NIO to launch refreshed EC6 SUV on September 15, deliveries to begin immediately
Nearly four years after debuting its first-generation SUV model, NIO is on the cusp of officially unveiling its 2023 EC6 refresh and is poised to roll it out quickly. The revamped electric SUV will make its official launch this Friday with initial customer deliveries to begin almost immediately.
The EC6 was first announced in 2019 as NIO’s third overall model, all of which had been SUVs up to that point. The Chinese EV automaker has since expanded its lineup to include multiple sedans, as well as new SUVs, but continues to produce the flagship models that started it all a mere five years ago.
Out of NIO’s eight current models however, the EC6 is the last to make the transition over to the automaker’s second generation NT 2.0 EV platform. We learned a refresh was coming in late August, when NIO executives confirmed the plans during a Q2 earnings call.
Days later, we got our first spy images of the EC6 refresh alongside news of a September debut. Today, NIO has confirmed a launch event taking place in China on September 15 and is reportedly ready to begin rolling out the new SUV immediately.
NIO EC6 already in showrooms, deliveries imminent
NIO shared the following images of the refreshed EC6 SUV on its Weibo page today, alongside details of the official launch, scheduled for 8PM Beijing time on Friday, September 15 (8 a.m. EST).
Minutes after officially confirming the launch event, NIO followed up by sharing EC6 deliveries will begin the following day on September 16. According to a post on the NIO app, the refreshed SUVs are already present in showrooms ahead of Friday’s launch and will be available for test drives.
NIO has yet to share pricing of the new EC6, but the first-generation came in three versions priced at RMB 396,000 ($54,300), RMB 436,000 ($59,800), and RMB 496,000 ($68,000) respectively. Still, the automaker has opened pre-orders for the EC6 for RMB 5,000 ($685) that also comes with RMB 1,000 in NIO credits.
Pre-orders will end before the launch event later this week as NIO intends to immediately open its order books and start getting the SUVs to customers in China while the hype remains at a high. No word yet on when we might see the second generation EC6s make their way to NIO’s current markets in Europe, but we are sure to learn more following the launch event, so stay tuned.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Paris’ bike-share system, Vélib has long been considered one of the shining success stories of urban micromobility. With a massive fleet of over 20,000 pedal and electric-assist bicycles around Paris, the service has helped millions of residents and tourists get around the City of Light without needing a car or scooter. But lately, a growing problem is threatening to knock the wheels off this urban mobility marvel: theft and joyriding.
According to city officials and the service operator, more than 600 Vélib bikes are now going missing every single week. That’s over 30 bikes a day simply vanishing from the system – some stolen outright, others taken on “joy rides” and never returned.
“At the moment we’re missing 3,000 bikes,” explained Sylvain Raifaud, head of the Agemob company that currently operates the Velib system. That’s nearly 15% of over 20,000 Vélib bikes across Paris.
The sticky-fingered culprits aren’t necessarily professional thieves or organized crime rings. Instead, they’re often regular users who treat the shared bikes like disposable toys.
The city estimates that many people have figured out how to pry the bikes out of the system’s parking docks, unlocking one for a casual cruise and then ditching it somewhere far from a docking station.
Once pried free, the bikes are technically usable for the next 24 hours until their automatic locking feature kicks in. At that point, the bikes are often simply abandoned. Some end up in alleyways. Others get tossed in rivers. A few just disappear completely.
And since the bikes are intended to be parked at their many docking stations around the city, they don’t have GPS chips, further complicating recovery of “liberated” bikes.
The issue started small but has grown into more than an inconvenience – it’s beginning to undermine the entire purpose of the service. With bikes going missing at such a high rate, many Vélib docking stations are left empty, especially during rush hours.
Riders looking for a quick commute or a convenient hop across town are increasingly finding themselves without available bikes, or having to walk long distances to find a functioning one.
That kind of unreliability chips away at user confidence and threatens to drive potential riders back into cars, cabs, or other less sustainable forms of transport at a time when Paris has already made great strides to dramatically reduce car usage in the city.
The losses are financially painful, too. Replacing stolen or vandalized bikes isn’t cheap, and the resources spent on tracking down missing equipment or reinforcing anti-theft measures are stretching thin. Vélib has faced theft and vandalism issues before, especially during its early years, but this latest surge has officials sounding the alarm with renewed urgency.
Officials acknowledge that there’s no easy fix. Paris, like many cities with bike-share systems, walks a fine line between accessibility and accountability. Part of what makes Vélib so successful is its ease of use and widespread availability. But those same features make it vulnerable to misuse – especially when enforcement is limited and the consequences for abuse are minimal.
The timing of the problem is especially unfortunate. In recent years, Paris has seen impressive results in reducing car traffic, expanding bike lanes, and promoting cycling as a key part of its sustainable transport strategy. Vélib is a cornerstone of that plan. But if the system becomes too unreliable, it risks losing the very people it was designed to serve.
Meanwhile, as Parisians increasingly find themselves staring at empty docks, the challenge for the city and Vélib will be to restore confidence in the system without making it harder to use. That means striking the right balance between freedom and responsibility, between open access and protection against abuse.
In a city where cycling is supposed to be the future of mobility, losing thousands of bikes to joyriders and sticky fingers isn’t just frustrating; it’s unsustainable.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike