Holger Klein, CEO of German auto tech giant ZF Group, has taken delivery of an ET9, as Nio (NYSE: NIO) continues to pitch its executive flagship sedan to the corporate executives.
Klein received the key to his ET9 from Nio founder, chairman and CEO William Li at Nio's booth at the Shanghai auto show on April 23, the Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker said yesterday on Weibo.
The ZF CEO became the first expat owner of the ET9, and he praised the Chinese speed and Nio's speed that the ET9's innovation represents, Nio said.
Klein is confident that products like the ET9 will also be successful when they enter the European market, according to the Weibo post.
Also yesterday, Li delivered an ET9 to Robin Zeng, founder, chairman and CEO of Chinese power battery giant CATL (SHE: 300750), and said He Xiaopeng, chairman and CEO of Xpeng (NYSE: XPEV), has also become an ET9 owner.
The ET9 was officially launched on Nio Day 2024, December 21, 2024, and starts at RMB 788,000 ($108,000) including the battery pack, making it Nio's highest-priced model.
The sedan uses many of Nio's latest technologies, including the in-house Shenji NX9031 autonomous driving chip, and the SkyRide chassis.
It's not too surprising that the ZF CEO becomes the owner of an ET9.
The ET9 is the first mass-produced vehicle in China to feature steer-by-wire (SBW) technology, which was granted a mass-production approval by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) in December last year.
With the SBW technology, there is no mechanical connection between the vehicle's wheel and the steering wheel, instead the steering is controlled by electrical signals.
The angle of the steering wheel and the moment of resistance can be freely designed, which brings the advantages of lower latencies, more precise control, more efficient transmission and more flexible arrangement.
In the absence of a national standard on the technology in China, Nio completed the development and testing of the SBW technology, it said last December.
The technology appears to have come from ZF, although Nio did not mention it directly.
Nio and ZF signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Munich, Germany, on October 11, 2022, to cooperate in areas including SBW products, the German auto tech giant said at the time.
The signing of the agreement marks the first time ZF has secured an SBW business partnership in the Asia-Pacific region, a press release said at the time.
