Watch The Nio ET9’s Active Suspension ‘Shake It Off’

If you live somewhere that gets proper winter weather, then you’ll be all too familiar with the frustration of having to clear a layer of snow off your car after each heavy snowfall.

Nio, the Chinese manufacturer of high-end electric cars, has come up with a clever way around this. Its upcoming ET9, a flagship luxury car, has a suspension system its manufacturer calls SkyRide. It uses an independently-controlled hydraulic shock on each corner, which allows it to do, well… things like this.

In this clip posted to Chinese social media site Weibo, we see a prototype ET9 covered in a thick layer of snow. The SkyRide system allows it to shake from side to side to clear the snow off, like a boisterous Labrador that’s just got out of a river. Hopefully, unlike the dog, the ET9 will recognise if there are people nearby and avoid giving them an unwelcome dusting of powder.

This isn’t SkyRide’s only party trick - another remarkable video shows the ET9 driving along a ridged surface with a stack of water-filled champagne glasses perched on its bonnet. The suspension system allows the body to stay spookily level and the water to remain unspilled.

The ET9 is Nio’s range-topping model, intended to go up against things like the BMW i7, Mercedes EQS and Lucid Air. Rather than use a traditional saloon body, it takes the form of a big, high-riding fastback - a shape that Nio calls a ‘landjet silhouette’. In its home market, it starts at around 800,000 Yuan – around £88,000 – with deliveries scheduled from next year.

Nio has already launched in a number of continental European markets, where it sells models including the ET5 saloon and estate and the EL7 SUV. It eventually plans to sell cars in the UK, although it’s currently waiting until it can develop an infrastructure for its innovative battery swap tech before entering the market.