In 2021, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in the mainland increased by more than 160% year-on-year, and the sales volume reached 3.52 million units, ranking first in the world, and the new car-making forces such as Xiaopeng, Ideal and Weilai performed well.
Ideal founder Li Xiang
Delivered a speech at the 2022 China Electric Vehicle 100 Conference
"The development of new energy vehicles is a typical lane change overtaking." Recently, Miao Wei, deputy director of the Economic Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said at the 8th China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum.
"Lane change overtaking" has two meanings for the mainland automobile industry: the strong breakthrough of new energy vehicles has narrowed the gap with the world; the technical path of new energy diversification (extended range electric, hybrid, pure electricity) is not problematic, which is in line with the vision of double carbon targets and market demand.
Market sales explain everything, in 2021, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in the mainland increased by more than 160% year-on-year, and the sales volume reached 3.52 million units, ranking first in the world, and the new car-making forces such as Xiaopeng, Ideal, and Weilai performed brightly.
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Transformation of the mainland automobile industry
What path is required?
In 2021, the European new energy vehicle market also performed well, with sales reaching 2.338 million units, an increase of 66% year-on-year. It is worth noting that the market penetration rate of new energy vehicles in Europe has reached 16.5%, higher than the mainland's 13.4%.
To this end, under the vision of green and low-carbon development, the mainland still needs to clearly examine the future of the automotive industry.
"Promote the comprehensive market-oriented development of new energy vehicles, make positive contributions to the transformation and upgrading of the automobile industry, and achieve the goal of 'double carbon'." Wan Gang, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology, said at the Forum of the 100 Electric Vehicles Association.
The next critical decade will ultimately determine the competitive quality of the entire track of China's automobile industry.
Li Xiang, founder of Ideal Auto, pointed out at the Electric Vehicle 100 Forum: "How do consumers view the new energy vehicle market? The two most important cores: What do the first people need? What does the second government need? These two together, the automobile industry can develop healthily in the long run. ”
At the government level, the state vigorously advocates new energy vehicles, including strategic considerations such as climate and energy, as well as consideration of the concept of green development.
China has committed to actively address climate change and strive to achieve carbon peaking by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. New energy vehicles will play an important role in the process of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality.
An average carbon emission per kilometer of an ordinary fuel vehicle is 241.9 grams, while a pure electric vehicle is only 146.5 grams, reducing carbon emissions by about 40%, according to the Ministry of Public Security data, by the end of 2021, the number of new energy vehicles is 7.84 million, based on a car driving 20,000 kilometers per year, a year can reduce carbon emissions by 15 million tons.
The future is very clear. Whether it is the central or local governments, they have spared no effort to support the infrastructure construction of new energy vehicles such as charging piles, and have continuously introduced incentive policies; whether it is traditional car companies or new car-making forces, they are constantly in line with national strategies and needs, and help achieve carbon reduction goals from multiple angles such as realization paths and technical routes.
Specific to the technical path, with the "extended range" technical solution officially entered the "New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021-2035)", it means that the extended range electric (hybrid) and pure electric will be parallel for a long time, this idea is to accelerate the large-scale replacement of fuel vehicles with new energy, and realize the best route combination for Chinese brands to surpass overseas brands.
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What cars do consumers want?
The answer to the ideal car
Still back to the question that Li wanted to raise in his speech at the forum, what kind of car do the people need?
On the list of new car-making forces in 2021, Ideal Auto achieved annual sales of 91,310 vehicles with the ideal ONE product, an increase of 172.67% year-on-year, and in the market strategy of other new forces and multiple products, this good report card of the ideal has a lot to think about.
Yang Yusheng, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, believes that the fuel saving of the extender car under mixed conditions is much higher than that of the plug-in hybrid vehicle, because the internal combustion engine has a small power and generates electricity under the best working conditions (the best fuel consumption point), which can save more than 50% of fuel. The most important thing is that this kind of car can completely rely on ground charging stations, which is greatly convenient for users.
"Range extender" is actually not difficult to understand, the literal meaning is to increase the range of electric vehicles. Compared with pure electric vehicles, the main difference is that there is an extra range extender.
Taking the ideal ONE as an example, when driving in the urban area, using pure electric mode, the ideal ONE can provide a pure electric endurance of 188KM, there is no difference with pure electric vehicles, and it can also meet the daily commuting of the city; if it is long-distance, when the battery energy is insufficient, the range extender will use the traditional fuel engine as a "charging treasure" to charge the vehicle battery, which can quickly replenish energy, and there is no burden on the far door.
Ideal ONE extended range electric system ▲
"It is precisely because it meets the needs of users, so the ideal ONE has also performed very well in the market in the past. Putting all electric vehicles, fuel vehicles, and PHEV together, we have achieved the first place in the past year that medium and large SUVs are far ahead, and it is also one of the few cars in China with more than 300,000 vehicles to achieve monthly sales of more than 10,000 bicycles, which is the recognition of the real market of users. Lee wanted to say.
In line with the needs of users' convenient car use, in line with cost needs, in line with environmental protection needs, range-extending electric vehicles are being recognized and accepted by more and more people. Academician Yang Yusheng has repeatedly said in public that "range extender cars are really energy-saving", and his reasons are mainly three points: the safety of range extenders is high, which is determined by the small amount of batteries used in range extenders, and the parallel system composed of range extenders and batteries; high thermal efficiency, because the speed of the internal combustion engine is adjusted in the narrow range of the most energy-saving; the energy recovery of the brake and downhill processes can save 15% to 20% of fuel.
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Dongfeng and Huawei joined,
The range-extended track can be expected in the future
The path of augmentation, which is constantly questioned, makes Li want to go through.
"Zengcheng electric vehicle is a direction given by the National Development and Reform Commission at that time to a new energy industry, in the early days of the real on this road to try very few companies, the past few years have been ideal." With the development of these years, people like Dongfeng and Huawei have also begun to launch extended range electric vehicles. Lee wanted to say.
From a technical point of view, at the beginning of the birth of the ideal car, if you want to build a medium-sized SUV with a price of more than 300,000 yuan and a range of more than 500km, the advantages of pure electric technology compared to range extender technology are not so large. On the contrary, range extender technology is the only best option that can achieve these technical indicators of the ideal car.
Li wants to insist that range-extended electric vehicles are more energy efficient in urban congestion and have lower average carbon emissions. "Until disruptive innovation and industrialization of power battery technology, range-extender technology products can give consumers more choice."
Another important reason for Li to stick to it is that its planned 150-kilometer pure electric endurance can cover all mainstream large cities in the world, which is in line with the concept of carbon reduction development. According to the actual results of the operation of the ideal car in the past two years, in the major cities such as beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, the proportion of pure electric mileage of ideal car owners has reached an average of 70%, and the proportion of pure electric driving time has exceeded 80%. At present, from the perspective of the car side, the carbon emissions of the ideal car can be reduced by 65% nationwide and 76% in the city.
Six-seat space - family outing ▲
For extended-range electric vehicles, Academician Yang Yusheng believes that such vehicles are the easiest to market. At present, following the ideal pace, domestic car companies such as Dongfeng, Huawei, Tianji Automobile, and Ziyoujia are making efforts in this market. In the future, the power of range-extended electric vehicles will be even stronger. Ideal hopes to work with the industry to firmly continue the route of extended-range electric vehicles.
"Through a new generation of range-extended technology and a new intelligent way of operation, we are very confident that in the city to reduce carbon emissions from the past by 76% and strive to reduce more than 90%, very happy to see that more and more enterprises are also doing the same way, in the past PHEV is 50 or 60 kilometers, today a large number of PHEVs to achieve 150 kilometers, 200 kilometers (the ideal L9 battery life will reach more than 200km), which is a very effective technical route." Lee wanted to say.