Relative to the mature overseas market, the off-road atmosphere of the domestic automobile market is not thick, and the proportion of off-road vehicles, sports cars and other models in the domestic market is relatively small, but in recent years, this situation has changed, with the continuous upgrading of consumer car purchase levels, in addition to the demand for daily transportation, there are also many car players. This can be seen from the explosion of the Great Wall's tank series, and also allows other brands to see the potential of this market. Some time ago, Dongfeng Motor announced that its M division was officially established, and will launch a new new energy brand M in 2022, positioning mainly high-end electric off-road brands. We are not unfamiliar with this operation of Dongfeng Motor, after all, the H business department was also established a few years ago, and then Lantu Automobile was released. However, Dongfeng Motor, which has always been in the low-end market in the passenger car field, wants to step into the high-end market through Dongfeng M this time, and compared with the steady development of tank 300 from fuel vehicles, Dongfeng M seems to be more eager to create a high-end electric off-road vehicle in one go. However, it is fortunate that Dongfeng Motor has many years of military background and manufacturing experience in hardcore off-road vehicles, so what kind of models can Dongfeng M launch this time?
Borrowing the "East Wind" of the Warriors to go to the high-end market?
For the first model to be launched by Dongfeng M Division, according to relevant information, the code name of this model is "M18", and it is based on Dongfeng Motor's new electric off-road vehicle platform MORV, and has begun to work on production planning. For the specific information of this model, refer to the official release of a 4S store renderings, its brand LOGO next to the obvious "Mammoth" word, so it is not difficult to infer that the future Dongfeng M Division wants to build a model, is the new energy version of the "Mammoth" series. It is worth noting that the Maverick is a classic SUV model of Dongfeng, as a high-mobility military off-road vehicle, its power performance and off-road performance naturally do not have to be doubted, have a very strong strength.
Following the listing of the first military-to-civilian model, the M50, the name of the pure electric version of the Warrior seems to be to use the "East Wind" of the Warrior to lay a good foundation for its brand image at the very beginning. In addition, considering the guidance price of the M50 of nearly 668,800 yuan, it is expected that the guidance price of the new energy Warrior series should also be around 600,000-700,000 yuan, and it can also be seen from its pricing that it wants to enter the high-end market, and even nearly half the price is nearly half the price of the hot-selling tank 300, directly targeting the target model at the GM Hummer EV and Toyota's new generation of land patrol and other high-end off-road models.
Dongfeng M is fighting a "prepared battle"?
Seeing the hot sales of the tank 300, you can know that for the off-road vehicle, creating a domineering appearance image of a tough guy seems to be the first step to attract people's hearts, then this point can be said to be a victory for Dongfeng M, after all, there is a military-level off-road vehicle warrior in hand, compared to the tank 300, the tough guy temperament must be more than enough. In the future, as long as the new energy version of the warrior continues to maintain the design of the military version and does not make unnecessary changes, it is presumably impossible to make mistakes in the shape design. Of course, since it is positioned as a high-end off-road vehicle brand, in addition to the basic tough guy temperament, its interior materials and the configuration on the car must be high enough to meet the level of 600,000 yuan of high-end cars.
As an off-road vehicle, of course, its power performance is also particularly important, in order to solve the power performance and endurance problems, it is expected that the Warrior series launched by Dongfeng M will be equipped with a set of extended range power system, from the perspective of use scenarios, it is basically the same as the traditional fuel off-road vehicle. In addition, the lack of acceleration power on fuel vehicles and the lack of ability to get rid of the four-wheel drive system can be solved by the power of the extended range. First of all, if you use a motor with greater power, then it is easy to obtain the power of thousands of horses, and it can also achieve zero hundred acceleration in a very short period of time; secondly, two sets of motors are arranged in the front and rear axles, and the front and rear drive motors are operated independently at the same time, which can achieve a real sense of full-time four-wheel drive, and the vehicle's ability to get out of trouble is naturally improved, and relative to pure electric models, the use of range extender power does not have to worry about endurance.
However, it is worth noting that new energy vehicles also have shortcomings. Among them, the stability of the battery is a relatively big challenge, after all, to create an off-road vehicle, it is natural to meet the vehicle in the field, facing the harsh driving environment such as puddles and mud roads, so there are high requirements for the wading and impact resistance of the battery. However, Lantu FREE has participated in many impact and wading tests before, and in the case of collision speed within 30km/h and wading depth of 600mm, LanduFREE's performance is relatively excellent. Then in this regard, Dongfeng Motor also has a certain technical accumulation.
Hybrid/pure electricity have strong enemies, so Dongfeng M uses extenders?
Although the launch of the new energy version of the Warrior can be said to have been prepared in advance in all aspects, it seems to be imperative, but the future listing of the Toyota Land Cruiser and GM Hummer EV and other competitive models also have a very strong strength. For the Toyota Land Cruiser, from the appearance alone, you may feel that this car is more inclined to the style of the family SUV, but under such an appearance, the Land Cruiser is equipped with 3.3T V6 diesel and 3.5T V6 gasoline two engines, the maximum power is 227kW and 305kW, the peak torque is 700N·m and 650N·m, the power performance is very strong, considering the strict emission standards, now can provide such a large displacement of hybrid models have been very few, Another match is the 10AT transmission, equipped with a full-time four-wheel drive system, and the zero-hundred acceleration time of the 3.5T model is only 6.7 seconds, which can even be compared with some small steel cannon cars.
If the Land Cruiser is a hybrid vehicle and does not overlap with the market of the new energy version of the Warrior, then the Hummer EV can be said to be the real opponent it needs to face. Although it is a pure electric model, the Hummer EV not only has a domineering tough guy's off-road appearance, but also the three power units equipped with power, the maximum output power can reach 842Ps, the peak torque reaches 15582 N·m, and the fastest can complete the acceleration of 0-100km/h in 3 seconds, which is unimaginable for fuel vehicles, the strength is very amazing, and its maximum mileage is more than 300 miles (about 483 kilometers). It can be seen that whether it is a hybrid version of the off-road vehicle, or a pure electric version of the off-road vehicle, there is already a strong opponent on the market, from this point of view, it is expected that Dongfeng M will also mainly make a fuss about power, after choosing to carry the extender power, although there is no need to worry about endurance, but its power performance and battery stability must also have excellent technology, in order to gain a firm foothold in the market.
Write at the end
The recent fire of tank 300, as well as the release of Toyota's new Land Cruiser, the listing of Hummer EV, etc. have attracted the attention of many consumers, and the market response is very good, which shows that the current domestic off-road vehicle market is still very promising, but there are few new energy version of off-road vehicles, and the high-end electric off-road vehicles prepared by the M Division can be said to have seized the opportunity. Of course, many other car companies have also targeted this piece of "fat meat", in addition to the new energy version of the Warriors to be launched by the Dongfeng M Division, BYD, Geely, etc. are also moving in the direction of hardcore off-road vehicles, and it seems that they have also begun to "roll up" in the off-road vehicle market. In general, in the independent brand of Dongfeng is relatively fast response, and itself has also accumulated a lot of hardcore off-road vehicle manufacturing experience, if you can cultivate in this market, give enough creativity and sincerity, I believe that the future new car listing is still worth our expectations.