It’s been a minute since we last talked about the Nio EP9. To refresh your memory, this electric hypercar briefly hit the automotive world in 2017 by crashing the Nürburgring in 6 minutes 45.9 seconds. Production cars have since run faster, but lest we forget, the EP9 is not a road legal machine. After a flash in the pan, EV companies are chasing mainstream offerings but there are still plans to build a total of 16 EP9s.
The full color version you see here is one of them, but it’s not the version you’ll see when turning laps on a track. It takes on a new role as an art car, painted by a British artist known as Ornamental Conifer. The artist’s real name is Nicolai Sclater, and he has a fairly large portfolio of motorsports-related projects. Nio is one of them, hand-painted by the artist with bold colors and a graffiti-themed script. The car was recently auctioned through Bonhams, though bids reached $550,000 without meeting reserves.
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According to auction listings, this particular car has been in action at several race tracks around the world. The EP9 is typically equipped with four electric motors – one on each wheel – producing a combined output of over 1,300 horsepower. With that kind of power in a race-inspired design, the EP9 goes fast in straights and in corners. 0-60 mph happens in about 2.5 seconds, top speed is 194 mph, and sticks to the road with 3gs of downforce.
We said usually installed because, for unknown reasons, the motor, battery and other mechanical components were removed from this vehicle prior to sale. Apparently, its transition to art car status made it a static hypercar for display only. However, the auction states that buyers can request all missing components for free.
Of course, there were no buyers because the offer ended without a $550,000 sale. We don’t know how much spare is in this car, but last we heard, the EP9 was priced at over $1 million.
