performing policy analyses and outlining options for congressional consideration;
- issuing legal decisions and opinions;
- advising Congress and the heads of executive agencies about ways to make government more efficient and effective
It sounds similar to what Musk described when talking about his DOGE, but Trump hasn’t gone into many details other than it will “cut waste.”
He also has a confusing message as he compares the initiative, which is supposed to cut government spending, to “The Manhattan project”, a massive and expensive government project.
Trump said that DOGE will help the government “drive large scale structural reform”:
It will become, potentially, “The Manhattan Project” of our time. Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of “DOGE” for a very long time. To drive this kind of drastic change, the Department of Government Efficiency will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.
The statement also noted that DOGE will only operate until July 4, 2026.
Musk has previously claimed that he could cut at least $2 trillion dollars of the $6.5 trillion dollar US federal budget.
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A pump jack in Midland, Texas, US, on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024.
Anthony Prieto | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Oil prices may see a drastic fall in the event that oil alliance OPEC+ unwinds its existing output cuts, said market watchers who are predicting a bearish year ahead for crude.
“There is more fear about 2025’s oil prices than there has been since years — any year I can remember, since the Arab Spring,” said Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at OPIS, an oil price reporting agency.
“You could get down to $30 or $40 a barrel if OPEC unwound and didn’t have any kind of real agreement to rein in production. They’ve seen their market share really dwindle through the years,” Kloza added.
A decline to $40 a barrel would mean around a 40% erasure of current crude prices. Global benchmark Brent is currently trading at $72 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures are around $68 per barrel.
Oil prices year-to-date
Given that oil demand growth next year probably won’t be much more than 1 million barrels a day, a full unwinding of OPEC+ supply cuts in 2025 would “undoubtedly see a very steep slide in crude prices, possibly toward $40 a barrel,” Henning Gloystein, head of energy, climate and resources at Eurasia Group, told CNBC.
Similarly, MST Marquee’s senior energy analyst Saul Kavonic posited that should OPEC+ unwind cuts without regard to demand, it would “effectively amount to a price war over market share that could send oil to lows not seen since Covid.”
However, the alliance is more likely to opt for a gradual unwinding early next year, compared to a full scale and immediate one, the analysts said.
Should the producers group proceed with their production plan, the market surplus could nearly double.
Martoccia Francesco
Energy strategist at Citi
The oil cartel has been exercising discipline in maintaining its voluntary output cuts, to the point of extending them.
In September, OPEC+ postponed plans to begin gradually rolling back on the 2.2 million barrels per day of voluntary cuts by two months in an effort to stem the slide of oil prices. The 2.2 million bpd cut, which was implemented over the second and third quarters, had been due to expire at the end of September.
At the start of this month, the oil cartel again decided to delay the planned oil output increase by another month to the end of December.
Oil prices have been weighed by a sluggish post-Covid recovery in demand from China, the world’s second-largest economy and leading crude oil importer. In its monthly report released Tuesday, OPEC lowered its 2025 global oil demand growth forecast from 1.6 million barrels per day to 1.5 million barrels per day.
The pressured prices were also conflagrated by a perceivably oversupplied market, especially as key oil producers outside the OPEC alliance like the U.S., Canada, Guyana and Brazil are also planning to add supply, Gloystein highlighted.
Bearish year ahead for oil
The market consensus is that there’ll be a “substantial” oil stock build next year, said Citibank energy strategist Martoccia Francesco.
“Should the producers group proceed with their production plan, the market surplus could nearly double… reaching as much as 1.6 million barrels per day,” said Francesco.
Even if OPEC+ doesn’t unwind the cuts, the future ofl prices is still looking break. Citi analysts expect Brent price to average $60 per barrel next year.
Further fueling the bearish outlook is the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, whose return is associated by some with a potential trade war, said analysts who spoke to CNBC.
“If we do get a trade war — and a lot of economists think that a trade war is possible, and particularly against China — we could see much, much lower prices,” said OPIS’ Kloza.
Trump has also touted a “drill baby drill” policy for U.S. producers, vowing to cut energy prices in half.
For that to happen to retail gasoline prices, oil would need to drop to “below $40” per barrel, said Matt Smith, Kpler’s lead oil analyst.
Right now, retail gasoline prices are at a “sweet spot” at $3 per gallon, where consumers do not feel the pinch and input prices are still sufficiently high for producers, Smith added.
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