Xiaopeng Automobile's production workshop. Photo courtesy of Xiao Peng
BYD blade battery booth at the 130th Canton Fair. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Deng Hua
Huawei DriveONE all-in-one electric drive system. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhou Jiayi
The staff commissioned the sample car in Jidu. Set for illustration
How are China's new energy vehicles performing?
A few days ago, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released data: in 2021, China's new energy vehicle production and sales reached 3.545 million units and 3.521 million units, respectively, an increase of 1.6 times year-on-year, ranking first in the world for 7 consecutive years. In the whole year, 310,000 new energy vehicles were exported, an increase of more than 3 times year-on-year, exceeding the total historical cumulative exports.
"Mainland new energy vehicles have entered a new stage of accelerated development." Fu Bingfeng, executive vice president and secretary general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said that in 2021, the penetration rate of China's new energy vehicle market will reach 13.4%, 8 percentage points higher than that of the previous year. "The targets of 20% and 40% of the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in 2025 and 2030 are likely to be achieved ahead of schedule."
Behind the eye-catching report card, what is the core competitiveness of the rapid rise of China's new energy vehicles? What innovations have been made? How to respond to the changing competitive situation in the future?
Open up new battlefields with new technologies
"Domestic new energy vehicles are very mature, whether it is mileage, safety and comfort, or model design is excellent." Xiao Zhang, who lives in Changsha, Hunan Province, is planning to buy a car. "After discussing with my family several times, I basically decided to choose a Xiaopeng car."
Xiaopeng is one of the new forces of Internet car manufacturing in China. "In addition to the new car-making forces represented by Xiaopeng, Weilai and Ideal, the main body of New Energy Vehicle Manufacturing in China also includes traditional automobile manufacturing enterprises and cross-border enterprises represented by Baidu and Xiaomi." Chen Chuan, director of the energy-saving strategy research office of the low-carbon business department of China Automobile Data Co., Ltd., said.
The crowds compete for the deer, each with its own advantages. Traditional automobile manufacturing enterprises have deep R & D experience, complete sales system, over the years have accumulated a good market reputation, while maintaining the market share of fuel vehicles, but also in the field of new energy vehicles to exert efforts. The new forces of car manufacturing have seized the characteristics of intelligence, power exchange, increase in range, cost performance, etc., and occupied a place in the market. Cross-border enterprises have abundant capital reserves and strong software capabilities, ecological advantages and algorithm accumulation.
New energy vehicles are not only an important direction for the green development and low-carbon transformation of the global automotive industry, but also a strategic choice for the high-quality development of China's automotive industry.
"From the perspective of technical characteristics, the three major parts of traditional cars - engine, gearbox and chassis, we have a big gap compared with foreign car companies, in the highly market-oriented automobile industry, it is difficult to catch up in a short period of time." However, new energy vehicles are a new field, and the technical system has undergone great changes. This has brought a historic opportunity for China's new energy vehicles to catch up. Sun Chao, a researcher at the School of Machinery and Vehicles at Beijing Institute of Technology, believes that "this is essentially a road change development." ”
In the face of the opportunities of the new track, what innovative technologies have Chinese new energy automobile enterprises opened up?
Chen Chuan said that the technical requirements of new energy vehicles for traditional powertrains such as engines and transmissions have weakened, avoiding the weak links in the technological development of China's automobile industry, but opening up new tracks such as "three electric" parts and charging and replacing infrastructure. "Three electricity", that is, the battery, motor and electronic control of new energy vehicles.
Sun Chao believes that China's new energy vehicles have the potential to impact the world-class automobile industry cluster. Large-scale manufacturing capabilities and perfect industrial chain are the biggest core advantages, and the core technology of battery motor electronic control has made great progress.
For example, BYD, which has long been deeply engaged in power batteries and hybrid technology, has its own power electronic chip production capacity. In addition to the stylish appearance and reliable quality, the lithium iron phosphate "blade battery" technology with both safety and energy density has become a highlight.
"As a consumer, you don't understand the underlying technology, but you are definitely the most concerned about safety and reliability." Xiao Zhang's idea represents the demand of a large number of consumers for new energy vehicles. In addition to the appearance and configuration, the safety of the vehicle is basic.
Behind the high reliability and long life is the accumulation of countless tests that fully simulate various extreme use scenarios of consumers. OND's vehicle collision laboratory has also designed more experimental methods and means that are higher than the standard on the basis of meeting relevant standards. In addition to common crash tests such as front, side and rear-end collisions, more targeted safety tests are carried out on the complexity of road traffic and the characteristics of new energy vehicles, such as frontal impacts with a maximum speed of 120 km/h and small bias collisions with high difficulty.
According to industry standards, the vehicle life of 150,000 kilometers is enough to cover 90% of the user demand, and the design life of most high-end cars on the market is 300,000 kilometers, while the life target of BYD "Han" is set at 600,000 kilometers.
"Pain points such as mileage and safety have been greatly improved, the power battery has reached the world's advanced level overall, and the design and production of the dedicated chassis are ahead of the world." Chen Chuan said that China has successfully cultivated a number of giant enterprises in the field of key "three electricity" components. China's power battery has a large high-quality production capacity and rapid technology iteration, which has attracted a number of large multinational enterprises to cooperate at designated points in recent years.
"Advanced, reasonable, safe and innovative products." It has always been the most critical factor in the competition of new energy vehicles. Sun Chao said.
Differentiate with intelligence
In addition to deep ploughing in the field of energy and technology, the new forces and cross-border enterprises of China's new energy vehicles, avant-garde concepts and imaginative ideas, are drawing the blueprint of intelligent vehicles.
"The entry of Internet companies into the automotive field has promoted the integration and development of intelligent and networked new energy vehicles." Chen Chuan said. China's Internet giants have accumulated rich technology in software and hardware, and cultivated a large number of talents, which has become their magic weapon to enter the field of new energy vehicles.
For example, Huawei recently released the "ADS High-end Autonomous Driving Full-Stack Solution" to help high-end autonomous driving of auto brands such as Jihu, Avita, and AITO. Xiaomi made a high-profile announcement to build a car to create a car information ecology. Tencent, Baidu, Ali, etc. have also joined the car-making army as autonomous driving and intelligent cockpit OES.
"We define ourselves as a technology company, the car is only a mobile carrier of landing intelligence, we will make different attempts and explorations in other areas of three-dimensional intelligent travel." Li Pengcheng, vice president of Xiaopeng Automobile and general manager of brand public relations, said.
"Smart" is a strong cognitive label exported by Xiaopeng to the outside world, Xiaopeng believes that smart cars must have two engines, one is a pure electric drive physical engine, the other is a virtual engine for data operation, only the organic integration of the two can have a "good use" product experience. "This is also the fundamental reason why we have a differentiated experience with other traditional car companies and new brands, we are the first Chinese car brand to develop self-developed self-developed autonomous driving full-stack." Li Pengcheng said.
"NGP is based on Xiaopeng Motors' only two full-stack self-developed self-development, achieving higher scene coverage, lower manual takeover rate and higher lane change efficiency." The urban NGP will open some of the first urban roads in the first half of 2022. Li Pengcheng introduced that at the same time, Xiaopeng announced the design plan of the sixth generation of flying cars for the first time at the 1024 Science and Technology Day last year to explore the future of travel.
Jidu, an automotive robot startup initiated by Baidu Group and jointly invested by Geely Group, proposed the concept of "automotive robot". "Jidu is committed to the research and development and popularization of the world's top autonomous driving and human-computer interaction technologies, creating revolutionary automotive robots with emotions and intelligence, rather than just changing the form of energy." Luo Gang, head of jidu operations, said.
Luo Gang introduced to reporters that Jidu's auto robot not only has the ability to automatically drive, but also understands the user's emotions through the accurate recognition of human-vehicle interaction and speech semantics, so that cars and people can communicate naturally. Based on AI and big data, automotive robots can learn and iterate on their own, constantly learn the habits of user interaction, and continuously optimize various experiences of automatic driving and intelligent cockpits.
Based on Internet thinking, new forces and cross-border enterprises also have strong execution power in the development of new functions. "At the beginning of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, we have noticed that everyone is paying more and more attention to the environment in the car, and the high temperature and bacteriostatic in the car have become an urgent need. Therefore, the OTA system update was pushed, and the sterilization was realized through the vehicle air conditioner. Li Pengcheng said.
High temperature bacteriostatic effective circulation of the air in the car into the air conditioning for heating, the heating core in the air conditioning box will be heated to about 60 ° C through the air, and then blown to the car through the air outlet, lasting 60 minutes, the cycle repeats more than 100 times, in order to reduce the survival of germs in the air in the car. Li Pengcheng said that in order to respond to the demand, engineers pulled all resources, worked overtime and remote collaboration, shortened the research and development cycle of the entire function from 40 days to 14 days, and let the owner experience the most needed function at that time at the fastest speed.
Spell out a good future with good products
Thanks to policy support and huge market potential, China's new energy automobile enterprises actively innovate and seize development opportunities. But we must also be soberly aware that if we want to continue to lead the future, we still need to go to a higher level.
"The complete supply chain system of new energy vehicles is not yet stable, and in the core components such as automotive chips, the self-sufficiency of the whole industrial chain has not yet been formed." Chen Chuan said, "The market-side product structure still needs to be optimized, and the new energy vehicle market is still showing a 'dumbbell-like' distribution trend, with high-end and low-end products breaking out, but the performance of the mid-end market with a huge foundation is not satisfactory." The breakthrough in the mid-end market needs to be driven by many factors such as the decline in the cost of new energy vehicle products and the improvement of charging infrastructure, which still faces greater challenges in the short term. ”
At the same time, the battery performance of new energy vehicles is restricted by factors such as climate and temperature, and the lag in the construction of charging infrastructure caused by the uneven level of economic development also limits the promotion of new energy vehicles to a certain extent. Transitioning from policy-driven to market-driven, the entire industry needs to think about how to improve the profitability of products.
Chen Chuan believes that in terms of technological breakthroughs, it is necessary to focus on two directions: one is the direction of the three-electric system, continue to promote the performance improvement and cost reduction of power batteries, and strengthen the research and development and application of the integrated chassis of electric drive and the new electronic and electrical architecture technology; the second is the direction of intelligent networking, always pay attention to the subversive impact of automatic driving and intelligent cockpit technology on traditional cars, and at the same time solve the information security problems brought about by vehicle intelligence and networking.
Sun Chao believes that China's new energy automobile enterprises should continue to exert efforts in high-end technology, and take the initiative to take the lead in high-level automatic driving, high-efficiency electric drive systems, next-generation electronic and electrical architectures, and next-generation high-voltage platforms, rather than following up on research and development. We should patiently explore and answer where the innovative and disruptive technologies that will be useful in the future lie. While developing rapidly, it is still necessary to fight steadily and steadily. Accumulation is even more important before the safety of batteries and the problem of all-climate applications are completely solved. It's also important to recognize that global, future-proof design concepts and iconic elements can form a proud automotive culture.
"New energy subsidies are declining year by year, international market competition is intensifying, and there are higher standards and requirements for the hard power and product quality of domestic car companies, and Xiaopeng continues to strengthen the construction of research and development teams to support the research and development of more models and accelerate major technological innovation." Li Pengcheng said, "We let everyone understand the progress and logic of our product design through various dimensions of contacts, such as allowing some users to participate in the review of new cars, through a large number of data research, giving us sufficient feedback and suggestions, and creating products that directly hit the pain points of users." ”
China's new energy vehicle companies have also begun to "go global". Xiaopeng has R&D centers in Silicon Valley and San Diego. The P7 model has been officially launched in Norway since October 25, 2021, and will continue to improve the sales, delivery and service system in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands in the future.
Sun Chao said: "High-end technology continues to make breakthroughs, disruptive technologies take the initiative to lead, maintain a steady and steady development concept, and keep pace with the times of aesthetic understanding, these four points are crucial. ”