Recently, many young people's friends have been planted by a domestic car that has not yet been listed, which is the first coupe UNI-V of the Changan gravitational sequence. Especially after the release of the official map, it caused a hot discussion on the Internet, and many netizens commented: "The design is on the road", "the shape is too cool", "China's performance car is coming!" Not long ago, the author preemptively experienced UNI-V, in addition to the super high appearance, whether it is power performance, intelligent experience, and control, etc., have left a deep impression. One media teacher's sentiment was impressive: "UNI-V is not simple, it represents the victory of Chinese brand architecture!" ”
Changan UNI-V is the first sedan under the Ark architecture, positioned as a 5-door hatchback compact coupe, using an exclusive coupe chassis, special blue whale power, Ark cage safety body, it can be seen that there is a very solid technical foundation. Among them, the biggest core advantage of Changan UNI-V is the Ark architecture it carries.
First there is an architecture, then there is a good car?
Anyone who knows a car knows the importance of platform architecture for a car.
At the beginning of the birth of the car, it was still a manual workshop production, and each car needed 728 man-hours, which was a world away from the production efficiency of a car that was now off the production line in a few minutes. Until the beginning of the 20th century, Ford brought "assembly line" production, the assembly of the whole vehicle was shortened to 90 minutes, and automobile production also entered the 2.0 era.
In 1970, Volkswagen for the first time put forward the concept of "platformization", platform production can be understood as different models in a set of shared production standards to upgrade and optimize, from the same platform of different vehicles have the same structural elements, such as door columns, fenders, roof contours, etc., to each general become the basis of packaging into blocks, new car research and development can be directly like a building block to achieve the assembly of each module, Volkswagen MQB platform is the representative of the vehicle platform production.
Through the MQB platform, the Volkswagen Group has unified more than 240 models from more than 100 plants in 22 countries and realized the exchange of parts worldwide. And can maximize the use of experience to improve the quality of operation, shorten the development cycle, reduce the production assembly time, greatly improve the production efficiency, reduce the cost of car manufacturing.
With the increase in the demand for product diversification in the automotive market, platform production is gradually less able to meet the growing demand for segmentation and individualization, because platform production covers a limited range of model levels, and if there is a template concept error, it will affect the production of the entire platform, so a more flexible and changeable structured production came into being.
If it is said that platform car manufacturing is the 3.0 era, then architecture car manufacturing is the 4.0 era, and entering the architecture represents the world-class advanced car-making process!
Compared with platform car manufacturing, architecture car manufacturing is more inclusive, involving a wider range of aspects, not only in product design, research and development, production has a set of optimized production system, but also has a new set of car manufacturing concepts, and the common rate of parts and technology between its models is also higher. It can provide shared solutions for the research and development of different models, so that the development of models can be selected from the list of shared solutions according to brand positioning, user positioning, and market positioning, and then do targeted research and development, which can be said to cover the whole process of a car company from research and development to manufacturing.
To put it simply, different platforms build cars, architecture cars are more diversified, and targeted research and development and follow-up can be carried out according to the needs of users, so as to create a car that users are satisfied with.
Looking at the global auto market, car companies that can independently develop and have architecture technology are very rare. Among them, Toyota can become one of the best-selling car companies in the world because of its unique TNGA architecture. In terms of independent brands, Changan Automobile released the Ark architecture in 2020, which not only announced that Changan Automobile broke the technical barriers of the industry, but also led its own brands to open the era of architecture car manufacturing. Most importantly, the Ark architecture demonstrates a lot of technological innovation and product potential beyond TNGA.
The "Three Most" of the Ark Structure
According to the official introduction, the Ark architecture is a basic modular platform that relies on the ability of intelligence and big data to realize the iterative evolution of the basic performance of the vehicle such as the body and chassis, and at the same time, the pre-layout of high-level automatic driving is equipped with a smart growth type of electronic and electrical architecture. Thanks to this, compared with the traditional platform car, the Ark architecture has an incomparable "three most", which is clearly reflected in Changan UNI-V.
"Most" powerful driving control performance
For Toyota's TNGA architecture, many people believe that its biggest improvement lies in the quality of driving. In the past, the problem of high-speed instability of Toyota vehicles has been complained about by everyone. So many people have a fixed impression of Japanese cars: Japanese cars can't run at high speed!
However, with the blessing of TNGA, Japanese cars have significantly improved in driving control, mainly due to the downward shift of its chassis center of gravity. Taking the new Corolla as an example, its overall center of gravity has been lowered by 20mm and the height has been reduced by 25mm, which also makes this generation of Corolla have a huge improvement in handling compared with the previous generation.
The improvement of the body counterweight of the Ark architecture is further than that of TNGA, taking UNI-V as an example, its vehicle center of gravity is longer and the previous generation of cars is reduced by 30mm, which is much lower than that of the twelfth generation Corolla. At the same time, the UNI-V's center of gravity has been shifted inward by 5 mm, which greatly improves its handling, roll stability and ride comfort.
In addition, the Changan UNI-V "short suspension long axle" body layout also improves the overall control of the vehicle. The same length, the greater the axle length ratio, the greater the front and rear wheel spans, the four wheels closer to the four corners, the body anti-tilt, better flexibility and high-speed stability when driving.
Not only that, as a new home sports model that focuses on sports style, Changan UNI-V is equipped with the only electric lifting tail wing in the same class. When the vehicle is moving, the rear wing can be automatically raised and lowered with the speed of the vehicle, and can also be controlled manually by physical/virtual buttons. When the rear wing is opened, it can provide 25kg of ultimate downforce and reduce the drag coefficient of 0.007, which not only increases the stability of the vehicle during driving, but also further reduces fuel consumption.
In addition to excellent control, in terms of performance, Changan UNI-V also came up with Changan's strongest technology! The new car is the first to be equipped with Blue Whale's new generation NE1.5T high-pressure direct injection engine, which has a maximum power of 138 kW and a peak torque of 300 N·m. It is reported that under the Ark architecture, the front engine compartment layout of Changan UNI-V can also be compatible with 2.0T and PHEV powertrains, and the follow-up Changan Automobile will also create more diversified product choices for users.
In addition to the power system we are familiar with, Changan UNI-V innovation introduces X-Pedal technology, covering 6 different use scenarios, calibrating 17 different driving conditions, and creating a driving pleasure in multiple scenarios. At the same time, the Blue Whale 7-speed DCT transmission responsible for the transmission also adopts integrated transient torque control technology and pre-retarding technology for the first time, which make the transmission system respond faster, shift gear faster, and drive more enjoyable.
It is worth mentioning that relying on the Ark architecture, Changan UNI-V is also equipped with DTV dynamic vector control technology for the first time, in the process of cornering, the DTV system can dynamically monitor the driver's intention at any time, accurately control the different torque output of the inner and outer wheels, and achieve faster cornering of the vehicle, more accurate cornering, and create excellent cornering performance.
It can be seen that as a sports coupe, Changan UNI-V is not only a sample of goods, but also has the advantage of crushing the same level in driving control under the empowerment of the Ark architecture.
"Most" strong security
UNI-V's refinement of handling and comfort is not only due to the improvement of the body counterweight, but also to the greatly increased rigidity of the vehicle, thanks to the Ark architecture's extensive use of high-strength steels and thermoformed steels.
In the body of UNI-V, high-strength steel and above account for up to 70%, and the highest rigidity reaches 1500MPa. Among them, many parts such as B-pillar reinforcements use thermoforming, and many parts such as sill beams use ultra-high strength steel. These are all cockpit frames, which can significantly improve the anti-deformation ability of the cockpit in the event of a collision, protect the occupants as much as possible, and increase the rigidity of the vehicle by 20%. At the same time, the upper body of UNI-V has been reduced by 31KG, and with the optimization of external covering sheet metal parts, the weight reduction of the whole vehicle has reached 6KG. This allows UNI-V to achieve a reduction in the weight of the vehicle and a reduction in fuel consumption while taking into account safety.
It should be known that the coverage ratio of high-strength steel and hot-formed steel used in the mainstream models on the market is mostly 60% or less, and the proportion of steel with a strength of more than 1300Mpa will not exceed 30%. This is largely related to cost, so it can be seen that the security of Changan UNI-V is not a stack of data, but a large cost, forged with real materials.
From the perspective of the hardware design of the UNI-V body, compared with Toyota TNGA, the representative of global architecture car manufacturing, the Changan Ark architecture has shown more advanced advantages. More notably, UNI-V's powerful body technology is not limited to hardware, but also has made a very forward-looking pre-design at the intelligent software level.
"The most" strong intelligence
Compared with pure electric vehicles, because of the mechanical structure, traditional fuel vehicles are obviously inferior to pure electric vehicles in terms of evolutionable intelligence, even Toyota TNGA models, can not achieve vehicle-level OTA, so they can not have updated intelligent functions, let alone upgrade to high-end intelligent driving.
The birth of the Changan Ark architecture can precisely meet the demands of fuel vehicles and hybrid vehicle consumers for intelligent travel. The Ark architecture supports the same centralized electronic and electrical architecture as Tesla, which allows UNI-V to have the ability of the vehicle OTA, and supports self-learning, self-growth of high-level intelligent functions and intelligent driving. This is also something that many traditional fuel vehicles do not have.
The triumph of Chinese brand structuring
It is thanks to the advantages of the Ark architecture in driving control, safety and intelligence, that UNI-V has obtained a heavy label at the beginning of its birth - 2021 China's top ten car bodies.
First of all, let's talk about this top ten body award. This is the European body congress and selection event initiated by European car companies and engineers at the end of the last century. In our Chinese market, there are also summits of the same level - the China Auto Safety and Body Conference (also known as the "China Body Conference") and the Top Ten Body Selection.
The Top 10 Body Selection will evaluate the body design of the latest autonomous and joint venture models on the market. It can be said that the professionalism of the selection and the fierce competition are that no one can get out of the right side of the China Body Conference. It is not easy for Changan UNI-V to stand out from many models, and this achievement is actually closely related to its cradle, the Ark architecture.
As a pioneer under the Ark architecture, UNI-V carries the new car-making concept of Changan Automobile's R&D 4.0 era, and is the proud carrier of Changan's long-standing car-making technology and technical strength. With excellent driving experience, excellent safety performance, and the unique evolvable intelligent advantages of the same level, UNI-V stands out among more than 20 big-name models, which not only shows the excellent technical strength of Changan Automobile, but also reflects the great progress of Chinese brands in the field of body design in recent years.
The people evaluate the car
Focusing on the Ark architecture itself, its emergence not only once again confirms Changan Automobile's strong technical research and development strength and heritage, but also represents the victory of Chinese brand architecture. With the blessing of the Ark architecture, Changan UNI-V has become the hottest model on the market before it is listed, which is enough to illustrate the success of the Ark architecture. Finally, warm tips, the current Changan UNI-V has begun to book, like the small partner to seize the time to book it, otherwise the future queue waiting time will be very long.