Now that Mitsubishi is part of the Nissan Renault Alliance it is time to share parts, designs and advance into a brave new all electric world. In fact the new 2022 Nissan Pathfinder EV and Mitsubishi Outlander All EV have battery swap technology. This means their batteries can replaced in THREE MINUTES inside a kiosk smaller than a gas station convenience store.
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That would be great if it were true. Unfortunately the pictures above are not of the new 2022 Nissans and Mitsu mid-size SUV’s but instead a existing product, the Nio ES8.
We chose to doctor the photos because it shows how easily the ES8 would fit into the Nissan Renault Mitsubishi Alliance lineup. The ES8 has the front of a next generation Mitsubishi and the sides of the current generation Pathfinder.
The ES8 is a 360 mile (580 kilometer) full electric, 7 passenger luxury SUV, with a 5 star crash rating and an opulent interior that rivals Land Rover all in for about USD $65,000. That should be enough to be a massive success in Western countries in North America and Europe but it has something even more special that other car companies need to get on board with. Battery swap.
Before you watch the video below take note that Nio is not some Tesla wannabe startup; no, is a Nio multibillion dollar company which has sold about 25,000 units and has 143 battery swap stations spread over 58 cities already. This company is a real going concern that just announced its 1 millionth battery swap on October 9th 2020.
This video explains the vehicle in detail and demonstrates a live battery swap:
To be clear Nio is a startup, just one with real sales and a killer design. Nio was founded in 2014 and funded by the Chinese government but in August 2020 Hefei Investor Group gave them more than one Billion dollars in exchange for 24% of the company:
“…Strategic Investors will invest an aggregate of RMB7 billion in cash into NIO (Anhui) Holding Ltd., the legal entity of NIO China. NIO will inject its core businesses and assets in China, including vehicle research and development, supply chain, sales and services and NIO Power (the “Asset Consideration”), into NIO China. The Asset Consideration is valued at RMB17.77 billion, as calculated based on 85% of the average market value of NIO Inc. over the thirty public trading days preceding April 21, 2020. Further, NIO will invest RMB4.26 billion in cash into NIO China. Upon the completion of the investments, NIO will hold 75.9% of controlling equity interests in NIO China, and the Strategic Investors will collectively hold the remaining 24.1%. …” SOURCE
It seems that Nio has a bright future. It would be great to see them partner with one of the big OEM’s like Nissan to market their products in the Western world… time will tell.
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