NIO ES8 Lags Behind Other EVs In Bjørn's 1,000 Km Challenge
It's the thirstiest electric car ever tested, aside from vans.
The NIO ES8, recently introduced in Norway, was recently tested by Bjørn Nyland over a distance of 1,000 km (621 miles).
It's a proper SUV in terms of size and interior space, equipped with big 21" wheels, which directly affects its energy consumption.
The tested version is equipped with a 100 kWh battery, but according to Bjørn Nyland's estimates, the available battery capacity is just 89.7 kWh, which means that the buffer is over 10%. WLTP range of this car is up to 500 km (311 miles).
The result is 11 hours and 25 minutes (after deducting time wasted on broken IONITY chargers), which is average - not even close to the fastest EVs on the market. The car required 5 fast charging stops.
At an average speed of 87.6 km/h (54 mph), the average energy consumption was 318 Wh/km (512 Wh/mile), which is 318 kWh total over 1,000 km. Bjørn Nyland called the NIO ES8 the thirstiest electric car ever tested, aside from vans.

Besides the high energy consumption, the NIO ES8 does not offer the fastest charging rates. The European version is unlocked to get up to about 120 kW (at about 300 A current limit), while in China it's just 90 kW (as NIO uses double-head 180 kW chargers there).
It's not much in relation to the battery pack capacity - barely over 1.2C. At least the charging curve is relatively flat (we still need to see the charging curve and conduct our own analysis).
Other than that, the NIO ES8 is very comfortable, has good lights (as we can see in a separate video, attached below), but the voice control multiple times failed to understand the order.
Test conditions:
- Start: 100% State of Charge (SOC)
- Temperatures: 14-16°C (15°C on average)
- Total time: 11 hours and 25 minutes
- Average speed (total): 87.6 km/h (54 mph)
- Average energy consumption: 318 Wh/km (512 Wh/mile)
- Number of stops for charging: 5
- Date / Notes: 09.10.2021
Charging stops:
- Charging: after 257 km (160 miles)
- Charging: after 364 km (226 miles)
- Charging: after 513 km (319 miles)
- Charging: after 663 km (412 miles)
- Charging: after 886 km (551 miles)
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