Off-road and electric, when these two keywords come together, what do you first think of? Is it the endurance anxiety of electric vehicles, or the high fuel consumption of off-road vehicles?
Yes, although the audience group of electric vehicles has been greatly improved, it is undeniable that the vast majority of consumers still have a grudge against electric vehicles, with worrying retention rates and endurance anxieties everywhere.
And when these keywords are connected with the consumer demand of the off-road vehicle that indulges in the vast world and drives the dream of freedom, then this electric vehicle is really on the opposite side of the off-road vehicle.
Electricity is true love
However, the electric motor is the key to making the off-road vehicle better.
All our current anxieties about electric vehicles are actually based on anxiety about battery packs, and in fact, the core of electric vehicles is electric drive.
The electric drive thing is very interesting.
Compared with the traditional internal combustion engine power, the motor is fully liberalized in the dimension of energy source, its source can be battery, hydrogen energy, or even a gasoline or diesel engine.
The liberalization of energy sources has completely broken the configuration of traditional cars, and this breakthrough configuration change is the most fragrant place for electric vehicles.
How else, the current new power electric vehicles can easily achieve intelligent and high-level automatic driving? Configuration is key.
Back to the stubble of the buggy.
The traditional off-road vehicle configuration, or the traditional automobile configuration, its transmission system includes the engine, transmission, differential, main reducer, half shaft and so on.
The power output of the engine can only be completed by this series of complex mechanical transmissions to complete the drive of the vehicle. On this basis, the off-road vehicle has added a transfer case, an additional set of differentials, and two half-shafts.
Then, the thermal efficiency generated by the combustion of the internal combustion engine is not high, and after the loss of such a set of transmission system, it can be transmitted to the part of the wheel, which can be imagined - the loss of efficiency is multiplyed and superimposed.
The transmission efficiency of off-road vehicles will naturally be much lower than other models.
More complex transmission systems, in addition to reducing transmission efficiency, are derived from a significant increase in failure rates.
Especially for those off-road vehicles equipped with low-speed four-wheel drive, the pressure of the terminal transmission system after the deceleration and torque of the reducer and the transfer box is extremely huge.
Wranglers who have changed their large tires to twist the propeller shaft and half shaft into twists are very common in off-road circles.
The classic off-road vehicle of the Toyota series can stand in the industry because of the low failure rate of the traditional system.
Reliability is, to a large extent, a metaphysics. Now you know why most of the city SUVs are two-wheel drive.
The characteristics of the electric vehicle configuration lie in its output characteristics.
Compared with the changing characteristics of the internal combustion engine on the power curve, the most intuitive change in the electric motor driven vehicle is the characteristics of constant power and constant torque output, which makes the motor have the ability to directly drive, without starting the system and without the need for a gearbox.
Theoretically, it also avoids the emergence of clutching, shifting, transmission and so on in the powertrain system of traditional off-road vehicles. While costs have been drastically reduced, reliability has also been greatly improved.
In particular, the electric motor start is the characteristic of maximum torque, and for off-road vehicles, the advantages are far greater than the internal combustion engine.
Veteran players who have played unimog's off-road trucks know that at this stage, it is torque.
Of course, this is a long-term goal, but also a macro goal.
Electricity is power
The key to making the electric motor completely powerful is to solve the problem of range anxiety.
——The off-road vehicle itself is the carrier of poetry and far away, and the electric vehicle that runs not far is destined to be contrary to this demand.
So, what about the form of an internal combustion engine-driven electric motor? It just doesn't feel too good.
Jeep Wrangler has launched a 4Xe model, and the combined fuel consumption of 100 kilometers has been reduced to 10L per 100 kilometers on the basis of retaining the V8 power that it has been diligently pursuing.
In this way, all the policies and regulations that restrict the use of large-displacement internal combustion engines on off-road vehicles are broken in an instant.
Plug-in hybrid is a form that can really give a new lease of life to a large-displacement internal combustion engine.
At the same time, the construction of the electric motor and the internal combustion engine complement each other, which easily allows plug-in buggies such as the Jeep Wrangler 4Xe to obtain greater and more direct torque output.
It is no exaggeration to say that the driving experience brought about by this continuous and stable torque output is really much better than that of the traditionally powered Wrangler.
At this year's Dakar Rally, Audi's RS Q e-tron car made its debut and won three stages.
The high-torque direct drive advantage of the electric motor at the beginning of the race really allowed the off-road old guns to see the power of technology.
Although in the subsequent stages, Audi racing exposed the problem of reliability and durability, but the participation of electric vehicles in top off-road rally events is slowly getting better.
Audi's RS Q e-tron is an electric motor directly driven by a diesel engine. From a structural point of view, there is no difference in principle from the tandem hybrid used by the ideal One.
So having said so much, what should an electric drive SUV look like?
At this stage of the market and technical conditions, plug-in hybrid electric drive off-road vehicles are the most suitable for the current market demand.
On the one hand, the existence of the internal combustion engine allows the off-road vehicle to continue to retain the ability to pursue poetry and distance, while on the other hand, the existence of the electric motor has greatly improved the performance of the traditional off-road vehicle.
Of course, there is a core premise here, which is the structure of the hybrid system.
The traditional parallel hybrid because of the excessive emphasis on the driving role of the motor, so that the coupling of the motor and the engine is not so smooth, the series hybrid and because the traditional route is too single, the short board of the motor will be amplified.
In fact, that's the problem with the Audi RS Q-tron.
On the whole, hybrid hybrid will be a major direction - Toyota's new generation of off-road vehicles, will soon be hybridized.
In the long run, the wheel power opportunity is a major benefit beyond our imagination.
The power change brought by the high-power motor will be far beyond our imagination below the off-road vehicle, more direct power, more powerful reliability, and smaller space occupation rate will change the configuration of an off-road vehicle.
What do you think?