In the past two years, the domestic hybrid system has blossomed, BYD Great Wall Chery Geely has launched its own hybrid system, these hybrid systems without exception, from the structural point of view, are dual motor series parallel hybrid system, in driving smoothness, power loss fuel consumption, power performance, have shown a very good strength. At the same time, European car companies are almost still using the structurally backward hybrid system, whether it is energy consumption performance or driving smoothness, it is not as good as domestic hybrid.
So the question is, why are European car companies like Volkswagen, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz inferior to domestic hybrid systems in terms of hybrid system performance?
The main architecture of the hybrid system of European car companies
The hybrid of European car companies is currently based on P0~P4 configuration, especially P0 and P2 architecture. The 48V light hybrid system is a typical P0 architecture, while the plug-in hybrid system of Volkswagen and BMW is the classic representative of the P2 architecture.
But whether it is P0 or P2 architecture, are relatively backward hybrid architecture, to P2 hybrid as an example, this hybrid system, the motor is located between the engine and the gearbox, located behind the clutch, is the european car companies use the most hybrid structure, this hybrid system compatibility is relatively strong, the structure is relatively simple, strong power.
But at the same time, it can not achieve series drive, it is the only one in all hybrid configurations that still needs a gearbox, increasing energy loss, so its feed fuel consumption and driving smoothness, are generally expressed, commonly known as, "there is a dragon with electricity, a worm without electricity." ”
In contrast, the two-motor series parallel hybrid used in the domestic hybrid system is undoubtedly much stronger. Fuel economy is not mentioned, it is completely crushed, and the advantages of the previous P2 structure in terms of power performance can also be compensated by stronger engine output and higher power motors, Mocha PHEV and BYD's DM-P models, both of which can achieve zero hundred acceleration within 5 seconds.
There are several reasons why European hybrid technology is lagging behind
Some people say that it is because the hybrid patents are in the hands of Japanese car companies, if it is because of patent restrictions, whether it is the patent of Paice or the THS hybrid patent of Toyota Motor, it has expired, and it has cleared the way for other car companies to adopt this hybrid structure.
If it is because European car companies do not have such technical strength, it is even more unreliable, I believe that with the strength of these old car companies in Europe, a high thermal efficiency Atkinson cycle engine can definitely be built, and high-power motors and batteries can be purchased from suppliers.
I think that the reason why European car companies have not adopted such hybrid technology is as follows:
1. Cost control problems
After the emergence of BYD DM-i hybrid, many people think that it is not so difficult to create a hybrid system with cheap and low fuel consumption, but it can be seen from the pricing of Weipai hybrid models that the cost control problem of the hybrid system is not so simple, and BYD hybrid can sell well, nor can it be summarized by a simple first-mover advantage.
And European car companies, in the field of parallel hybrid systems do not have much technology accumulation, at this time to turn around and develop such hybrid systems, it is certainly able to mass production, but in terms of cost, I am afraid it is difficult to compete with domestic car companies. Spending a lot of effort to study products that are destined to be popular, Volkswagen BMW Mercedes-Benz and so on is not much interested.
2. National conditions
As we all know, European car companies in the local main sales of the model, to diesel models, these models themselves are not high fuel consumption, coupled with the main research and development direction of European car companies is a small displacement turbocharged engine, and plug-in hybrid system, is only the Product of European car companies in order to cope with emission policies, compromise, and Bosch for European car companies to provide a complete set of plug-in hybrid solutions, this hybrid system, for the internal combustion engine power volume density requirements are high, just suitable for turbocharged engines, in addition, this parallel hybrid system architecture, Strong power, fast speed, can be charged to achieve pure electric driving, but also in line with the needs of Europeans, so European car companies focus on parallel hybrid systems. (Europe also has tandem hybrids, this has the opportunity to talk again)
For series or series parallel hybrid systems, European car companies do not have much interest.
3. Electrification transformation problem
As we said before, European car companies and Japanese car companies, in fact, in the 90s, in terms of high-performance engines, Japanese car companies even overpowered German car companies, but then there were two times in the road choice to part ways, took two completely different roads.
The first time was under the increasingly stringent emission policy, European car companies turned to small displacement turbocharged engines to reduce fuel consumption by reducing displacement, while Japanese car companies turned to improving engine thermal efficiency and reducing fuel consumption by improving thermal efficiency. Since then, although the two routes have crossed, in the beginning, European car companies and Japanese car companies did choose this way.
The second time is under the wave of electrification, Japanese car companies in the short term, the hybrid model as the main force, that the internal combustion engine will not be eliminated so quickly. It is a strategy of jogging in small steps, from pure fuel vehicles, to hybrid vehicles, to pure electric or hydrogen fuel vehicles.
European car companies believe that hybrid is only a transitional product and will not exist for too long, hoping to directly transition from the era of fuel vehicles to the era of pure electricity. Behind this there are also Factors that European car companies are unwilling to give up their huge dominant position in the field of internal combustion engines. It adopts a large stride strategy, squeezing the internal combustion engine to the extreme, and then stepping into pure electric vehicles.
The difference between the two technical routes has led to the emergence of European cars, the technical accumulation in the field of hybrid is not strong enough, the willingness to develop is not large enough, and even the domestic car is surpassed. The hybrid system of European cars is relatively backward, and the hybrid system of Japanese cars is more expensive, which is where the opportunity for domestic cars lies.
At present, hybrid models may continue to shine for at least the next 10 years, but what will happen in these 10 years? The real rise of domestic cars in these 10 years is not necessarily impossible.