"This is not just a means of transportation, but an intelligent mobile tool with social attributes." This is the definition of box car by Zhang Shuguang, founder and president of Box Car.
On December 15, Box Cars made its brand debut in Beijing and unveiled two new models: the BM-400 and the BM-600.
For China's new energy vehicle market, which is already a bit "crowded", whenever a new brand enters the car-making track, people can't help but ask: "Is there still a chance to survive?" "However, for box cars, there is little such concern, because its car-making concept and business model are different from the previous new forces, and even other car manufacturers are different, and they are completely built for the B-end travel market." According to data from China's Ministry of Transport, the total number of active cruise taxis in the country has reached 1.38 million, and the number of online ride-hailing cars is even higher, which gives Box Cars a lot of room for development.
More importantly, the core development idea of box cars is not just to produce a car to sell to the operating company, but to reconstruct the concept of travel, and upgrade the operating vehicle from a means of transportation to a "third space" for users to travel. In this regard, the box car has been newly designed from product positioning, interior layout, to additional vehicle attributes and business models.
From the product side, the model of the box car is very different from the general electric vehicle in terms of shape, and it pays more attention to the practicality and space experience of travel. Among them, the BM-400 model is mainly in the car, online car, taxi market, the mileage is 420km and 530km, and supports 600V high-voltage fast charging and power exchange mode, planned for mass production in 2023, production capacity planning annual output of 100,000 units.
The BM-400 vehicle has a very spacious interior space with a length of 4530/1900/1790mm and a wheelbase of 2850mm, which is combined with a "square" body design that maximizes the use of space.
The BM-600 model is positioned higher than the BM-400, and will target the mid-to-high-end rental market in the future to meet the demand for high-quality travel, and is expected to be mass-produced and listed in 2024, with a planned annual production capacity of 50,000 units.
The vehicle length, width and height of the BM-600 are 4900/1900/1790mm, and the wheelbase is 3100mm, which is larger than the BM-400 in size. In terms of endurance, the cruising range of the BM-600 can reach 600km, which is also more than the BM-400, and also supports 600V high-voltage fast charging.
In terms of vehicle design, based on the low utilization rate of the left rear door of the travel vehicle, the box car directly adopts the "two-door structure" of the driving door + side sliding door, and abandons the left door. The right door uses a spaceless sliding form to facilitate passengers to get on and off the bus.
In terms of interior layout, the box car is also unique. Although it is a 3-row seat distribution, the box car directly cancels the co-pilot seat and replaces it with a luggage area, and the seat behind the co-pilot is also removed, forming an "L-shaped" "1+1+3" seat distribution, which gives the second and third rows of the car an unprecedented open space.
Moreover, after the space inside the car is released, the box car is not only a tool for transportation and travel, but also a carrier of mobile intelligent space. Not only ordinary large luggage, the box car can easily put down the wheelchair, and can provide the driver with a bed where he can take a nap, and he can also open a pet space according to different needs, load vending machines, massage seats, car KTV, and even somatosensory games. At the same time, the screens inside and outside the car can also carry out advertising implantation and streaming media information push, expanding revenue channels for operators and creating more profit models.
In addition to the unique design in the space shape and the innovative travel experience derived, as a product to be applied to the B-end travel market, the technical application of the box car in the product itself and the preparation of intelligence are also very targeted.
Thanks to the more than 10 years of experience of the team behind the box car in the "design and engineering" service provider of new energy vehicles, as well as the development and process capabilities of the complete body design and chassis engineering, the box car has built the "octopus" platform. Among them, the newly unveiled BM-400 and BM-600 are based on the modular chassis of the "Octopus" 1.0 platform. With up to 95% of the chassis components in common, the platform offers the flexibility to customize different bodywork, accommodate different spaces, and be compatible with battery modules of different capacities.
In May 2022, Box Car will complete the construction of the "Octopus" 2.0 platform. Different from the 1.0 and 2.0 of general car companies, the box car "Octopus" 2.0 platform is not an iterative technology of 1.0, but a new platform specially launched for automatic driving.
The "Octopus" 2.0 platform will support three driving forms: front-drive, rear-drive and four-wheel drive, using a power battery CTC structure, the front suspension completely inherits the first-generation platform, and at the same time adopts the line control movement and wire control steering of the skateboard platform blessing, further realizing advanced intelligent driving functions.
In the future, the "Octopus" 2.0 platform can be exported to industry partners separately, providing the overall engineering outsourcing service of "chassis + body + system" for the demand side. The demander can design the upper body and interior space by himself, and the box car provides chassis body design, fully open source wire control interface and rich sensor installation design, so as to further expand the scope of car manufacturing and realize the extension of the car concept.
In general, under the "Octopus" platform, the 1.0 platform will launch products for human driving in the future, and the 2.0 platform will launch products for driverless vehicles in the future.
At the same time, as the "third space" of intelligent mobility, there must also be technical support in terms of intelligence. In response, box cars have created a customizable intelligent interaction system - HIGH DO. This system transforms the box car from a traditional physical space movement tool into a new service system covering the city, the operating enterprise, the driver's end, and the passenger side. It not only covers the car large-screen entertainment system, in-vehicle machine vision technology application, car networking, in-vehicle intelligent control, etc., can realize the car large-screen game, live broadcast, on-demand, singing K and other entertainment services; at the same time access to smart city and smart transportation, can provide urban promotional film advertising services, urban specialties ordering and other consumer experiences in the car.
Based on this new innovative idea, Zhang Shuguang believes that the box car can no longer be regarded as a simple means of transportation alone, but an intelligent mobile tool with social attributes. Zhang Shuguang said that the box car on the road in the future will combine different operating areas to match local characteristics, and can also show local highlights when completing travel needs, becoming a local business card.
Of course, for the box car, its own travel attributes are still fundamental, so the box car has also made key deployments in the most important energy replenishment link in the field of electric vehicle travel.
In response to the demand for energy replenishment, Box Auto has united with Sentient Technology as a supporter of its inability to system. At the press conference, Wang Zhe, co-founder of Box Car and chairman of Yousen Technology, introduced: "At present, Box Car plans two super charging pile schemes of 240kW and 480kW, with a maximum voltage of 1000V. This set of equipment has the advantages of power sharing, intelligent scheduling, matrix control, flexible charging, intelligent charging, etc., and is expected to achieve a 10-minute endurance of more than 200 kilometers in 2022, and a range of more than 400 kilometers in 10 minutes of charging in 2023. ”
At the same time, Box Car also plans to develop a charging station for the light charging and storage system, combined with the wireless charging technology used in the Octopus 2.0 platform to achieve a partially perfect automatic power replenishment system.
In terms of energy recovery of the product itself, the box car adopts a set of accurate and intelligent energy recovery system. In urban conditions with frequent braking and start-stop, the BM-400 models can reduce energy consumption by 15% and extend the range by 15% compared to not using the system.
On this basis, the box car also adopts a special electrical appliance strategy optimization technology, which can reduce the energy consumption of the vehicle by another 5% and increase the cruising range of 20km. When the vehicle is unloaded, the rear large screen, vending machine, lights, air conditioning can be automatically turned off, after the user gets on the car, it can be switched to the appropriate scene in an orderly manner according to the needs to achieve energy-saving purposes.
Although the first product of Box Car, BM-400, will not be mass-produced until 2023, after the previous communication meeting with many travel operators, Box Car has received 42,000 intentional orders, which shows that its products and models are quite popular with operators.
Regarding the future development of box cars in the field of B-end travel, Zhang Shuguang said: "Box cars will build a new travel value system around the city, operating partners, drivers and passengers, and become a super player in China's travel market. ”