Nowadays, pickup trucks are accepted by more and more ordinary household consumers, thanks to the efforts made by all the companies that produce pickup trucks together in the direction of passenger and household use. When more companies notice this, they are all embarking on or intending to enter the pickup truck market, and this also includes many players who have achieved excellent results in the field of passenger cars and medium and heavy commercial vehicles, and BYD is one of them.
At the business annual meeting in early 2021, BYD announced its future model plans, in which pickup truck models will be unveiled in 2023. Until the end of last year, we saw BYD's pickup mule spy photos tested on the road, which also proved that BYD did not break its word and was putting the pickup truck into action. So what exactly will this car look like?
Biggest feature: power system
In that product planning chart, it can be seen that this electric pickup truck will have two power options of DM and EV, and in this way, BYD's first pickup truck is not necessarily pure electric, it may also be a DM hybrid model, which in my opinion has become its biggest feature.
First of all, at present, there is no new energy pickup truck in the real sense in China, and most of the pure electric pickup trucks are modified from traditional fuel models, which is often referred to as "oil to electricity". Although this way can achieve the purpose of launching a pure electric pickup truck in the short term, but this pickup truck in the overall design must have many shortcomings, such as the design of the battery position, the proportion of the counterweight of the vehicle, the weight of the car because of the suspension adjustment after the increase of the three electric system, the position of the motor, etc., the various designs of the oil-to-electric models are biased towards the internal combustion engine model, the so-called "compatible" pure electric is only in the removal of the engine after the "check for defects and fill in the gaps", in the limited design structure to find the most suitable structure.
The Dragon 7 is a pure electric version of the Kandi K32 in the United States
Judging from the bydir pickup truck's mule road test photos, this pickup truck will use a non-bearing body design, and BYD did not have a girder in the passenger car range before. This means that the chassis or platform of this car is completely based on hybrid and pure electric models. Since this is the case, it will certainly be more targeted in terms of chassis layout, including the consideration of battery position and suspension position, which is more suitable for the design purpose of new energy pickup trucks.
Secondly, BYD's hybrid and pure electric technology is second to none in the industry, especially the hybrid technology. In the current environment, all car companies are transitioning to new energy, and in order to avoid technical shortcomings, many companies directly work hard in the direction of pure electric, BYD is one of the few companies that are still painstakingly developing hybrid technology. In terms of the current technological development, hybrid technology will undoubtedly be an important force in the power of the car for a long time in the future; after the future pure electric technology is quite mature and developed, hybrid technology will still become a high-end power, just like the current status of mechanical watches in the watch industry, more value lies in its mechanical structure, the so-called rarity is precious. The sooner efforts are made in this regard and practical solutions are developed, the higher the status in the future.
Maybe you will say that there are many car companies that have hybrid models, what is the difference between BYD? When you really understand the hybrid system, you will find that there are actually more subdivided types in this subdivided power system, how the gasoline engine and the electric motor work together more efficiently, how to be more integrated is the ultimate goal of the hybrid system pursuit. At present, many hybrid systems have adopted P0's 48V light mix and P2's plug-in hybrid, mainly because these two methods are relatively easy to achieve, but in fact, these two hybrid systems are relatively primary, and the collaborative work efficiency is not high. BYD's DM-i hybrid system integrates the P1 and P3 engine and generator series parallel scheme, which can more efficiently integrate the two power outputs, and also ensure the cruising range in pure electric mode to a certain extent, as well as the power performance in high-speed conditions. All this is thanks to the electromechanical coupling unit officially known as the "EHS Electromix System". As long as there is this technical solution, BYD pickup trucks can develop in the direction of economic and fuel economy, but also extend to the direction of accelerated performance; both in the future, they can move towards tool pickups, and they can also start from playing home pickups.
Of course, in addition to the DM-i hybrid technology, BYD has other power reserves, such as the DM-p technology currently carried in Han, the hybrid system composed of engine and BSG motor, and the motor electronic control system of the rear axle, plus the intelligent electric four-wheel drive system, which can realize the hybrid four-wheel drive system, which has a comprehensive power of 321kW on BYD Han and a maximum torque of 650N·m, which is very sufficient even for pickup trucks.
Therefore, for BYD pickup trucks, the power system is its biggest feature, and it is also the aspect that BYD needs not worry about the least. What needs to be bothered by this company is the adjustment of the chassis, the positioning of the whole vehicle, and the needs of the market crowd.
Positioning: Home/Play Focus
In the current domestic pickup truck market, hybrid pickup trucks have not yet existed, pure electric pickup trucks are still in the stage of oil to electricity, so BYD's pickup truck is really a heavy new product in the new energy pickup truck market, if it can be quickly mass-produced, it is also the first model in the market segment. From the perspective of positioning analysis, this product is expected to be a pickup truck for home users and even fun orientation.
First of all, it is precisely because of the previous description that the biggest feature of this pickup truck is its power system. Its existence indicates that this car is not cost-effective. At this stage of the domestic pickup truck market, most consumers are still mainly commercial, so the performance of low price, easy maintenance, strong loading capacity and other partial tool direction is very important to everyone. Obviously, BYD's pickup truck uses a high-cost hybrid system, and the price will naturally not be equal to the tool pickup, so this pickup truck can also "only" be held high, bringing everyone a new high-end pickup truck feeling.
BYD pickup hatchback (Source: SugarDesign)
In recent years, due to the transformation of some enterprises, home and play pickup trucks have begun to enter the field of vision of passenger car consumers, the performance is stronger than one, timely four-wheel drive, tank U-turn, creep mode and other configurations that were often used in off-road vehicles continue to appear in pickups, so that pickup functions become more and more numerous, emphasizing the flagship significance of pickup trucks. Even the new pickup trucks in the US market on the other side of the ocean are moving towards a more powerful level, and skateboard chassis, crab patterns, hub motors, etc., are constantly breaking the "ceiling" of pickup trucks. Therefore, at this time, the launch of a pickup truck model that is biased towards tools has little significance for BYD, and how to make this model break through the siege and stand out is the company's goal. From this point of view, BYD pickup trucks also "must" do this. Of course, in the future, after gaining a firm foothold in the pickup truck market, it is not impossible to launch an affordable tool pickup, after all, a major feature of the DM-i hybrid system is energy saving and fuel saving, which is just in line with the pursuit of tool pickups, but the cost needs to be reduced.
Features: Works that consider the needs of users
Based on some of the above analyses, we can vaguely see several characteristics of BYD's pickup truck. First of all, since it adopts a hybrid/pure electric mode, the engine does not encroach on too much space in the entire vehicle, so it is very obvious that the car will definitely have more space left for the cockpit and cargo box. In the pure electric state, you can refer to the Ford F-150 pure electric pickup, Rivian R1T electric pickup, etc., the front load compartment, the side storage compartment of the cargo box, etc. can be designed, and the front end of the cockpit can also be designed more forward, giving passengers sufficient seating space. Even the DM hybrid model is expected to adopt the style of the front-mounted transverse engine, so there will be plenty of space behind the cockpit.
Hybrid or pure electric power will also bring very fast acceleration time to BYD pickup trucks. At present, domestic pickup trucks will not advertise how fast their acceleration is, after all, they all use internal combustion engines to do their work, but there are no large-displacement V6 and V8 engines, so waiting for the power of the four-cylinder small-displacement engine to erupt is like waiting for the next Spring Festival holiday. Hybrid pickups and electric pickups can reach the maximum torque value in an instant at the initial stage, and the acceleration of the vehicle will be very different from that of traditional fuel pickups. In addition, the performance of this power system in the highland area does not decay with the increase in altitude, and the power system is expected to bring a long range to the BYD pickup truck, which coincides with the needs of long-distance off-road players.
Then there is BYD's pickup Truck If you want to be a blockbuster, then the excellent features on its current passenger cars must also be able to continue to the pickup, such as a very good exterior design, a high-tech interior (especially the central control screen that can be rotated on some models), the meaning of Chinese atmosphere and so on.
Summary: From the initial announcement of the model plan, to the recent mule test spy photos, we can boldly guess what BYD's pickup truck will look like. But whether or not it ultimately matches our guesses, it will certainly be a different, distinctive model, and perhaps a pickup truck that will bring a new experience to consumers.