On March 2, Musk said on the social platform that Tesla has long been able to produce a Model S model with a range of about 960 kilometers, but he believes that the mileage is too high, and the battery carrying extra weight will make the acceleration, handling and other performance worse.
Musk wrote on the social platform: "Back 12 months ago, we could have produced a Model S with a range of 900 kilometers, but in my opinion, that would make the product worse, because in 99.9% of the cases, you would carry an extra weight battery, which would make acceleration, handling and efficiency worse." Even our 640 km range is more than everyone needs. ”
At the same time, Shen Hui, founder, chairman and CEO of WM Motor, said that WM will not do models with a mileage of 1000+ kilometers in the future, and the starting point is basically in line with Musk, mainly considering that the increase in battery packs brings side effects to the car, but it is a waste of resources.
There is no point in running too high
For this view, Volkswagen Group (China) CEO Feng Sihan also proposed that in the absence of a substantial breakthrough in battery technology, high-endurance electric vehicles need to be equipped with heavier batteries, so it is necessary to match extremely high-cost, lighter body, so that the cost of the whole vehicle will be higher and higher, so this is a vicious circle.
For Musk's remarks, netizens have different views. Some netizens said, "High endurance is meaningful in the extremely cold areas of the north, after all, the discounted endurance in winter is very painful." Some netizens also said, "It is meaningless to simply increase the battery capacity, but the 50 kWh battery can run 800 kilometers of course." Some netizens said, "The 500-kilometer mileage of electric vehicles is enough, but the premise is that it can be fully charged in 5 minutes." ”
Where there is an opinion, there is an opposite. In January last year, Gu Huinan, general manager of GAC Aean, said in a public place, "This year's 1,000-kilometer endurance car will definitely come out, fast charging is also definitely going to come out, 8 minutes full of 1,000 kilometers, theoretically it is OK." On January 5, 2022, GAC Aean fulfilled its original promise, and the AION LX Plus was listed, with a top cruising range of 1,008 kilometers.
At the beginning of this year, at the 2021 China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum, Ouyang Minggao's remarks on the 1,000-kilometer endurance of electric vehicles caused great concern in the industry.
At the communication meeting, it once again stressed that "I am not against a thousand kilometer endurance, as long as the market has demand, it is technically completely possible." But he believes that the 1,000-kilometer range may be more suitable for the luxury electric vehicle field.
It explains that after all, the cost of a thousand kilometers of endurance is relatively high, and it can only be a luxury SUV of this grade, with space for batteries, customers are willing to pay, etc., which is mainly market-driven product development.
A number of companies aim for a range of 1,000 kilometers
Many car companies have verbally refused, but their bodies are very honest.
In fact, more than a year ago, Musk said that Tesla was developing a battery that could last 621 miles (about 1,000 kilometers). But now, Musk doesn't seem to want to apply that to Tesla cars.
Since 2021, Tesla, Weilai, Zhiji, and GAC have all proposed the concept of 1,000 kilometers, of which the NIO ET7 model will launch a 1,000-kilometer endurance model at the end of this year, while another domestic car company, GAC, has launched a new AION LX PLUS at the beginning of this year, with CLTC working conditions lasting up to 1,008 kilometers, but the price is also as high as 459,600 yuan.
In 2022, the author's idea is that 700 km of endurance will gradually become the mainstream, and the 2022 Tang EV, Nezha S, BMW i7 and Volkswagen ID6X will all freeze the endurance at 700 km, which shows that improving endurance is still one of the ways for enterprises to enhance competition.
At this point, some voices pointed out that if electric vehicles blindly improve the endurance, under the current technical conditions, it means that the battery capacity should continue to increase, and the cost of the vehicle will naturally rise. But in fact, the increase in battery life and the increase in battery cost are not absolutely fixed, because the increase in battery weight will also consume the actual endurance of the vehicle.
From another perspective, if the "endurance anxiety" is converted into "charging anxiety", when the charging speed can be close to the refueling speed, and the charging pile network is comparable to the number of gas stations, the so-called mileage anxiety of electric vehicles will no longer exist.