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Producer: Electric Planet News
Author: Yu Fei, Crab Boss himself
The next day, we attended the ET5 product design exchange meeting in Suzhou. At the meeting, SUN Ning, EXPERIENCE MANAGER OF ET5, introduced the design concept of this model to us, as well as some details of the development process.
Since last night's release, the et5 has been unabated, and there have been many discussions and questions about this car. For example, how does WEILAI define this new car? As the smallest WEILAI, did ET5 make a compromise for compatibility with the power exchange structure? Wait a minute.
At today's exchange meeting, we also got some answers, so let's start right away
First, aesthetics + demand
In the NIO APP, there are currently more than 1 million "users".
Users, indicating that they are not necessarily the owner of the car, but must be the people who will be affected by the Weilai culture. In fact, according to Sun Ning's sharing, more than 50% of the participants in NIO's community activities are post-90s young people.
Another point is that at present, the family orientation of Weilai's car is heavier. For users who are single, or still in the state of small two, Weilai does not yet have a very suitable product to match the young market with great potential.
The last "user demand" comes from Li Bin.
Sun Ning said that Li Bin has been asking the team a question when the ET5 project is established, if you make a smallest, most beautiful and most extreme car around weilai's power exchange structure, what will it be like?
Considering that the ET5 project was established in early 2020, that is, when Weilai half a foot was still in the ICU, it was actually quite dangerous to put "beautiful" in front of the design needs, because the subjective factor of appearance was too large.
But in the end, it was under such multiple needs that ET5 completed the design and became what we saw last night - Weilai's own definition is "the purest and elegant coupe curve".
Sun Ning said that from the establishment of the project to the present, ET5 has not stopped the pursuit of design.
The sharing session began with the FRONT DESIGN OF THE ET5 and with a controversial quote: "What's so great about making the LOGO two-dimensional?" What's cooler is to make some of the more explicit elements more flat and more in line with the characteristics of the digital age."
This sentence refers to the more flat headlights of the ET5 than the ET7.
The meaning of flattening is that Weilai has shaded the upper and lower edges of the ET5's headlights, and from the front, its visual implications as "a light" have been weakened, and the "luminous surface" has been strengthened.
Another point of active innovation is the X-Bar.
The X-Bar was once one of the family symbols of NIO, the largest single chrome plating in the industry. But in 2021, when the Chrome delete dechromium removal trend is rising, ET5 removed the chrome X-Bar and formed the front face in a more complex way with the Weilai family charm.
Nio's first car to run is the EP9, as an "extreme", "young" NIO, the side of the ET5 also borrows the dive design of ep9.
The main way to achieve this is this inclined dive line from the bonnet to the tail end, and a very rapid drop after reaching the B and C pillars.
This kind of body treatment has always been the essence of the appearance necessary for luxury coupes, such as the Jaguar F-Type.
The dive design shifts the visual center of the ET5 to the rear of the car. That is, from the outside of the car, the power of et5 will be concentrated in the "ass", and the posture is more like a cheetah ready to start.
By the way, speaking of this figure, ET5 uses Wei's self-developed caliper, we asked on the spot why we want to develop self-developed caliper, Sun Ning said that "the advantage of self-development is that there is no need to use the supplier offshore (referring to the solution that cannot be modified by itself), and the user needs can be taken into account."
The lines that extend behind the wheel arch resemble the legs of a cheetah. Not only the wheel arch, waist line, shoulder line and other design elements, but also finally meet at the back of the body - and the biggest difference between the ET5 and the previous Nioline models is also in the rear.
But sell a close, ET5 this little ducktail more details, we will mention below, now let's talk about something else.
The illumiblade taillights under the rear of the car, which are wrapped in a fully transparent glass cover, are partly out of the style of the NIO SUV family, just like the front of the car. At the same time, the superred technology is blessed, which claims to make the red more pure and can be observed at a longer distance in a harsh environment.
Compared with the combat-like appearance, the first look and feel of the ET5 interior still maintains the gentleness and refinement unique to the NIO family.
But this does not mean that the interior of the ET5 is just a simple porter, some of the content presented by the PPT on NIO Day yesterday will not be discussed here, here are a few details:
Water cutting, in automotive terminology, refers to the rubber strip between the door glass and the door frame. The DESIGN DETAILS OF THE ET5 ARE ITS FRONT WINDSHIELD, WHICH IS COMPLETELY PARALLEL TO THE WATER CUT.
The advantage of this is that the ET5 appearance has a very strong sense of unity. The reason why we have to talk about water cutting in the interior link is because the ET5's central control trim, all the way to the door panel, is also such a seamless and continuous parallel design.
"Feeling of embrace," Sun Ning summed it up.
Under the centre console, including the front passenger leg position, is an area of easy and common cost savings. ET5 still uses soft fabric materials in these areas, "the second living room, which means that the place where your hands and feet touch must be warm and soft."
To achieve this, NIO tested more than 20 composite materials.
Yesterday Li Bin first proposed the concept of "Panocinema Panoramic Digital Cockpit", and today we got more explanations.
The ET5 is equipped with an atmosphere light that "each luminous position is 256 color choices", that is, a full RGB color atmosphere light, and later supports OTA evolution with more functions.
Also yesterday ON DAY, WEILAI announced that it is not a multi-screen enthusiast, because ET5 is the first "AR/VR adaptation model" - AR/VR glasses, which will become an extended screen on ET5/ET7.
Sun Ning said that they believe that "bringing a large 200-inch screen through AR/VR is better than any physical screen." If not integrated with the interior design style, the larger and more complex screens will have an intrusive feeling in the cockpit, "a very large object, not lifeless to stay there".
However, ar/VR content adaptation is too difficult, I hope that Weilai can publish more information next.
In addition, NIO's AR/VR glasses will be adapted to the color of the cockpit and the storage space.
Speaking of storage space, another detail of the interior design is that the ET5's trunk hinge is the same color as the body, although it is a small heart, but it is very clever.
Second, aesthetics VS demand
At the beginning of this period, aesthetics and needs are no longer friends who fight side by side, but a pair of beings who are "jealous of the wind". The design path of ET5 is, to some extent, "left and right" between the two.
As mentioned above, the rear of the ET5 is the intersection of a large number of design lines. But one of the problems faced by the NIO team is that "many" is not necessarily "good", but may be "over-designed"; another problem is that et5 is an international electric vehicle.
The final presentation of the ET5 rear eliminates a lot of unnecessary elements, less is more is not wrong, so what is the international electric vehicle?
Yesterday Li Bin said that WEIlai will enter 25 countries in 2025, which means that ET5 will be tested by roads around the world, such as next year may be on the German autobahn unlimited speed highway.
So downforce and low wind resistance have become the "roadblocks" of ET5. In the end, et5 has a drag coefficient of 0.24, which seems to be a good number in 2022.
Sun Ning said that the reason why the ET7 0.208 level was not achieved was first of all because the ET5 was shorter, "the big car had enough length to handle the turbulence of the tail", and the fall from the ET7 C column to the rear of the car was not as obvious as the ET5.
This rear of the car has been revised 6 drafts in more than 3 months, and the final version, Sun Ning believes, is "the most upward and sharpest".
And the same left and right Fengyuan also appeared in the front of the car.
The front lip of the ET5 is very aggressive, but it could have been more radical. Today's mass-produced version is aimed at the limits of the latest Sino-European collision standards that can meet the five-star pedestrian protection.
Three, more
Car building is dancing in a cage and dancing with shackles, even if smart electric gives cars endless imagination, this saying still holds.
In this paragraph, we take a look at how ET5 balances aesthetics and use as much as possible when the difficulties are too great to reconcile.
The first point may have little to do with "use" - the et5 is "only" 360kW, which is already the level of million-class gasoline vehicles, but in this era of dual motors, 360kW should be less than satisfactory.
Sun Ning said that when they pursue the ultimate styling, but also want to constrain the entire car to 4.8 meters, the challenge to the layout of the cable cabin is very large.
The new set of first 150kW asynchronous + rear 210kW permanent magnet is XPT's new customized motor, and it should be the strongest self-developed program that Weilai can come up with on ET5 at present - then again, 4.3 seconds is already a very good result.
Finally, I personally think it's a pity – the ET5 won't have a front trunk.
Weilai's explanation for this is that "if the back door is electric and can be opened intelligently, but the front door needs to be opened manually and closed manually, then under the trade-off, we feel that we should give up space to the car to ride."
The concession space was mentioned several times at today's sharing session.
The ET5 uses front and rear five-link suspension, which is a relatively rare choice because the five-link will occupy more space, and it is generally difficult for front-engined gasoline vehicles to use the five-link with better handling and anti-roll in the front suspension.
After the ET5 used the first five consecutive strokes, it still "squeezed out" 6 cm of legroom space in the front cabin through the design of the virtual ball head. "Basically, the front row of the ET5 can be completely extended forward, and there is no feeling of stepping on the firewall," Sun Ning said.
Finally, an Easter egg, ET5 yesterday's body PPT, there is a gap between the battery and the rear subframe, Sun Ning said that the space here will not be wasted, but there will be a very interesting design, "the appropriate time will be announced to everyone."
(End)
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