NIO 333 gives glimpse of its Gen3 test livery

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NIO 333 gives glimpse of its Gen3 test livery

NIO 333 gives glimpse of its Gen3 test livery

NIO 333 has given us a glimpse of what its newly-christened NIO 333 ER9 Gen3 car will look like when it runs during private and official testing this year.

The ER9's (Electric, Racing, Season 9) livery is based on the team's traditional blue colour scheme with accents complementing the disruptive new design of the Gen3 Formula E car, which was unveiled in Monte Carlo last week.

Gen3's giant leap

“The latest generation cars mark a huge step up in performance, maintaining Formula E as the championship at the pinnacle of electric racing," says Duncan Laycock, Chief Technical Officer. "An aggressive weight reduction of 60kg over the previous Gen2 machinery, and an increase in power from 250 to 350kW, moves the cars to another level.

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"While the technical regulations maintain similarities to the previous set, there are areas of significant evolution. The addition of regenerative braking from the front axle results is in sufficient capacity that the rear hydraulic brakes are now deleted, and the brake by wire instead operates the front. This presents new opportunities, especially regarding the controls systems, an area in which BIE UK (Brilliant in Excellence, owners of 333 Racing) have bolstered over the last 12 months.

"There is also a change in tyre supplier with Hankook coming on-board for the new era. That may not appear that fundamental a change, characterising and getting on top of extracting single-lap performance and race consistency from the new tyres will be crucial to competitiveness, especially during the early stages of testing.

"The rollout of our Season 9 challenger, the NIO 333 ER9, is imminent and we look forward to embarking on an intensive test and development programme ahead of its competitive appearance next season.”

Laying the groundwork for Gen3

“After taking over the team in Season 6, developing a new powertrain and new software, we have made some performance improvements and are striving to continue to grow across all areas of 333 Racing," says Alex Hui, Team Principal.

READ MORE: How NIO 333 is laying the groundwork for Gen3

"We have had our sights firmly on Season 9, so straight after our Gen3 announcement we started to put into place a significant number of resources to welcome Gen3 and attract new team members. I am pleased to say that several top-notch recruits joined us at the end of Season 7 and during the start of this year to help us build on a team with excellent technical skills and development capabilities. However, bolstering the team is just the start and although we are operating on limited resources compared to others, we have shown that we are fighting to catch up and will continue to do so."

“The launch of the Gen3 car marks the dawn of a new and exciting era for the NIO 333 Formula E Team," adds Russell O’Hagan, Chief Operations Officer and Deputy Team Principal. "It presents us with an opportunity to apply what we have learnt over the last few years to new foundations. We have a lot of hard work ahead over the next nine months, but I have confidence in our team and partners that we can set our targets high and go on to achieve them. We are really looking forward to getting the NIO 333 ER9 on track and seeing what it’s capable of. It’s going to be one hell of a race car!”

A Formula E fixture

"We are very proud to have been part of the Formula E family since the beginning and not only get to witness the upcoming Gen3 era, but also join in embracing the major milestone for motorsport and the car industry," says Vincent Wang, Chief Executive Officer. 

"We have done a lot of work ahead of the arrival of Gen3 despite logistical difficulties faced by the team over the last two years. We did not slow down and now, I'm glad to say, we're ready for Gen3! We will bring all our energies into the preparation of the NIO 333 ER9 cars at our Silverstone UK headquarters and look forward to welcoming guests from all over the world, including China, soon. We hope to experience the taste of victory in the Gen3 era!”