On April 3, BYD Automobile announced that it will stop production of fuel vehicles from March and focus on pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.
Two days earlier on April 1, Tesla CEO Musk tweeted that it would fully convert to hydrogen energy-powered vehicles in 2024.
The two news seem to be incompatible, especially Musk's April Fool's Day deleted the statement, giving people more room for imagination and discussion, but if you really understand the style of byBYD Wang Chuanfu and Tesla Musk, it is not difficult to analyze the world's top electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors and China's former electric car brother BYD Auto is completely different and the vision and pattern of judgment.
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Text/Second Brother
Produced by Governor Hiromon Studio
The main reason why BYD stopped the production of fuel vehicles is that the technology of its fuel vehicles is too bad, the sales volume is too low, and the income is not enough, and secondly, it can free up more energy to devote itself to the electric vehicle business.
Of course, this is not a problem, the problem is to focus on pure electric and plug-in hybrids, which is seriously contrary to the mission of new energy vehicles.
Pure electric can be understood, plug-in hybrid energy to become a "new energy" model hanging on the green card is disgraceful.
BYD Don DM-i
In theory, plug-in hybrid and extended range hybrid solve the endurance anxiety of pure electric vehicles, and can also show better fuel economy than fuel vehicles in the case of electricity; in fact, due to the two sets of power systems, the quality of the whole vehicle is super high, the plug-in hybrid models are neither fuel-efficient nor power-saving, and the energy consumption of long-distance driving states is worse.
Other problems such as high prices, high depreciation rates, and high battery replacement costs do not need to be discussed.
From the perspective of environmental protection, on the one hand, there are pollutant emissions like pure fuel vehicles equipped with internal combustion engines, on the other hand, on the basis of engine combustion efficiency, driving generator operations, there is a secondary energy conversion loss, and the overall energy efficiency is far less than that advocated by car companies, and even lower than that of general fuel vehicles.
Not only that, due to the two sets of power systems, the structure is more complex, and its safety will be greatly reduced, and the recent case of spontaneous combustion of new cars in BYD Tang DM-i is a good proof.
In this regard, plug-in hybridization is no longer a matter of whether it can be cloaked in a "new energy" car, whether it is worth buying, but something that should not exist at all.
Musk tweeted a statement
BYD can juxtapose pure electric and plug-in hybrid as the main business in the future, speculation is too heavy, and public morality is lost.
However, anyone who moves the brain can imagine the paradox that plug-in hybridization is like the paradox of good use of levers, and its ability to mix with the license plate of new energy vehicles is not unrelated to the participation of car companies in formulating new energy policies.
However, what is slightly comforting is that under the same level of configuration conditions, BYD Automobile's ambition to harvest leeks is much more restrained than that of new car-making forces such as Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal, and the price is relatively fair.
However, we still need to pay attention to the fact that due to the limitations of battery technology and the scarcity of battery raw materials, the cost of batteries will become higher and higher, the price of electric vehicles and the cost of battery maintenance will also rise, and consumers will be even more unable to benefit from electric vehicles.
This may be the key factor in Tesla Musk's willingness to move into hydrogen energy.
In the past six months, the raw material prices of rare metals such as lithium and nickel that lithium batteries must have soared more than ten times, and brand electric vehicles such as Tesla, Xiaopeng and Nezha in the domestic market have been affected and have to continue to raise prices. With the increase in demand and the scarcity and monopoly of mineral resources, the cost of battery production will continue to rise, and the price of electric vehicles will not have any possibility of correction unless the battery capacity is reduced due to reduced mileage.
Tesla Model Y
Hydrogen energy will not be at the expense of destroying the ecological environment like batteries, nor will it pollute the atmosphere during use like oil, and more importantly, it will be inexhaustible.
Measured in this way, Toyota Motor, which has insisted on developing hydrogen power for more than ten years, is so far-sighted, and its own brand Geely Automobile has also mentioned hydrogen energy trends several times, and Musk, who has always been high-profile but never said that it is necessary, must also be optimistic about the development potential of hydrogen energy.
This may also be the key factor in the recent year when the country mentions new energy development in major energy projects and climate change activities that rarely involve electric vehicles, but also mention hydrogen energy.
It is conceivable that BYD, which pays special attention to electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles, will certainly be historically punished by policy adjustments and mineral resource development restrictions in the near future, especially the plug-in hybrid business, which will be eliminated by the market more quickly because it does not meet the definition of new energy vehicles, and Tesla is likely to continue to lead the progress of the new energy automobile industry.
In the final analysis, the very different market positioning of BYD and Tesla actually reflects the different horizons and patterns of the hosts of the two car companies, one is solipsistic and satisfied with vested interests; one has the world in mind and looks forward to the beautiful vision of mankind.
The fuel vehicle project is not doing well, the new energy project will not go far, and IT is time for BYD to learn seriously from Tesla.