On November 13, NIO reported NIO user “Wolves” and his ES6 mileage of 450,000km, as well as the professional car media “AutoHome”, which has deliberately acquired this car for dismantling analysis.

 

NIO user “Wolves” and his ES6 450,000km mileage

According to statistics from the Ministry of Public Security, as of March 2022, there are 450 million car drivers in China, which is a staggering number.

But there are still very few people who are so “excessive” in driving a car like the NIO user @狼队 or “Wolves”.

How “fierce” is it? Let’s look at a set of data: as of May this year, there were 3,162 NIO users with a mileage of more than 100,000 kilometers, and only 54 users with a mileage of more than 200,000 kilometers. “Wolves” is one of them.

However, the “300,000-kilometer” small temple is still not enough to accommodate this great god-he has run nearly 450,000 kilometers in total in the past three years, an average of 480 kilometers per day! Undisputedly, it won the crown of NIO’s total mileage.

Obviously, this is someone who can’t stop once he hits the road.

“Wolves” has played cars early and professionally. In the late 1990s, he participated in the China Rally Championship and won the top ten nationwide rankings. In the era of petrol cars, the driving addiction of “Wolves” was already amazing. A taxi driver with a good business could only drive 70,000 to 80,000 kilometers a year, but he often started at100,000. In his words, “I just like the feeling of being on the road”, “If you like it, you will get used to it, and you will not feel tired.”

In July 2019, after careful online information retrieval & rational weighing, “Wolves” bought the first electric car in his life in Fuzhou: NIO ES6. Since then, this car has carried him to continue to travel all over the world and continue to travel hundreds of kilometers a day as usual.

In the past three years, he has been to Jiang-Zhe-Hu (Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai), Two-Guang Two-Hu (Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Hubei), the three eastern provinces (Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang), as well as Qinghai-Tibet, Shaanxi-Gansu, Yunnan-Guizhou-Sichuan, more than half of China, including many no-man’s-land areas like Lop Nur.

“The electric car is not inconvenient, you can go anywhere you want, as long as you plan your itinerary reasonably. Now NIO has power swap stations everywhere. I have changed power more than 1,300 times in total. The experience is very good, and there is no problem. If you really go to a remote place without a power station, it must be a paradise you especially want to go to. You should feel it slowly, taste the local life carefully, and don’t watch the flowers on horseback. “

This “always on the road, always towards the distance” way of using a car can be imagined as a test of vehicle durability. The air conditioner has often run continuously for a day or two, but there has never been a problem, which amazes “Wolves” who has seen countless cars.

“After 450,000 kilometers, there is no problem with the frame, no major problem with the air suspension, and the steering and motor are also good. I have owned a lot of fuel vehicles, and at this mileage, most of them are faulty. There are not many cars as strong as the ES6, and the materials used are very solid.”

In July this year, when “Wolves” ES6 had been running for three years, the professional car media “AutoHome”, which has been following NIO for a long time, deliberately acquired this car for dismantling analysis.

In this regard, “Wolves” seemed somewhat reluctant. “It’s a pity that I didn’t drive this car to participate in a cross-country rally in the end. When the dismantling is over, you must tell me the results.”

At this time, it was the 44th day that he drove the newly purchased ES8, carrying his daughter who was born in the same year and the same month as the last ES6, and “wandering” around the Chinese border.

450,000 km in the eyes of professional car media: Conscientious materials, exceeding expectations

As an experienced auto vertical media, “AutoHome” has done a lot of content output on electric vehicle testing over the years. They found that Chinese car consumers’ doubts about electric cars are mainly concentrated in two points:

The attenuation of the battery itself, as well as the reliability and durability of the product.

To this end, editor Yao Jia felt that it was necessary to come up with a vehicle with specimen significance to “face the problem head-on” and make some “in-depth articles” with detailed professional analysis. However, after searching the used car market for two years, I have not found a suitable sample. “There are some electric vehicles with more than 200,000 kilometers, but most of them are business operating vehicles.”

The turning point of the story came in June this year when they met “Wolves”.

“The results of the communication were very exciting… 450,000 kilometers in three years, which means more than 400 kilometers per day, the data is really exaggerated! The driving track of charging and swapping is also all over the country.” Even though he has worked in professional media for many years, in the face of such extreme cases of people and cars in “Wolves”, the well-informed Yao Jia was still surprised to a certain extent.

Treasure is rare, and naturally they want to make the best use of it. The AutoHome team decisively bought the car at a high price (higher than the official second-hand price of NIO), and carefully formulated a series of tests and a final dismantling plan.
“The aging decay that everyone is interested in and some questions that must be seen to be believing can be solved. It is impossible to see the truth without dismantling.”

Get the car, look at the appearance first.
Since the car’s paint surface was well maintained and washed cleanly, Yao Jia’s first impression was, “How can this be 450,000 kilometers?”
But as soon as the door was opened, the smell of the old car came: the steering wheel was covered with thick pulp, the seats, instrument panels, center consoles and other high-frequency touch places in the cabin inevitably suffered from basic wear and aging.
In addition, the sensitivity of the door handles is still very good, and the leather stitching in the interior does not come off, only a slight peeling.

Then the test drive experience.
Yao Jia rented a new ES6. After comparing the two, he found that in terms of rims, braking, steering, NVH, etc., the old car has a certain attenuation compared to the new car, which is unavoidable. “For a 450,000-kilometer car, it has met my expectations and there are no performance issues that affect driving safety.”

“AutoHome” conducted a professional field test on the two cars and made a data comparison. The results show that the acceleration performance of the old and new cars is similar, they can complete the acceleration of 100 kilometers in 4.2 seconds, and the performance is even better than the officially announced 4.7 seconds.
“The motor power degradation that we had guessed before did not occur.”
The braking distance is slightly increased, the test results of the old are close to that of the new car, and the performance of the whole vehicle can be said to be basically the same as that of the new car.

In the energy consumption test, Yao Jia circled the Beijing Sixth Ring Road at an average speed of 90.6 KM/h, and calculated that the high-speed driving range levels of the two vehicles are almost the same. Under the premise of battery replacement, even if the vehicle has traveled 450,000 kilometers, the energy consumption of the power system and the health of the battery are almost unchanged.

After multiple rounds of testing and judgment of the above subjective feelings and objective data, the AutoHome team admitted that the ES6 performance of “Wolves” exceeded previous expectations.
“Because of NIO’s battery swap technology, we really don’t have to worry about battery degradation and its cost loss. What we are worried about now is the durability of the structure itself and the safety during the battery swap process.”

If you want to know the answer to these questions, you can only rely on dismantling.

The front shock-absorbing air spring assembly, which is closely related to vehicle vibration reduction and NVH, has a good appearance, and the air spring and shock absorber damping adjustment values are reasonable; The lower swing arm of the front axle is attenuated, and the rubber sleeve is a little loose, which leads to the attenuation of the vehicle’s NVH. The aging of the rear air suspension is obvious compared to the front suspension. The overall condition of the air suspension is better than expected, with no serious damage, air leakage or deformation.

In the braking system part, the thickness of the brake pads is acceptable, but the thickness of the brake disc is far lower than the official minimum limit because it is not replaced as required, which leads to a certain attenuation of the braking force of the vehicle, which also explains the reason for the increase in the braking distance;
The steering system is slightly larger than the new car, which may be due to the attenuation of the rim and the rubber sleeve of the front swing arm.
The NVH of the front subframe motor has a certain attenuation, which may be due to the aging of the outer sponge sound insulation pad; the rim is not perfectly round;
The seats are in good condition, the attenuation is not significant, and the support wraps are all good.

The bolts at the battery swap connection points are well-designed.
Although it has been replaced more than 1300 times, the internal texture of the connection point nut is still healthy and smooth.
After removing it, it is found that with a physical correction design, the screw will be inserted into the nut at a relatively stable and precise angle, which thanks to the designer’s ingenuity.

When the interior was disassembled, it was found that the rear seat pan assembly was all made of carbon fiber, which together with the all-aluminum body, constituted the ultimate lightweight of the vehicle;
In addition, carbon fiber also brings good impact resistance to the entire rear row.
In Yao Jia’s words, it was “a hidden surprise” and “extremely valuable.”

This “in-depth article” of AutoHome took several months to find a car, plan, test and dismantle, from the sweltering early summer to the golden late autumn. Looking back at the whole process, Yao Jia said frankly, “In every link, the state of this car is above our expectations.”
To sum it up in one sentence, it is: the performance exceeds expectations, the overall design is excellent, the quality is excellent, and the warranty is full, don’t worry.

At this point, “Wolves” ES6 seems to have completed its entire life journey.
Facing the scattered parts, Yao Jia seemed a little sad. He felt that it was necessary to make some arrangements for the final outcome of the car.