The shooting brake models were previously a niche market in China, but the unexpected success of the Zeekr 001 has made such models increasingly popular.

Nio plans to release five models in the first half of next year. As the end of the year approaches, there are more and more spy photos and videos about the new Nio models.

In a WeChat group where CnEVPost is in, a user shared the below video showing a model suspected to be the Nio ET5 shooting brake version.

The camouflage of the vehicle in the video is common for Nio, while the LiDAR and the camera layout on the roof are in line with all other models of the company's NT 2.0 platform.

In the Chinese market, shooting brake models were previously a niche market, but the unexpected success of the Zeekr 001, the first model of Geely's Zeekr brand, has made such models increasingly popular.

On November 21, Zeekr announced that its cumulative deliveries exceeded 60,000 units.

Zeekr is currently delivering only the Zeekr 001, which accumulated 55,600 units from the start of deliveries in October last year to the end of October this year. It delivered 10,119 units in October alone.

(Zeekr 001. Image credit: Zeekr)

Back to Nio, if it does launch a shooting brake version of the ET5, it is likely to be a good player in the segment as well, given that Zeekr has made more people start to accept such models.

Nio will launch five models in the first half of next year and will have a total of eight available models by June, William Li, the company's founder, chairman and CEO, said in a conference call after announcing third-quarter earnings on November 10.

Li did not provide more details at the time, but what can be expected is that the five models to be released by Nio will include the switch of the ES8, ES6 and EC6 to the NT 2.0 platform, as well as two other new models.

Deutsche Bank analyst Edison Yu's team believes one of the new models will be a competitor to the Tesla Model Y, possibly the ES5, and could start at RMB 330,000 ($46,070) - 340,000.