Image source @ Visual China
Text | XEV Institute, author | Bruce, edited by | Si Yan
"Extended range car, buy or not buy, how to buy?"
If the automotive industry is compared to the jianghu gate school, fuel vehicles are the leaders, pure electric vehicles are the master brothers waiting for succession, and the extended range electric vehicles are the "ghost talent" brothers who are not valued every day, but can turn the tide at key moments.
If you want to find out the true identity of the "extender", you may be able to get close to the truth after answering seven questions.
These issues are:
Why are range-extended electric vehicles on the rise at this time?
Some extender electric vehicle models have achieved a monthly sales of more than 10,000, what exactly is the range increase?
In the range extender scheme, the engine uses three or four cylinders, and what is the difference between self-development or purchasing a generator?
The existing extended range electric vehicle, is it a technological innovation, or is the old tune a heavy bullet?
When buying a range-extended electric vehicle, what are the core indicators to look at?
In addition to the extender, the hybrid technology with better performance is also strong in the market, who to choose?
Will the range increase become a transitional product, and will there be any range extended electric vehicles after the popularity of pure electric vehicles?
This article will try to answer these questions one by one.
01 From rise, deprecation to revival
Range-extending technology first appeared in 1900, after the electric car Lohner-Porsche was built by Ferdinand Porsche, it was equipped with a fuel engine, thus creating the world's first extended-range electric vehicle.
However, in the more than a hundred years since then, fuel vehicles have become popular, and Porsche, like other car companies, has launched one classic fuel model after another.
Until 2010, based on the consideration of the energy revolution, countries once again tried to launch new energy vehicles powered by electricity, and thus the scale of the extended range appeared for the first time.
The United States and Europe were the first to start car companies to launch range-extended electric vehicles.
In 2010, GM's Chevrolet Volt extended range version was launched in North America, becoming the world's first mass-produced range-extended electric vehicle, and a year later, the car was introduced to the Chinese market.
A few years later, GM launched the Buick VELITE 5 extended range version.
Another car giant, BMW, introduced the BMW i3 extended version to the Chinese market in 2013.
The three representative range extender electric vehicles ended without exception and were discontinued.
First, the BMW i3 and Buick VELITE 5 models were discontinued due to poor sales. Later, in 2019, although more than 100,000 vehicles were sold in the US market, the Chevrolet Volt extended range version could not escape the fate of discontinuation.
After a few years of silence, the second revival of range extenders was around 2014, when a wave of new energy vehicles emerged in China, and the technology of range extenders was picked up again.
Now "Wei Xiaoli", at that time, two chose the pure electric vehicle technology route, and the other ideal is to start from the "range extender" technology.
An ideal car insider told the XEV Institute, "We have been pre-developing the extended range route and program at the beginning of our establishment, and in the extended range plan, the ideal car has been adding both in terms of personnel scale and capital investment. Up to now, more than 200 people are engaged in the research and development of extended range and power drive. ”
The ideal ONE with range extender as the power solution focuses on "no range anxiety", and the cruising range can exceed 1000 km. Combined with product points such as space, seats, and intelligence, the ideal ONE eventually became a blockbuster car with monthly sales of more than 10,000 units at the level of 300,000 yuan.
Since then, more domestic car companies have begun to develop range-extended electric vehicles.
Dongfeng Holdings' Lantu Free, Huawei's AITO Q&AO M5 has been released, and more models such as Nezha S, Zero Run C11/C01, Xilis SF7, Niuchuang Ziyoujia NV and other models have plans to launch an extended range version.
At this point, the range extender technology has entered the center of the stage of the market, which has attracted many people to want to find out.
02 The nature of the extender
Range extender is a series scheme, which is composed of an engine, a generator, and a GCU generator controller assembly, and then a power system is composed of a range extender, a power battery, and a drive motor.
When the vehicle is running, the engine first powers the power battery, starts the range extender, and then supplies the drive motor with the electric energy emitted by the range extender, so that the vehicle can run normally, and the excess electrical energy continues to charge the power battery.
In the whole process, the engine is equivalent to the "charging treasure" that drives the motor.
Range-extending technology can provide a longer range for vehicles, thus making up for the short-range of pure electric vehicles.
Specific to the range extender scheme of each car company, it is different.
GM Buick VELITE 5 is equipped with a 1.5L direct injection engine, two sets of drive motors and a ternary lithium battery, with a pure electric cruising range of 116 kilometers.
The BMW i3 is equipped with a 0.6L twin-cylinder gasoline engine to assist the output of the electric motor, and the maximum cruising range will reach 300 kilometers, nearly double that of the electric version of the i3.
Ideal ONE's next-generation range extender was developed in collaboration with Dongan Power and features a 1.2T three-cylinder engine and an efficient generator.
The second-generation range extender, which has just been released, uses a 1.5T four-cylinder engine and a generator from Honeycomb Energy, which is developed by self-research and established a range extender joint venture with Xinchen Power for production.
In the range extender solution of Landu Free, a 1.5T four-cylinder engine is used, and the generator is developed by the in-house forward direction.
In theory, the weight of the three-cylinder engine is smaller than that of the four-cylinder, and the structural size is relatively small, which is beneficial to the vehicle. However, the four-cylinder engine also has its own advantages.
The four-cylinder engine has a natural smooth operation compared to the three-cylinder engine, and the comfort of the whole vehicle is better during use.
Although the current three-cylinder engine can add a special balancing mechanism to optimize the smoothness of the engine, once the smooth operation is destroyed, its own unbalanced characteristics will aggravate the instability of operation, which will bring more serious damage to the engine.
The low market acceptance has a lot to do with this feature to some extent.
An industry insider engaged in power system research and development told the XEV Institute that from the personal experience of car owners, three-cylinder engines are not as good as four-cylinder engines. The three-cylinder engine has its own disadvantages, the cylinder body needs to rotate 720 degrees for a week, and the four-cylinder is 180 degrees, which means that the three-cylinder engine must have some unstable points.
If you want to buy a extended range car, you can look at some key indicators.
Industry insiders in the above-mentioned power system research and development said that the main role of the range extender is to charge the vehicle, so the charging efficiency is the core indicator for judging the strength of an extended range electric vehicle.
Charging efficiency directly affects power, NVH, fuel consumption, jitter, and smoothness in the feed state.
To do a good job of a range extender, the core is to generate electricity through the generator, and the only function of the engine is to transmit kinetic energy for the generator and convert it through the generator. The energy conversion efficiency of the generator, and the coupling between the engine and the engine, are particularly important and represent the efficiency of the energy conversion of the range extender.
It is worth noting that range-extending technology also faces some industry controversy.
03 "Obsolete", or is it really innovative?
In the eyes of some traditional Autobots, the range increase is actually not "sexy" enough. In the early days, the extender technology was ridiculed as "taking off the pants and farting", and the drawbacks of the extender were also discussed from time to time.
By the time of the 2021 Chengdu Auto Show, a battle over the air will push the range extension to a climax.
Feng Sihan, CEO of Volkswagen Group China, said at the time, "From the perspective of bicycles, range-extended electric vehicles have certain value. But from the point of view of the whole country and the planet, it is nonsense and the worst solution. The ultimate goal of developing electric vehicles is to reduce carbon emissions, but if it is to burn fossil fuels to generate electricity, it is not necessary to do so. "
Then, Wiedermann, head of Volkswagen Group's China R&D department, added, "Even for single cars, range-extended electric vehicles do not mean much, we were studying the feasibility of range-extended electric vehicles a few years ago, and now we are discussing this technology is completely outdated." "
In this regard, the ideal car that started with a range increase quickly responded, and expressed its willingness to use the ideal ONE and the Audi Q7 PHEV version of the Volkswagen Group for comparative testing, making a real contest of energy saving and environmental protection.
The ideal dares to challenge the public, perhaps because the extended range has certain advantages over plug-in hybrid technology itself.
An industry insider told the XEV Institute, "In the process of using range extender vehicles, because the working conditions of the range extender are decoupled from the driving conditions of the whole vehicle, the range extender can be kept working in the optimal efficiency range; plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, whose total operating conditions are related to the driving conditions of the vehicle, can only be kept within a certain range to maintain their operation in the optimal efficiency range, and other cases will run in the lower efficiency area, so that the overall efficiency becomes lower." ”
The clash has not yet spoken, and the range-extending technology itself has been fogged down.
An insider engaged in the development of range-extended electric vehicles told the XEV Institute, "Frankly, the current range-extending solutions, as well as the technology of GM and BMW, are all tandem solutions and have not made much progress." It is nothing more than to make the battery bigger, the pure electric mileage has become longer, and it can meet the urban driving of two to three charges a week. ”
However, from the perspective of car companies and users, the range extender technology is definitely not an old tunes, and it is constantly improving.
For example, the generator independently developed by Landu Free is a special generator based on the range extender system, which can ensure that the maximum possible coincidence level can be achieved in the efficient revolution range and the efficient revolution range of the engine. The maximum power generation can be adjusted to 80 kilowatts, high-performance power generation requirements, even in the case of feeding, Landu Free's zero hundred acceleration can be maintained in the 6 second range, can guarantee a comfortable driving experience in different road conditions.
Huawei's flagship AITO Q&I M5 is equipped with HUAWEI DriveONE pure electric drive range extender platform, which can provide supercar power with up to 4 seconds of acceleration from 100 km /h and a cruising range of 1242 km under CLTC conditions, achieving ultra-low energy consumption under the premise of ensuring extreme performance.
The ideal L9 released this month is equipped with a fully developed second-generation extended range electric system, with a 44.5kWh battery pack, which can achieve an endurance of 1315 kilometers and a battery life of 215 kilometers. After the release of the Ideal L9, the above-mentioned Ideal Car insiders told the XEV Institute that Ideal will continue to increase human and financial investment in the self-developed range extender, and continue to develop and upgrade the range extender.
Behind the debate around the range extender in car companies, the regulator's view of the range extender is also quietly changing.
In December 2018, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the Regulations on the Administration of Investment in the Automobile Industry, in which conventional fuel vehicles, ordinary hybrid vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles are listed as fuel vehicle investment projects in the classification of vehicle investment projects. Extended-range electric vehicles are listed as pure electric vehicle investment projects together with pure electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles.
However, in January 2022, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other three departments adjusted the technical requirements for energy-saving and new energy vehicle products that enjoy preferential vehicle and vessel tax incentives. At this time, the pure electric mileage of plug-in hybrid (including range extender) passenger vehicles should meet the conditional equivalent full electric mileage of not less than 43 kilometers.
Today, range extenders and plug-in hybrids are one.
"In the future, it will no longer emphasize that the ideal ONE is the concept of 'extended range electric vehicle', from now on, the ideal ONE is a plug-in hybrid vehicle, which is good for users, for us, for the media." Li wanted to say at a media briefing.
In his Weibo, all the words "extenders" have now been deleted.
04 In addition to the extended range, more hybrid technology is coming
Shortly after the clash between the ideal and volkswagen, another car brand spoke out, pointing to the ideal range extension.
At the beginning of March this year, Qiao Xinyu, chief marketing officer of Weipai, bluntly said on his personal Weibo that the ideal extender was not as good as Weipai's two-stop DHT hybrid new energy technology.
He explained in detail the range extender technology of the ideal ONE and the technology of the Mocha DHT-PHEV. The conclusion is that Mocha DHT's hybrid technology can better reduce fuel consumption.
Which technology is stronger?
Essentially, the extended range is a tandem system and the DHT is a parallel system. The XEV Institute found an answer from an insider working on range extender technology.
The above-mentioned person said that in theory, the technical threshold of parallel is higher. However, because the parallel control is relatively complex and the structural parts are more than the series, there are more foreign patent technical barriers that need to be avoided in the development process, and the development difficulty is relatively high, which is bound to lead to a large increase in development costs and development cycles. In addition, the cost of hardware will increase accordingly due to the large number of structural parts, and the cost of the whole vehicle will increase a lot in the end.
In fact, the parallel system stability and the use efficiency of the system has no obvious advantages; the series in this piece and parallel opposite, the actual use of the process of its overall stability, better than the parallel connection and the system use efficiency is not worse than the parallel connection, there is a great advantage in cost.
Based on national conditions, the use of range extender series type can create a high-quality and inexpensive car.
Different manufacturers have their own different advantages, series and parallel exist at the same time, called mixed, indicating that the extender has its obvious advantages, otherwise these manufacturers will only use the parallel mode, directly discard the series mode.
Each company launches a series of parallel joint use, certainly has its own considerations, but from the structural principle, there will be some control difficulties and cost increases, which will bring customers an increase in purchase costs and subsequent maintenance costs.
Fairly speaking, the technical strength of the hybrid is stronger, but the technical cost of the extender is relatively lower. In the face of models with different technical routes on the market, users also need to combine other major car demand points to make a judgment.
05 or will coexist with pure electric vehicles for a long time
The last question is, how long can the extended range electric vehicle exist, and will the hot extended range electric vehicle re-follow the discontinued old road of the general Chevrolet Volt, Buick VELITE 5, and BMW i3 extended range version?
The XEV Research Institute found from the survey of the three car companies of Ideal, Lantu and Nezha that everyone's attitude towards the extender is very firm.
The view of many industry insiders is that within a certain period of time, the development of pure electric vehicles will still be limited by the mileage, battery cost, energy replenishment convenience and efficiency; based on the broad market potential of new energy vehicles and the diversification of user needs, range-extending electric vehicles will develop in parallel with pure electric vehicles in the future for a long time.
Regardless of the fact that the range extender electric vehicle Ideal ONE has become a blockbuster car with a monthly sales of more than 10,000, Lantu Free has sold 6791 vehicles so far, accounting for 80% of the total sales of 6791 vehicles.
A Nezha automobile insider told the XEV Research Institute that from the perspective of user demand, especially for the first-time users, the only user in the family, some user communities can not install charging piles, but they want to enjoy the economy brought by the tram, and the increase in the program has solved this problem better.
In addition, in the first-tier city holidays have long-distance travel and return to the hometown demand, coupled with the current charging pile infrastructure gradually improved, but high-speed charging queues have become a new pain point for tram users holidays, some users want to completely get rid of charging and mileage anxiety, the increaser can be freely selected power supply mode due to the flexible form of power, taking into account the urban commuting and long-distance travel, which can make the user's use scenarios more flexible.
According to the survey results of a number of institutions, the two biggest concerns of current customers buying pure electric vehicles are the inconvenience of charging and the mileage. In order to eliminate the pain points of the needs of this part of the user, some car companies have begun to launch two versions of range extension and pure electricity. According to the prediction of third-party research institutions for the future passenger car market, the sales volume and proportion of new energy vehicles will continue to rise, and the increased range electric vehicles will have obvious advantages for the struggle and conversion of fuel vehicle users, and for users with charging inconvenience and mileage concerns.
After penetrating the technical fog of the extender, some people see the "simplicity" of the technical solution, and some people see the car company's concern about the user's endurance pain points.
In any case, the new Autobots have been or are conducting positive research and development around the range extender technology, and the future of a school, in addition to the master brother of pure electric vehicles, it is not bad to leave a ghost master and disciple of the extender.