"The Voice of the Champion", "Honda Dafa is Good", "VTEC is the best" these anecdotes are the epitome of thousands of fans' recognition of Honda's internal combustion engine. With the advent of the electric era, the giant with the world's largest sales volume of internal combustion engines has ushered in another business.
In 2021, Honda launched its electrification strategy for the Chinese market with a new electric brand e:N, opening a new chapter in the transformation of electrification. The protagonist of this article - Dongfeng Honda e:NS1, is honda's first pure electric model in China...
动态 — e:WILL ROCK YOU
Before the test drive, the Dongfeng Honda engineers in charge of the development of the e:NS1 vehicle expressed their vision many times: "Not only hope to build an electric vehicle, but also aim to create an electric model with Honda-style driving control characteristics." This is also why Dongfeng Honda specially put the preemptive test drive of e:NS1 on the Zhuhai International Circuit, hoping that media teachers can intuitively feel its driving pleasure. So, what are the Honda-style driving control features? How is it reflected in a pure electric SUV?
Looking back on the experience on the Civic, the author believes that the integration of people and vehicles is the best summary of the Honda-style driving control characteristics.
204 hp, 310 N·m torque drives the front wheels, delivering less than 8 seconds of 0-100kph acceleration time. Although there is no performance tram's brutal acceleration sensation, the honda SUV that drives it is still brisk and active. The difficulty of the tram power unit is never the peak force or instantaneous reaction, but the optimization of the acceleration characteristics. The force is too fast, the vehicle is rushing, abrupt, making people nervous; the force is too slow, it seems that the vehicle is weak, which makes people disappointed.
In order to make the three-electric system better communicate the driver's intentions and keep the power of the motor highly consistent with the driver's needs, the e:NS1 motor control system takes into account the scene algorithm of more than 20,000 power requests, which is 40 times that of the traditional electric model. This makes the acceleration of the vehicle more linear, allowing the driver to do as he pleases, making the occupant comfortable and reducing the feeling of vertigo.
In terms of handling, although electric SUVs generally weigh more and have a higher center of gravity, the e:NS1 still gives people a pleasant feeling to drive. In order to take care of comfort, the e:NS1's shock absorber has not been adjusted to a hard and purely sporty style, and you can still feel the normal proportions of the body's roll and pitch when accelerating, braking, and steering. However, the movement scale of these bodies is appropriate, which does not affect the confidence and stability brought by the chassis at all.
The information conveyed by the vehicle is real and rich, like a sincere friend, telling you everything that is happening and telling you what it can do and what it can't do. With this information, the driver can adjust the driving rhythm to achieve the ideal invigorating driving. I think that this kind of sincere driving characteristics that can bring the driver's human-vehicle unity regardless of body structure and energy form is the Honda-style driving control feature.
Of course, not everything is familiar with the recipe for the oil truck. In addition to maintaining the family-style driving characteristics of the driving characteristics, the electric e:NS1 also brings a smooth and quiet, full of weight of the daily driving experience. The steering machine gives solid feedback, lacks the faint vibration of the internal combustion engine, and is more textured.
At the same time, Dongfeng Honda provides e:NS1 with a sci-fi Sense Honda EV Sound simulation sound wave, which not only allows the auditory and somatic senses to interact with the sense of acceleration, further reduces the feeling of vertigo when accelerating, but also brings the driver the pleasant taste of the light sci-fi sense of the tram era.
Vision – Heritage and Innovation
In the electric era, "new forces" brands are imaginative in design, flaunting themselves, and doing whatever it takes to make people remember their appearance in the vast sea of cars. Traditional established car companies such as Honda must find the best balance between inheriting classics and pioneering innovation when doing styling design. Conservative to the left, play to the right, the author thinks that the e:NS1 scale is just right.
e:NS1 is built using Honda's new design language "e:N Design" concept. The clean body lines distinguish them from Honda's traditional fuel vehicles on sale through clever face design, and with temperament headlights similar to the new Civic, continue to convey the simple and capable Japanese style of Honda in the new era.
Specific to the details, the e:N series adopts a flat luminous "H" logo, and the tail replaces the original logo with a spread out "Honda" letter.
Thanks to the characteristics of the tram, e:NS1 no longer needs to skeletonize the air mesh to dissipate heat, and Honda has ingeniously hidden the fast/slow charging port inside the cover plate of the front logo, and the cover switch process is not only rich in the spirituality of the mecha, but also the light interaction on the upper edge can also display the charging status, continuing to enhance the exclusive sense of technology for tram players.
E: The body size of the NS1 is 4390/1790/1560mm, and the wheelbase is 2610mm, which is slightly larger than its own popular fuel SUV, XR-V. The author believes that e:NS1 adopts such a size, which belongs to the home positioning that takes into account practicality and high cost performance, and believes that the future is also based on impulse and word of mouth as the first priority.
Interior — Surpass yourself
If e: NS1 styling design is cool and clean. Well, in the interior performance, especially in the technology configuration, e:NS1 can be said to achieve self-transcendence.
The double large screen design is in line with the mainstream thinking of the current electric vehicle, and the 10.25-inch full LCD instrument panel adopts the tram interface design, which clearly displays the mileage, power consumption and other main driving information.
The eye-catching 15.2-inch central control screen, combined with the streaming media rearview mirror above, together create a sense of technology for trams. The entire instrument panel and even the front door panels are flat and straight, supplemented by horizontally extended blue mood lights, creating a simple and bright incoming inductance. The innovative knob of the outwind mode also reminds you that it is a partner from the new era.
It is worth mentioning that this pair of 15.2-inch central control vertical screen can be described as "a big deal". Dongfeng Honda has prepared a pure electric special version of honda CONNECT 3.0 system, which integrates a series of intelligent technology configurations such as real-life level voice interaction, car-home interconnection, OTA online upgrade, and energy management.
The functional partition is also clear and clear, the upper part mainly integrates navigation, entertainment and other functions; the middle part is used to control vehicle settings, application expansion, mobile phone interconnection and other functions; the bottom is heated seats and air conditioning control with PM2.5 filtering function. The entire touch screen operation is smooth and responsive, and the image after touch is combined with the sound feedback to optimize the interaction. The physical buttons are retained on the important functions of safety, such as double flashing and front and rear window heating.
Finally, mention the ride space. Honda as a "space magician", MM design concept is still implemented in e:NS1. This time, in addition to the abundant storage space, ample rear space and the changeable trunk. Dongfeng Honda also brings significantly softer seat settings, so that front and rear users can travel in a refreshing and comfortable way.
summary
Many readers may not know that among the e:NS1 car names, e represents power and electric energy, N represents new and evolved, and Dongfeng Honda's exclusive "S" is not only Spirit, but also represents the challenge spirit of Dongfeng Honda to accelerate the transformation of electrification and is committed to creating new value, and is interpreted as Dongfeng Honda's brand world view "Stay ahead".
In the face of the new energy wave, Honda has taken an important first step in the electrification transformation in China through e:NS1. The competition in the future will be fierce, but looking back at the story of Honda's entry into F1 and the 2021 F1 finale battle just past, isn't the challenge spirit of never accepting defeat the most exciting point of Honda?