Chinese automaker Nio is getting ready to storm the market of Europe with a slew of electric cars, including the ES7. However, when Audi learned about these plans, it sued the newcomer, alleging that the letter combination ‘ES’ sounded too close to its own ‘S’ range of cars, enough so to mislead customers into buying the wrong car.
Unsurprisingly, Nio had attempted to fight back, arguing that the name was original and chosen in good faith. Now that the case has been lost, however, the company is facing the need to rename its whole lineup, and the ES7 will be the first to go. The new name will officially be ‘EL7’. Similar fate awaits the ES6 and ES8 models.
In case you didn’t know, the ES7 is an electric performance SUV armed with dual electric motors joining efforts for 653 PS (644 hp / 480 kW). It is powerful enough to reach 100 km/h (62 mph) from standstill in just 3.9 seconds.
