Written by | Chu Yunwen
The Audi A6 seems to have a unique emotion for the Chinese people, and can even be said to be one of the most successful C-class sedans ever built in China; the word Avant is not unfamiliar to people who love "crock pots", and the beauty of the station wagon has captured everyone; as for the e-tron, it represents Audi's exploration of electrification.
When the three come together, the A6 Avant e-tron, a pure electric concept car that Audi showed us in March this year.
In the eyes of many consumers, Audi is a brand that pays more attention to technology, especially the concept car, always bringing some novel ideas, such as RSQ in "I, Robot", or Skysphere with variable wheelbase, I have to sigh at the designer's brain hole.
However, the Audi A6 Avant e-tron concept is not among them, its goal is not to earn gimmicks, mass production is its goal. This is the first time that the A6 Avant was electrocuted since it was first born in 1977, and perhaps in the near future, it will be a pure electric crock pot with the purest pedigree.
According to the official statement, we can understand this car in this way, which shows the final form of the future A6 Avant e-tron. Low wind resistance, sports car attitude, these things I actually don't care too much, I am interested in what is the progress and highlights of this car in electric technology.
The e-tron is the first model launched by Audi after the electrification, for Audi, they think that the e-tron is a successful model, but placed in the domestic market, the price of more than 500,000, the endurance of up to 500 kilometers, such data for consumers Obviously this car is not the best choice.
As for the A6 Avant e-tron concept, the 700 km WLTP standard has obviously made great progress, and the 800V high-voltage system and 270 kW fast charging capacity also allow it to travel about 300 km after charging at the fast charging station for 10 minutes.
This requires mentioning Audi's PPE pure electric platform, at present Audi has planned pure electric products under 3 platforms, e-tron GT under the J1 platform, Q4 e-tron under the MEB platform, and A6e-tron concept and A6 Avant e-tron concept based on the PPE platform.
Among them, the MEB platform is more like serving basic users, in the official planning of Audi, the products of the MEB platform are lower than the J1 platform and the PPE platform in terms of body size, product performance, and price.
As for the e-tron GT, which uses the J1 platform with the Porsche Tycan, it is actually a product that establishes a brand posture and style, and has little commonality with the pure electric products consumed by the daily public.
At this time, you will find that Audi's electrification platform has a disconnected phenomenon, pure electric products for the middle and low end are obviously not in line with the positioning of the brand, and the products of the J1 platform will place factors such as price at a height that is difficult for ordinary consumers to reach, and the products are too focused on high performance.
PPE platform is obviously to fill the missing gap, ppE platform full name Premium Platform Electric, meaning Audi high-end electric platform, is under the leadership of Audi and Porsche jointly developed a modular technical architecture, the first batch of Audi production vehicles based on the PPE platform will begin to be available in 2023.
PPE platform is not the evolution of the MEB platform, this is actually the downward expansion of the J1 platform, if you look at the platform architecture bandwidth given by Audi, you will see that the J1 platform and the PPE platform are mostly in an overlapping state, and ahead of MEB, which has the longest mileage of the product will come from the PPE platform.
The battery size and wheelbase of PPE platform products can be expanded, which is also a feature of many pure electric platforms, and it is easier to launch different market segments in the future, but Audi announced that products from the PPE platform will always have the characteristics of short front suspension long wheelbase, and with higher level tire specifications to enhance visual beauty.
Since there is no need for mechanical parts such as transmissions and drive shafts, the interior space of the vehicle may be larger than that of the fuel version, although there is no transmission shaft, but the quattro system will be installed in the form of electric four-wheel drive, Audi named it e-quattro, through the front and rear axles equipped with independent motors to achieve on-demand distribution of traction.
In addition, the platform can create high ground clearance SUVs and more flat structure sports cars without changing the car configuration, for example, the current plan has Q6 e-tron and A6 e-tron two different types of products.
In the previous we mentioned that the PPE platform is an expansion of the J1 platform, but it does not mean that its cost is higher, the platform still continues the characteristics of the Volkswagen Group's "cost savings", with the Q6 e-tron under the PPE platform sharing a large proportion of parts with Porsche MACAN, and the differentiated accessories are more in the appearance sheet metal part.
And Q6 e-tron and A6 e-tron parts common rate is also very high, from the current information, Audi hopes to create a unified specification of the battery pack to match different products, so that in addition to being more convenient in the production process, perhaps for the future product replacement also have consideration.
The first model of the PPE platform is positioned as a C-class car, according to the plan, this platform can also produce B-class and D-class cars, but in this way, B-class products may coincide with MEB platform products, and it is not excluded that the current MEB platform products are only transitional products that conform to the market, and will only produce products below B-class in the future.
At present, the Chinese market is Audi's largest overseas single market, and the development momentum of new energy vehicles is good, in addition to product support, the policy has also played a role in boosting, from the official website of the Jilin Provincial Development and Reform Commission, it was learned that Audi FAW's new energy vehicle project has been announced by the Industrial Department of the Jilin Provincial Development and Reform Commission on February 11, and the factory will put into production products from the PPE platform in the future.
BBA is currently laying out its own heavy pure electric products, such as BMW's iX, Mercedes's EQS, but there is still a big gap with domestic new power brands in terms of ability to occupy the market, the biggest reason is how to balance between price and endurance, at this time, there is no need to consider some other product added value, after all, the strongest product force of pure electric vehicles is high endurance and fast charging.
After all, the domestic market is different from overseas, low per capita car ownership, high-density residential area charging equipment density, single-day commuting distance, and other factors are affecting consumers' demand for pure electric products, how to focus on products is also a major brand needs to consider factors.
Moreover, the current domestic brands have also begun to pay attention to the high-end new energy market, with the recognition of products by consumers in recent years, it has more room for development in the high-end pure electricity market.
Product preheating in 2022 and product launch in 2023 are more critical time nodes for Audi's transformation in the field of pure electric, after the competition of pure electric products is more concentrated in domestic brands, and from next year, it may enter a state of global competition.
Cadillac, Toyota, Volvo and other brands will introduce new pure electric models in 2022, and luxury brands relying only on brands to add products has become pale and weak, and it has reached the time when they need to come up with highly competitive products to speak. 【iDailycar】