Written by | Huang Zhi
Edit | Yang Guang
Produced | Automotive Sankei
When the domestic new energy vehicle market grows at a rate of 190% in 2021, from mainstream car companies to industry associations, they all began to shout out "new energy vehicles began to replace fuel vehicles". Indeed, from 165,000 units in January to 505,000 units in December, the new energy vehicle market may have really entered a new phase.
But behind the carnival, what kind of consumers are buying new energy vehicles?
The purchase restriction policy is still an important determinant, and in non-restricted cities, the purpose of buying an electric vehicle is either to travel in the urban area or as a second car for the family. The data shows that the price range of pure electric vehicle sales in new energy vehicles is less than 50,000 yuan, 120,000-180,000 yuan and 25-400,000 yuan, showing obvious concentration and significant differences with the distribution of fuel vehicles.
In fact, looking back on the past year, in addition to the liveliness of sales, there are also many news around electric vehicles that protect the rights of car owners, shrink the mileage, and spontaneous combustion explosions, which affect the sensitive nerves of the market.
What does a good electric car look like?
At least, through the data of the new energy user's car purchase decision-making process, it can be seen that consumers currently have a very high degree of concern for battery life, charging and batteries, which should actually be the "basic skills" of a car, obviously, most people's cognition and requirements for electric vehicles are still stuck in the stage of transportation tools.
It is not difficult to understand why the current electric vehicle market is seawater on one side and flame on the other.
Just like last year's National Day, the dilemma of high-speed charging of electric vehicles became news, but on the other hand, it also proved that more and more car owners have the willingness and confidence to drive electric vehicles out of the city. Tesla, Weilai and Xiaopeng have repaired the charging pile to the Sichuan-Tibet Line, a sky road that was once considered to belong only to Prado and Pajero for a long time, and also has an electric car.
However, some people want to do something that may be crazier.
2022 Dakar Rally Audi Sport Team Half-Way Summary
In stage 3 of the 2022 Dakar Rally, Audi veteran Carlos Sainz won the automotive stage championship. The victory means that for the first time in nearly 50 years of history, an electric car has won the race.
What does the Dakar Rally mean? It is synonymous with hardship, loneliness, challenge, and dilemma, even for fuel vehicles. Electricity, is it possible?
But Audi's goal from the beginning was to make the impossible possible. In fact, when the 12th race ended, the Audi Sports team had scheduled three cars to finish the race, and 1 of the top ten race goals were completed.
What does it mean to drive an electric car to Dakar?
Looking back at the history of Audi and motorsport, we will find that the words "innovation" and "challenge" are inseparable.
Between 1985 and 1987, the Audi Sport quattro S1 Pikes Peak won three Pikes Mountaineering Championships. Because the race takes place in high-altitude mountainous areas, both drivers and cars face the challenge of thin air, and is considered one of the most demanding races in off-road racing.
In another 24 Hours of Le Mans, known for its "endurance", the Audi R8 race car competed in 80 races and won 63 of them, while none of the R8 cars had an engine failure, showing strong reliability. Subsequently, Audi became the first car brand in the history of the 24 Hours of Le Mans to win the race with a diesel engine.
In the electrification field, Audi has been involved in Formula E since 2014, is the first German car manufacturer to participate in the race, and in 2017, the Audi factory team was fully formed, and in 6 years, the Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler team has been on the podium a total of 43 times, winning the driver's championship and the constructors' championship in 2017 and 2018 respectively.
This time in Dakar, Audi chose to challenge himself again.
It's one of the toughest races in the car race, known as "the toughest devil race on earth", wearing the name of rally, but in essence an endurance race far from the road.
The Dakar Rally has a complex road and harsh climate, as well as strict rules for both cars and drivers, with an average finish rate of only 38% over the years, and even drivers who often die in the course of the race.
Although the 2022 event moved to Saudi Arabia, the intensity of the event did not shrink. Let's look at a few numbers: the total length of the course is 8375 kilometers, of which 4258 kilometers are special stages, the maximum need to travel 800 kilometers in a single day, more than half of the schedule needs to complete special stages of more than 350 kilometers, and the highest day needs to complete nearly 465 kilometers of special stages.
And let an electric car complete such a schedule, the challenge is self-evident, only the endurance, battery safety, reliability of these aspects, is enough to give Audi engineers a problem.
The first is battery life.
Because the stage does not have the conditions to charge at any time, Audi has designed a new drive system for the RS Q e-tron race car, using electric drive and a TFSI engine as an energy converter to ensure battery life. Engineers through a complex control system, so that the car can cope with the daily different conditions of the stage test, with algorithm programming so that the battery charge state (SoC), that is, the remaining power according to the power demand to maintain a certain range, so that energy extraction and battery charging to maintain a balance.
And then there's security.
In addition to the structural safety of the body itself, Audi uses THE CERP sandwich structure to protect the high-voltage battery and fuel tank against punctures, scratches and tears that may occur during the race. The sandwich structure can absorb surface loads on the one hand, and on the other hand, it can also dissipate the capacity by crushing the foam when the surface load is too large, thereby protecting the battery. For the high-voltage protection system, Audi used the ISO monitor used in the Le Mans prototype and formula E races to detect dangerous fault currents.
On 14 January, the 44th Dakar Rally concluded the last stage of the race, with Audi Sport team winning four of the 12 stages, including two first and second prizes.
Whatever the final outcome, this achievement proves that electric cars are equally dominant in Dakar, and Audi is already making history.
In the second half of the competition, technology is the core
The premise of creating history is to be ahead of the times.
In just 12 months before the RS Q e-tron was launched in Dakar, the Audi team successfully developed the car and tested the system and limits in Spain, Morocco and other places. At the same time, much of the RS Q e-tron has been developed from audi's past decades of reserves from the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the German Touring Car Masters (DTM) or formula E.
Behind the speed is Audi's deep technical accumulation and reserves.
Technology is the core of the rapid changes driving the current automotive industry, as well as an important competitiveness in the new energy vehicle market.
Whether it is the popularity of BYD DM-i in the past year, or Xiaopeng's continuous strengthening of the technology label at the brand and product level, or the most basic mileage and battery safety, in fact, the development of new power enterprises from Musk to Wei Xiaoli to PPT, although each has its own labels and characteristics, but most of them are inseparable from the word technology.
It can be seen that whether it can really be done or not, at least everyone understands this truth.
When consumers' attention to new energy vehicles, from the most basic and generalized labels of endurance, safety and intelligence, began to evolve to more personality, diversity and rich demands, it also means that the competition of new energy vehicles is more returned to a car itself. Whether the car is a space for future mobility, a toy full of driving pleasure, or a way of life that represents poetry and distant places of life.
This is the future of electric vehicles, not range anxiety.
In fact, such a future, Audi has already described for us. As early as 2017, Audi launched the Aicon concept car, followed by AI: RACE, AI: ME and AI: TRAIL quattro, representing Audi's thinking on long-distance autonomous driving, high-performance sports cars, urban travel spaces and off-road scenes in the future of mobile travel.
When some people are still stacking batteries and some people are still telling stories in PPT, what Audi shows is already a complete reflection on mobility in the future era of electrification.
Like the Skysphere and Grandsphere concept cars launched in 2021, the first two models of the "sphere" series, they will be combined with the urbansphere launched this year to depict the prototype of the future and unlimited possibilities.
In this era of rapid change, just as it was difficult for anyone to think a year ago that new energy vehicles could bottom out, it is difficult for us to accurately judge what it will look like in ten years.
Change means uncertainty, but it also means new opportunities.
In the past few years, Audi has demonstrated imagination and possibility with seven concept cars, and is also laying out more electrified mass production models to accelerate the development of technologies for autonomous driving and vehicle-to-road collaboration. Relying on the four major platforms of MLB evo, MEB, J1 and PPE, Audi can also achieve rapid rollout of products according to market demand.
Juan Manuel Diaz, who is in charge of audi racing design, said of the design of the RS Q e-tron: "We have drawn many elements from the production model, such as the tilted rear body like the coupé, the side body panels like the quattro, the large mouth single-frame grille and so on. ”
Just like the RS Q e-tron was born from Audi, from the RS Q e-tron, you may also see what the future Audi looks like, whether it is the transplantation of technology or the inheritance of design concepts.
Write at the end
In fact, motorsport itself has always represented the spiritual power of a brand, while constantly innovating and verifying technology, feeding back the research and development of mass production vehicles. Just like 40 years ago, after the "Audi quattro" won two constructors' championships and two racing championships at the World Rally Championship, the quattro became Audi's unique label.
This time, bringing electric racing cars to the dakar arena not only means the courage to do things that have never been done before, but also Audi's determination to accelerate the electrification transformation, just like from 2026, Audi's new models launched in the global market will be fully switched to pure electric.
All Audi has to do is make the impossible possible.