Car stuff (public number: chedongxi)
The author | James
Edit the | Xiao Han
Huawei's deeply involved in the development of intelligent electric vehicles - AITO asked the world how to open the M5?
The answer is high performance, comfortable to drive, and very technological.
A few days ago, the car thing preemptively test-drove this extended-range electric vehicle with Huawei aura and high heat on the Beijing Kaixue Circuit, involving field test drive, track test ride, brakes, bumpy road surfaces and other subjects, and finally had a comprehensive understanding of the car from static to dynamic.
▲AITO AskIng Boundary M5
The Q&I M5 will be released by Huawei in late 2021. Because Huawei is deeply involved in the development of this model (and even involved in the design of the shape), and the car is also equipped with Huawei Hongmeng cockpit family barrel, it has received close attention from the outside world as soon as it was released.
Huawei believes that this car is very good in driving experience and intelligent experience, and has high hopes for it. According to Yu Chengdong, managing director of Huawei Huawei, CEO of terminal BG and smart car solution BU, the M5 of the extended range version plus the pure electric version of M5 to be released in 2022, as well as another medium and large SUV, the sales target of the AITO brand in 2022 is 300,000 units, which is equivalent to the average monthly sales of each car to reach nearly 10,000 units.
Considering that the extended-range version of the M5 is the first AITO model to be delivered, it can almost be assumed that Huawei's sales expectations for it must be over 10,000 per month.
For a new brand of new cars, this goal can be described as very aggressive.
After the release of the Q&A M5, the car thing experienced its Hongmeng cockpit for the first time, and the feeling at that time was that the on-board system was very smooth to use, no different from Huawei's tablet, and the seamless circulation between the mobile phone and the car machine also further improved the level of intelligence.
So what are the similarities and differences between its driving experience and the ideal ONE, the leader of extended-range electric vehicles, and tesla Model Y, the top brand of new energy SUVs? Can its quality support the pre-sale price of 280,000 yuan? In this snow test drive in Beijing, the car thing found the answer.
First, the performance is very strong, but the tuning is biased towards comfortable home
On the day of the test drive, the first snow of 2022 fell in Beijing, and the snow covered the track and test site. This is undoubtedly a big challenge for the Q&C M5: what is the driving performance of the wet and slippery road?
After entering the track, the M5 accelerated in sport mode. On the day of the test drive, due to the continuous snow, the road surface was relatively wet and slippery, but the acceleration performance of the Q&C M5 was not significantly attenuated, and the feeling of pushing back was strong.
▲Q&I M5
During the acceleration process, it can be felt that the force of the motor is not given to the foot at one time, but is gradually released to the wheel. Therefore, it is relatively comfortable even in the state of rapid acceleration, giving the driver and occupants the illusion that the actual acceleration performance is "not so fast".
▲AITO questioning M5 straight line acceleration
The drive unit of the M5 four-wheel drive performance model has a total of two motors, of which the front motor is an AC asynchronous motor with a maximum power of 165 kW (224 hp) and 420 N·m of torque, and the rear axle adopts a permanent magnet synchronous motor with a maximum of 150 kW (204 hp) of power and 300 N·m of torque. The electric drive system has a maximum power of 315 kW (428 hp) and a maximum torque of 720 N·m.
▲AITO asked for the M5 track
Compared with the ideal ONE and Tesla Model Y long-endurance version of the same level, the acceleration performance of the Q&I M5 is relatively close to that of the Model Y, but the logic of performance release is more like the ideal ONE.
In terms of braking performance, the M5 can quickly brake and stop on the slippery road, and there is no accidental slippage when re-stepping on the brake, and there is no direction shift, which can stabilize the braking stop.
▲The tail of the M5
Judging from the published parameters, the 100km/h braking distance of the Q&I M5 is less than 36 meters, which is better than the ideal ONE and Tesla Model Y.
In terms of steering feel, the direction control of the Q&A M5 is very precise, and there is no sense of hysteresis. In the serpentine pile-riding section, the Qention M5 can maintain a speed of more than 70km/h to pass, while the body is very stable. In the professional elk test, the M5 achieved a score of 75km/h, close to the Porsche Macan, surpassing the Tesla Model Y, BMW iX3 and other pure electric SUVs.
▲AITO Q&I M5 pile winding test (roof view)
In the emergency avoidance section, the test is the ability of the body stabilization system, and the Q&I M5 can also pass at a speed of more than 70km/h, and the direction is very controllable.
After these two subject tests in the venue, it can be clearly felt that the steering feel of the Q&I M5 is biased towards comfort, close to the feel of the ideal ONE, and is lighter than the Tesla Model Y. But there is a small regret that the steering force of the steering wheel cannot be adjusted. Especially in the intense track driving, it will feel lighter to steer and less sporty atmosphere.
This also means that the M5 car is more oriented towards home positioning.
During the intense driving of the track, if the rear wheel slips, the vehicle's stabilization system will intervene in time, so that the skidding time is controlled within half a second, and the driver's control is still very stable during the period.
A small detail was also found in the car stuff, and the front seating sensation was significantly better than that in the rear when driving intensely.
Analyzing the reasons for this, the car thing is believed to be the sports seat equipped with the front row of the M5. The sports seat wraps the occupants in the seat and still maintains a more upright sitting position when cornering. However, the overall seats in the rear are relatively flat, so when turning sideways, people will slide with the trend. At the same time, if driving intensely, the rear seat will also feel more sideways than the front row. Combining the above two reasons, it may lead to a significantly better front-row comfort of the Q&C M5.
▲AITO Q&A M5 Track Driving (Wheel Perspective)
In terms of sound insulation quality, the front and rear windows of the M5 are double-laminated glass, and Pirelli P ZERO high-performance silent tires are also selected. In the process of rapid acceleration, the front row can hear a weak motor sound, the rear row is basically insensitive; when driving at high speeds, the noise basically comes from the road noise, and the wind noise is suppressed very well.
Entering the test of the bumpy road section, the car tested the performance at 50km/h and 65km/h at two speeds, and the M5 had a good performance whether it was up or down, and there were very few aftershocks in the car. At the same time, when testing this section, it is also obvious that the front row ride is better than the back row.
▲Q&A M5 bumpy section test
During the driving process that day, the power of the M5 was relatively sufficient, and the range extender was not turned on throughout the process, so there was no more specific feeling for this four-cylinder range extender for the time being.
The M5 is equipped with a 1.5T four-cylinder engine (range extender). The range extender has a thermal efficiency of 41%, a power generation efficiency of 95%, and a maximum power of 75 kW.
It is worth noting that the M5 is the first model equipped with CTP moduleless batteries in the Ningde era, with an energy density of 200Wh/kg and a capacity of 40kWh. However, such a relatively large battery, its pure electric WLC endurance is only 150km, the comprehensive energy consumption is relatively high.
But fortunately, the M5 also has a range extender that can generate power and replenish energy at any time, and the full oil and full power WLC can last more than 1100km.
After half a day of testing, the M5 is a family model with high performance. Its relatively soft suspension and light steering feel are more domestic. At the same time, the M5 dual motor has a very strong performance performance, and even can compete with tesla Model Y, which can be said to have both performance and home attributes.
2. Integrate Huawei ecosystem with Bosch L2 system
Another major essence of the Q&C M5 can be felt from the time of getting on the car: that is, Huawei ecology.
On NFC-enabled phones, a digital car key can be bound, and the vehicle can be unlocked by simply holding the phone close to the left rearview mirror. This process does not require unlocking the phone, unlocking with a folding screen phone such as the Huawei P50 Pocket without expanding the phone screen, and the phone can be used for a period of time after the power is cut off.
▲Folding screen mobile phone unlock vehicle without unfolding the screen
Entering the car, the 15.6-inch central control screen is very eye-catching, its resolution is 1920 * 1080, and there is a 10.25-inch full LCD instrument in front of the driver. The central control screen has a built-in HarmonyOS 2 operating system, which is the first time that the Hongmeng cockpit has been put on the car.
▲The interior of the M5
From this previous trial, it can be found that the most intuitive feeling of Hongmeng smart cockpit to users is fast, and the feeling of using it is basically the same as that of Huawei tablet.
Different from the existing car machine, the home page of Hongmeng Cockpit is not a map commonly used by other car machine systems, but a desktop wallpaper + smart Dock, similar to the desktop of the computer.
▲Ask the boundary M5 car machine homepage
Huawei engineers learned that people may not use maps frequently in their daily travels, and will only use them if they walk unfamiliar roads, so it is more important to keep the desktop simple so that drivers will not be distracted.
In the M5's car-machine system, a large number of Huawei service ecosystems are also integrated.
The whole system can be bound to the Huawei account, the information in the account can be synchronized in the car, and the 3D camera on the left A pillar can recognize the face for security verification and protect the privacy of the driver.
In the service center, there are 15 service widgets, including weather, news, refueling and charging and other practical functions. These service widgets can be used with a direct click, and do not require download and installation.
In the application center, Huawei Music, Huawei Video, etc. also have a car version. It is worth noting that if the user purchases the audio and video membership benefits on the mobile phone, it can be used directly in the car without repeated purchases. In addition, Huawei Video has set up a 5.1 zone for cars, which can play 4K, HDR magic vision, and 5.1 channel video.
▲There is a lot of high-quality video content in the 5.1 zone
At the same time, in Huawei Music, there are also higher quality music resources, with a maximum support of 7.1 channels.
This is the first time that high-quality audio and video resources have been carried on the car.
Not only that, through the HUAWEI Sound audio in the Q&C M5 and the 15.6-inch screen, these contents can be better presented in front of the occupants in the car.
The owner can also circulate navigation and other information on the mobile phone and the car machine, and the positioning information on the mobile phone can be directly shared to the car and start navigating; after getting off the car, if there is unfinished navigation, the driver will re-enable navigation on the mobile phone.
▲The seamless flow of the HarmonyOS car machine
Huawei lets its ecology get on the car, that is, to bind more users in the automotive field. This step has been verified as feasible in the mobile phone industry before, and the head company has done it very successfully. Through HarmonyOS and Huawei's ecosystem, Q&I M5 has become an important member of Huawei's ecosystem.
As a smart car in 2022, autonomous driving must be one of its main intelligent technologies. However, in this regard, Huawei and Xilis are obviously more conservative, and do not use Huawei's self-developed ADS automatic driving system, but use a set of L2 level automatic driving systems provided by Bosch.
Huawei ADS is a more functional L2 level automatic driving system that can achieve point-to-point L2 level automatic driving in multiple scenarios such as urban roads and highways. The ordinary L2 level automatic driving system is mostly designed for highways, and urban roads cannot be used, which is also Huawei's housekeeping skills in the field of automatic driving.
However, the L2 level automatic driving system equipped in the M5 is relatively basic, which can realize the L2 level automatic driving of high-speed roads and urban expressways in single lanes, and has functions such as integrated cruise assistance system ICA and traffic congestion assistance TJA.
In terms of sensors, the L2 automatic driving system equipped with the M5 has a single sight camera, 3 millimeter wave radars, 4 surround view cameras, and 12 ultrasonic radars.
Among them, the single current sight camera is used for L2 automatic driving, which uses Bosch's third-generation driver assistance camera, the maximum detection angle can reach 100 degrees, and it has 2.6 million pixels. The millimeter-wave radar system is Bosch's fifth-generation millimeter-wave radar, with a maximum sensing distance of 210 meters and a maximum detection angle of 120 degrees.
Surround view cameras and ultrasonic radars are used in parking and surround view systems and do not participate in L2 level autonomous driving.
Since the test drive did not go public, its L2 level autonomous driving performance was not tested. However, from the perspective of hardware parameters, this system is not leading in 2022, and may become an intelligent configuration with the most compromises in the M5.
Conclusion: Huawei is seizing the high-end electric vehicle market
Compared with the competition Lyce Huawei Smart SF5, AITO Q&A M5 is significantly more high-end, and the top version of the model has entered the 300,000 yuan luxury car market. At the same time, the market competition entered by the M5 is relatively fierce, both the models of domestic new forces and the models of traditional joint venture luxury brands, and the competitive pressure of the M5 is very huge.
At the same time, the AITO brand also took advantage of the gap period when the electrification layout of the joint venture brand was backward, and it can also seize the market of the traditional luxury brand 300,000 yuan through its excellent product strength and better endurance than pure electric vehicles.
Huawei and the AITO brand are also aiming at the goal of 30,000 monthly sales, and winning more domestic users' choices with better product strength and more accurate positioning.