Nio has concluded winter testing of its upcoming ES9

The Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker has concluded winter testing of the company’s largest and most expensive SUV ahead of April unveiling event

Nio has concluded winter testing of its upcoming ES9, the company’s largest and most expensive SUV. “ES9 winter testing 2026. Mission accomplished,” Nio principal chief engineer Danilo Teobaldi wrote on LinkedIn Thursday while sharing images from the testing campaign. 

The engineering team tested the model in Yakeshi, a city in the Hulun Buir region of north China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region that serves as a benchmark base for automotive winter testing in China. It is well-known as one of the coldest places in China, with temperatures dropping below -30°C. 

The tests included snow flats, snow and ice circles, ice flats, bumpy roads, gradients, and handling tracks, allowing engineers to verify safety features including anti-lock braking, electronic stability control, and traction control systems. Yakeshi is expected to reach a new high in testing scale this winter, with an estimated 230 automakers from around the world and more than 2,700 vehicles testing. 

The spotted car wears tricky camouflage with painted running lights. However, it’s easy to distinguish the massive ES9 by a LiDAR sensor and two cameras on the roof. The spotted Nio ES9 adopts a closed front end with a rectangular air intake and large headlamps. It rides on 22-inch multi-spoke wheels and boasts power side steps. The car also has conventional side-view mirrors and a slightly curved roofline. 

The ES9 is positioned as NIO’s flagship SUV, with its name carrying symbolic weight in China, where the number nine is traditionally reserved for top-tier models. Regulatory filings published earlier in January by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology revealed the ES9’s exterior dimensions. 

The SUV measures 5,365 millimeters in length, 2,029 millimeters in width, and 1,870 millimeters in height, with a wheelbase of 3,250 millimeters. This makes it larger than the third-generation ES8, which measures 5,280 millimeters long, 2,010 millimeters wide, and 1,800 millimeters tall, while sharing the same wheelbase. For clarity, it is only 17 mm shorter than the Cadillac Escalade. But the ES9 has a 179-mm longer wheelbase. 

According to data from the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the car’s curb weight reaches 2,915 kg with a gross weight of 3,490 kg. With these dimensions, the ES9 becomes the largest electric SUV NIO has developed to date. 

It will also be the third model built on NIO’s third-generation NT 3.0 vehicle platform, following the ET9 sedan and the third-generation ES8 SUV. The ES9 has a dual-motor AWD with a peak power of 520 kW (697 hp). The car’s top speed reaches 220 km/h. Similar to other Nio-branded cars, the ES9 supports the battery-swap technology. It is expected to come standard with a 102 kWh ternary NMC battery manufactured by CATL. 

Nio is targeting April 10 for the ES9 launch event, a few weeks before the Beijing Auto Show opens, co-founder and President Lihong Qin said earlier this month. The 19th Beijing International Automotive Exhibition (Auto China 2026) will take place in Beijing from April 24 to May 3, 2026. The event attracted 892,000 visitors in 2024, setting a new record. 

“We have tentatively scheduled the time around April 10 this year — around the transition from early to mid-month,” Qin said during a Q&A session in China. “Our ES9 product technology launch event will be held then.” Deliveries are expected to begin later in the second quarter following the April debut. 

Nio founder and CEO William Li has said the ES9 will serve as the SUV counterpart to the ET9 sedan, which began deliveries in China in March 2025 after being unveiled at Nio Day 2024. “The ES9 is more geared towards business use,” Li said at a media briefing during the company’s one-millionth vehicle ceremony in Hefei earlier this month. “Compared to the purely executive ET9, the ES9 will have more diverse applications.”