Don't do the fast things, just do the right things.
As in previous years, in the first week of 2022, las Vegas, the "casino city", once again welcomed the latest technology and imagination from all over the world.
On January 5, local time in the United States, the 2022 International Consumer Electronics Exhibition (CES) was officially opened. This exhibition, which was originally dominated by technology manufacturers, has begun to have the momentum of being occupied by car companies in recent years.
By 2022, the counterattack of traditional car companies will be more aggressive. Without exception, the keywords are closely related to "electric" and "smart". What can be seen is that more and more electric vehicles are being redesigned, and more and more ways of using cars are being rethought.
But GM seems to be thinking more, and it is transforming from a traditional automaker to a platform innovator. At the CES show, GM released the pure electric pickup card Chevrolet Sorod (Silverado EV), and brought the Pure Electric Autonomous Driving Concept Car Inner Space of the Cadillac Halo Concept Series, and also released the software platform Ultifi.
In fact, land is just one part of GM's travel map, in the past, GM has released the Electric Vertical Take-off and Landing Aircraft (Personal Space VTOL), LRV Lunar Rover, FLXdrive train, and also acquired a 25% stake in Pure Watercraft, a startup that produces electric outboard motors, and GM's territory has gradually begun to dabble in the ocean, railroad, sky, and even the universe.
"Big changes often come from sparks, from an idea that breaks the mold." Julian Blissett, global executive vice president of GM and president of GM China, said. Perhaps, the Aoteneng pure electric platform is that flame.
For GM, this is an era of both opportunities and challenges.
The first card of boldness
In the smart electric vehicle market in 2022, it is difficult to define an electric vehicle.
In the eyes of car companies that still adhere to the "oil to electricity" route, electric vehicles are just a means of transportation that converts the driving force from fuel to electricity. In the eyes of radical new players, this is a smart terminal that contains massive amounts of data, and a carrier of all new technologies.
But there are still participants who have jumped out of this thinking, in their view: an electric car is first and foremost a "car", but it is not just a car.
GM has already handed over such an answer sheet.
On November 17, 2021, SAIC-GM brought the first cadillac LYRIQ, a native luxury pure electric medium and large SUV based on the Aoteneng pure electric platform, which opened pre-sale for 439,700 yuan and will be officially delivered in mid-2022.
Inheriting Cadillac's usual luxurious style, LYRIQ follows the diamond-cut and angular design language, with a body of over 5 meters long and a wheelbase of more than 3 meters. The car is also equipped with a 33-inch ring curtain super retina curved screen, while equipped with a new generation of VIP intelligent electronic architecture and a new VCS intelligent cockpit system, coupled with a new generation of Super Cruise super assist driving system, adding a lot of intelligent genes to the luxury.
Source: General Motors
In addition to luxury and intelligence, the word "safe" also flows in the DNA of universal people.
You know, although the number of new product layers of smart electric vehicles is not endless, new entrants are constantly using new technologies to refresh the upper limit of intelligence, which are often placed under the spotlight to earn eyeballs.
But in fact, the audience's "safety" concerns about smart electric vehicles have not been completely solved, and these two words are the most essential and critical elements of a car.
On the Cadillac LYRIQ model, the "safety" underpinning comes from the Ultium Aotene electric vehicle platform.
At this stage, the battery is still the biggest safety concern of consumers, you know, all intelligent experiences will be dissipated in the face of a fire event, the audience's confidence in electric vehicles to build up again to the bottom.
To this end, for the battery, Aotene electric vehicle platform has chosen a more stringent safety test standard, it has undergone acupuncture experiments, anti-squeeze experiments and anti-fall experiments, and are tested and verified by 2-3 times the international requirements; the safety and stability requirements for the state of the battery after thermal failure reach more than 50 minutes, far exceeding the international safety standards, so as to improve the safety of the battery from the source.
An even more disruptive design is that the Aoteneng EV platform eliminates the complex and lengthy cables in electric vehicles and instead uses a battery management system (wBMS) that utilizes wireless connectivity.
Why is this design disruptive? Because in electric vehicles, cables are usually used to manage cells and battery modules collaboratively, playing the role of the nervous system, but at the same time, these cables also invisibly increase the weight of the battery pack, and can only sacrifice the mileage to make way.
But in the wBMS of the Aoteneng electric vehicle platform, 90% of the wiring harnesses and plugs disappear in the car, and this part of the space can accommodate more batteries, and the vehicle's mileage will also increase. Most critically, this wireless design reduces the failure rate caused by aging plugs and cables, and improves the safety of the system.
Further, wBMS makes the interior space of Aoteneng's electric vehicle platform more flexible, and there are more options for future battery technology. At present, the Aoteneng platform can be adapted to lithium iron phosphate and ternary lithium batteries, and in the future, when lithium metal batteries and solid-state batteries become the mainstream, the Aoteneng platform can also switch in a timely manner.
Source: SAIC-GM
For the heart of electric vehicles - "three electric system", Aoteneng electric vehicle platform to achieve 100% of the battery cell DRC (DC internal resistance) detection, which allows the Aoteneng platform to achieve the unification of cell quality, reduce short boards.
At the same time, Aoteneng platform also holds the intelligent monitoring system, nano-scale aerospace material aerogel, safety valve and exhaust channel patent design, anti-tension arc design, integrated fully independent liquid cooling system, aerogel fire blanket seven-fold technical protection, effectively isolating the heat between the cells.
In the outermost physical structure, Aoteneng electric vehicle platform adopts a "well" structure, composed of 37.5% ultra-high-strength steel and about 61% high-strength steel, and the anti-extrusion ability has reached three times the requirements of the national standard. Really make electric vehicles stronger.
In the process of making cars more intelligent, the scope of "safety" is also expanding.
As technology continues to evolve, the contours of autonomous driving have become clearer. But like battery safety, all the beautiful blueprints drawn by autonomous driving will be broken by one in ten thousand accidents.
Therefore, in the aggressive and restrained, GM chose the latter. Cadillac LYRIQ is equipped with a new generation of Super Cruise super assisted driving system, including triple perception support - millimeter wave radar, camera, high-precision map. The assisted driving function will only be activated when all three guarantees are turned on.
The full chain is in place
The Aotene electric vehicle platform is the flame of great change, and "the Chinese market is a key force driving the electrification of GM," Bai Li said at the CES media news conference.
The current Chinese new energy vehicle market is in full swing, just ended in 2021, China's new energy vehicle market achieved sales of 3.521 million vehicles, an increase of 1.6 times year-on-year, the seventh year to sit firmly in the position of the world's largest new energy vehicle market.
Marie Bora, chairman and CEO of GM, also said on the occasion of GM's new corporate logo in 2021: "The Chinese market is the world's largest automotive market, as well as a global innovation center and a frontier in the development and application of electric intelligent connected vehicles. ”
It can be seen from the name "Aoteneng" - this is the first traditional car company to give Chinese name to the intelligent pure electric platform, which not only conveys GM's determination to electrification transformation, but also indicates that GM is about to show its skills in the Chinese market.
Before SAIC-GM played the first card of LYRIQ, the whole chain of new energy system behind it has also been built and improved, and it knows a truth: it is more important to walk steadily than fast.
In April 2021, SAIC-GM announced its electrification and intelligent networking strategy, which is expected to invest more than 50 billion yuan by 2025, and will launch more than 10 domestic new energy models based on Aoteneng's electric vehicle platform, covering its three major brands and multiple categories and market segments.
One of the most important layouts in the 50 billion yuan is the Aoteneng Gigafactory. On October 15, 2021, SAIC-GM Aoteneng Super Factory was officially put into operation in Jinqiao, Pudong New Area, Shanghai, with a planned product line covering a full range of new energy vehicle battery systems such as light hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and pure electric. It can be said that this plant supports SAIC-GM's product planning for the next three years.
Aoteneng Gigafactory can be said to take advantage of localization to the extreme. According to official information, the Aoteneng electric vehicle platform currently achieves more than 95% of the local procurement of parts, you know, Tesla's Shanghai gigafactory parts localization rate has reached 90%, only this parts of the process of close to 90% localization rate, has been able to support Model 3 in 3 years to achieve 5 price cuts.
The localization of 95% of the parts procurement of Aoteneng Gigafactory means that SAIC-GM has a higher right to make profits in the price of future products, and the products will also have price advantages.
In the past, whether it is a traditional foreign capital or a joint venture car company, so far, there are few successful precedents in the process of transformation to intelligent electric vehicles. On the one hand, it is because its previous generation of products mainly came from the oil to electricity platform, and the second is that the degree of intelligence cannot keep up with the needs of China's Internet generation.
But SAIC-GM wants to break that stereotype. In the early stage of platform development, the Aotene platform injected in-depth insights and thinking into Chinese consumers. The Pan-Asia Technology Center in Shanghai has been involved in the development of this platform from start to finish, and to some extent, the products built on the Aoteneng electric vehicle platform will be more in line with the needs of Chinese users.
In the Chinese market, SAIC-GM also has an industry-renowned test site, which was built in 2012 and has previously been the largest and most well-equipped test site in China.
You know, due to the large footprint and complex requirements, the test drive has always been a scarce resource. The "test" occupies a large part of the vehicle's research and development cycle, whether it is a new model or a model replacement part, it needs to be tested and verified at the test site.
For SAIC-GM, the existence of the Guangde Proving Ground has saved it from the situation of "buying tickets in line", which will greatly shorten the development cycle of the vehicle.
After having the guarantee of the whole chain, SAIC-GM introduced the first pure electric model in the domestic market based on the Aoteneng electric vehicle platform, cadillac LYRIQ, which also followed the development logic of a smart electric vehicle from beginning to end. In terms of marketing model, Cadillac LYRIQ will also move closer to the new era.
As of January 15, Cadillac has opened 11 "Cadillac IQ Spaces" in 7 cities in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Zhengzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chengdu. In the next six months, the Cadillac brand also plans to open 10 new "Cadillac IQ Spaces" in key cities. This means that Cadillac is gradually adapting to the new way of thinking of the new energy vehicle market and users, and orderly promoting its innovative marketing model of "co-creation-symbiosis-integration".
Whether it is the automotive industry or others, public opinion likes to compare the "back wave" and the "front wave". Compared with the new forces that are light without baggage, the turnaround of traditional OEMs is not so light. But these historical experiences also tell them not to do what is fast, but only to do the right thing.
Whether it is the strength of the product or the full chain empowerment behind it, Cadillac LYRIQ has sounded the "rallying call", and SAIC-GM is ready.