Image source @ Visual China
Text | Shentucar, by | Dawn, edited by | Wei Jia
Give you 150,000, let you choose an electric car, to be able to run a long distance, drive air conditioning, get a green card, get subsidies, it is best to charge only once a month, at least once can run 1,000 kilometers. How would you choose?
No choice.
And it's not just about price. Add another 150,000, or even 1 million, and you don't have a choice.
It's not your problem, it's the problem with electric vehicles.
When it comes to building cars and building new energy vehicles, many people's first reaction is electric vehicles, Tesla's kind. To buy a car with the green card in your hand, you can only choose an "electric daddy".
The pattern is small.
There are three categories of new energy vehicles defined in China: pure electric (EV), plug-in hybrid (PHEV), and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCHEVs). Among them, pure electric vehicles are the most mainstream technical routes in China, and the government attaches the most importance to them, the greatest support, and the highest volume.
The difference between these three can be summarized in one sentence: take out the fuel engine from the PHEV, increase the battery capacity, and become a pure electric vehicle EV; install hydrogen storage tanks and hydrogen fuel cells on the EV, and become a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle FCHEV.
Pure electric vehicles are very familiar to everyone, the deep way will not be introduced, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, now the technology is not mature, can not be large-scale mass production. The remaining plug-in hybrid (hereinafter referred to as "hybrid", excluding oil-electric hybrid) is the protagonist of today's article.
Hybrid vehicles are cars that can use both electricity and oil. There are motors and batteries in the car, as well as internal combustion engines and fuel tanks. You can drive in pure electric mode at a certain distance, and when the highway conditions or the battery is running out, then use hybrid mode (mainly internal combustion engine) to drive and charge the battery at the same time.
Hybrids can be replenished with fuel and charging. A hybrid vehicle full of electricity and fuel can easily exceed 1000 kilometers.
The bull blown by the electric car first made the hybrid car realize.
At this stage, hybrid vehicles are regarded as a transitional solution between traditional fuel vehicles and pure electric vehicles, and are also regarded as the real enemy of fuel vehicles. In the future, the first to kill fuel vehicles may not be those cool pure electric vehicles, but hybrid vehicles that will carry out "grounding gas" to the end.
Young people are starting to pay for "mashups."
Now many people do not buy electric vehicles, not because the car is not good, nor is the price too expensive, but it is really inconvenient.
Zhao Peng has driven the Tesla Model 3 for three months before, and the biggest problem is that "when the battery reaches 30, he is full of thoughts about finding a charging pile, and then goes to the mall to eat in order to charge."
"Otherwise, why do shopping malls have so many exclusive parking spaces?" Mutual benefit and reciprocity are arranged clearly. He said.
It is also not convenient to drive back home. He usually lives in Shanghai, charging once can not open his hometown, on the road to make up once, back to his hometown village and can not charge. "The opportunity to drive back to the village to show off is not given."
On holidays, grabbing charging piles in the highway service area is another lively scene.
Can only honestly walk in the urban area, is the biggest embarrassment of electric vehicles at this stage.
Hybrid vehicles do not have the above problems. From the perspective of driving mode, fuel vehicles eat oil, electric vehicles consume electricity, the two are clearly distinguished, and the well water does not violate the river water. But the hybrid car dug a canal in the middle, connecting the two, but oil and electricity, referred to as "mix-and-match". When the tram can also refuel, the battery life anxiety is solved.
Taking the hottest hybrid model in 2021, Qin PLUS DMI, as an example, the pure electric endurance of this car is only 120 kilometers, but with the endurance of a tank of fuel, the comprehensive endurance will reach 1245 kilometers. This endurance has surpassed most fuel vehicles. Under the same fuel tank capacity, compared with the fuel vehicle, the hybrid car is not to catch up, but to catch up.
For consumers, battery life is very important, but it only solves the problem of the threshold for buying a car. If you only consider the battery life, many people do not have to buy hybrids, and the fuel car is enough. Compared with oil trucks, hybrid vehicles are also quite capable of playing in other aspects.
The working principle of hybrid is not complicated. The vehicle is equipped with two sets of powertrains at the same time, both the drive motor of the electric vehicle and the internal combustion engine of the fuel vehicle. These two systems work together through a series-parallel structure to bring together some of the advantages of electric vehicles and fuel vehicles, thus having comparative advantages. For example: more powerful power, lower fuel consumption, lower cost of use, pure electric driving experience, and more critically, can be on the green card.
The first is fast power response. Since it is driven by electricity at the beginning, the hybrid has the advantage of fast starting acceleration of electric vehicles, so that its power performance can be wrenched with electric vehicles.
"Every time I was waiting for a traffic light, I was able to shake off a bunch of vehicles when I started. Often I went to the opposite side, and the other cars had just crossed the line, making me mistakenly think that I was running a red light. Bydy Han DM owner Elder Joe said to Deep Way.
The hybrid vehicle uses electricity at start-up and low speeds, the motor can work alone, the oil is used at high speed, and the engine begins to work. It very cleverly takes advantage of the advantages of fast start of electric vehicles and avoids the disadvantages of high-speed power consumption.
While the engine provides power to the car, it will also charge the generator, and the more the car is powered, the more it is powered. In addition, the hybrid also has a kinetic energy recovery function, and the energy wasted in braking and coasting will be stored in the battery in reverse. This gives the hybrid another advantage: low fuel consumption.
Bydy Han DM owner Oman told Shentu that he consumes about 5-6 liters of fuel and 5 liters of high-speed high-speed driving 100 kilometers in the city. Previously, he drove Regal, the average fuel consumption was more than 7 liters, and the driving fierce could reach 10 liters. "The point of hybrid is not in charging, but in saving fuel." He said.
The data shows that as early as 2019, the fuel consumption of hybrid vehicles (excluding fuel consumption for electric energy conversion) reached 4.3L/100km (NEDC working conditions), which saved 25.9% compared with the overall fuel consumption level, and achieved the energy-saving target proposed in version 1.0 of the 2020 technology roadmap ahead of schedule. Hybrids have always been more fuel-efficient than fuel vehicles.
Lower fuel consumption means higher endurance, which is why the range of hybrid vehicles can easily exceed 1,000 kilometers.
Such a model equipped with an internal combustion engine is a pure electric vehicle experience, and there will be no roar and jitter of the machine like a traditional fuel vehicle.
"Personally, it feels more like a tram." Zhao Peng commented that he used to drive Dongfeng's commercial vehicles, manual transmission models, "it is not a thing at all, and now it feels the same as driving a battery car." ”
It was on the green card and drove a fuel car
For consumers, hybrid vehicles also have a huge advantage - they can be green cards.
For a long time, the main sales of new energy vehicles were concentrated in several limited license cities. In big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, those young people who are eager to use cars can't shake the fuel license plate, and can only retreat to the second new energy license plate, forced to bear the mileage anxiety.
In Shanghai, Oman didn't get a blue card for two years before he bought the hybrid. Liu Song is in Shenzhen, and he also uses hybrid transition because he can't shake the blue card. Shenzhen hybrid card does not need to be drawn, and those who meet the conditions submit information to the indicator.
They were all fuel car owners before and have become accustomed to oil trucks. "Charging for an hour, and refueling for five minutes, of course, is incomparable." Everyone's time is still precious. Liu Song said.
Hybrid vehicles provide a gradual solution for people who are accustomed to driving oil trucks, want to drive oil cars, and do not have license plates.
The hybrid car is green, and some people drive it into a fuel car.
Liu Song completely drives the hybrid car as a fuel truck. "There is electricity to start, no electricity to open the oil, the car itself will choose EV or HEV."
At high speed, the electricity will be turned on more and more, and the oil will become less and less. Turn on low speed, electricity keeps falling, oil drops very slowly. There is also a setting called forced charging, which is a mode in which the gasoline engine will be charged as long as it is working. So even if the car is not charged, it can be driven all the time. He occasionally thinks of it and drives out to charge once.
"Just use the oil, forget that it can be charged." He said to Deep Way. By now, he has driven 15,000 kilometers and has only been charged six times.
This is very friendly for those who do not have the conditions to charge. They are the face of the tram, the inside of the oil car.
However, driving a hybrid as a fuel truck brings a problem - the fuel consumption is high, and in some cases it will even exceed the fuel car. This is what the industry calls "power loss and fuel consumption", which was a major injury to many hybrid vehicles before.
"If you don't charge, if you keep refueling, the fuel consumption is still relatively high, about eight or nine oils, and only six or seven were opened before the Accord." Liu Song calculated.
This actually goes against the original intention of the hybrid. As one of the three major types of new energy vehicles, hybrid vehicles enjoy green card policies and state subsidies in order to promote energy conservation and emission reduction, especially to reduce the use of gasoline. If it is driven as a fuel truck, it is like playing a policy edge ball.
However, car owners also have grievances. Imperfect charging facilities are a very important reason. In addition to public charging piles, there is a lot of space for the layout of private charging piles. In China, many residential areas do not have the conditions to install charging piles, some properties refuse to cooperate with the installation of charging piles, and many people do not have parking spaces, talking about charging piles.
"Charging is very troublesome, I don't have a house in Shenzhen, I can't install charging piles." Liu Song said bluntly.
The government wants car owners to use electricity instead of oil. In Shanghai, the purchase of hybrid vehicles must have a private charging pile, which is one of the conditions considered by the Shanghai Economic and Information Commission when reviewing the qualifications of individuals.
This threshold keeps many people out. However, there are policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom.
A Shanghai hybrid owner revealed to Shentu that the problem of charging piles can be solved in a "linked" way. He rented someone else's parking space, installed the charging pile, and then shared the charging pile. But now "the affiliation is getting tighter." ”
Is it a super killer of fuel vehicles, or cannon fodder for electric vehicles?
From the perspective of technical routes, hybrid vehicles are recognized as a transition between fuel vehicles and pure electric vehicles. But now, hybrids seem to combine the strengths of electric vehicles and fuel vehicles, avoiding shortcomings, like cheating.
In China, which pays attention to practicality, this route is very in line with the national conditions, and car companies that bet on hybrid routes are rapidly seizing the market.
From the product dimension, the most direct threat to hybrid vehicles is fuel vehicles.
Wang Chuanfu, chairman of BYD, said, "The competitor of the DM-i super hybrid model is not a plug-in hybrid, but a fuel vehicle of the same level. The First Model to be equipped with this system, the Qin PLUS DM-i, surpassed Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y for the first time in October 2021. Many Qin PLUS DMI car owners who were in contact with The deep way said that the waiting time for the car was too long, and the average waiting time in line ranged from 3 months to half a year.
Not only BYD, Geely, Great Wall and other car companies are also increasing the layout of hybrid models.
In October 2021, Geely released a high-profile hybrid system called "God-level" hybrid, which sounds more pully than BYD's "super". This system has high hopes from the market and is expected to challenge BYD.
Geely Star Yue L Thor Hybrid Edition Source / Weibo
As early as 2015, Geely proposed the "Blue Geely Action" strategy, the core content includes that in 2020, the sales of plug-in hybrid and oil-electric hybrid vehicles will account for 65%, exceeding 35% of pure electric vehicles. The plan failed to be completed as scheduled and was split in two in 2021, with one of the routes being hybrids.
In addition, the Great Wall released the lemon DHT hybrid, Chang'an has the blue whale iDD hybrid, and Chery has the Kunpeng power DHT hybrid. Hybridization has become a powerful weapon for independent brands to counterattack joint venture brands.
For many years, Japanese brands Toyota and Honda have been the kings of hybrids. Toyota, in particular, has been alone for many years. In 1997, Toyota launched the world's first hybrid model, the Prius, which sold 13 million units in 20 years and once accounted for 90% of the world's hybrid vehicle market share. Including the "dual engine" Corolla and Leiling launched by FAW Toyota and GAC Toyota later, they are also heavy players in the hybrid car market.
However, with the rise of independent brands, the pattern of the hybrid car market is changing. Whether in terms of technology or sales, independent brands have the opportunity to overtake in curves.
Hybrid vehicles have taken away the market for fuel vehicles, which does not mean that they can occupy most of the new energy market in the future.
In the planning of many countries, hybrid vehicles are only a transitional product, and the ultimate product is either a pure electric vehicle or a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. Only now their common enemy is fuel vehicles.
Before the complete replacement of fuel vehicles, hybrid vehicles will have a large market and a relatively long life cycle. However, with the continuous evolution of the historical process of new energy, it is still unknown whether hybrid vehicles can still occupy a place and become important players in the future.
Becoming a super killer of fuel vehicles, or cannon fodder for electric vehicles, anything is possible.
*At the request of the interviewees, Zhao Peng, Aman, Elder Qiao, and Liu Song were pseudonyms.