Written by / Windsor
Editor/ Zhang Nan
Design / Shi Yuchao
In the era of pure electricity, will automotive products still have personality and soul? The answer is, definitely.
Relying on The achievements of Pajero in the Dakar Rally, as well as the outstanding performance of the EVO series in the WRC arena, in the era of fuel vehicles, the image of Mitsubishi Iron-Blooded Tough Guy is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. When people mention Mitsubishi, they always think of words like off-road, tough, trustworthy, and functional.
After taking some detours in the Chinese market, Mitsubishi Motors finally met the right person. In 2012, Mitsubishi and GAC Group reached a cooperation and established GAC Mitsubishi, each holding 50% of the shares, which is exactly ten years to this year.
In the past ten years, GAC Mitsubishi has deeply cultivated the SUV market and has successively launched products such as Jinxuan, Outlander, Yige and so on, showing the technical and brand advantages of "century-old craftsmanship".
However, now is also the time when it has to change. China's automobile has become a pioneer position in the global new energy transformation, and from January to March, the new energy vehicle market continued its rapid growth momentum, with a market share of 19.3%. As the only remaining fruit of the Mitsubishi brand in the Chinese market, GAC Mitsubishi, which is backed by a big tree, has taken the lead in opening up the electrification reform.
The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, one of the world's largest automotive alliances, has expressed its determination to transform, planning to invest an additional €23 billion in electrification over the next five years and produce 35 electric vehicles by 2030. The three companies aim to increase the use of the common platform among their 90 models to 80 percent by 2026 from 60 percent today.
GaGA Mitsubishi's other major shareholder, GAC Group, has also seen its performance climb year by year. In 2021, GAC Group achieved a total operating income of about 429.755 billion yuan, an increase of about 8.66% year-on-year, and the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies exceeded 7.3 billion yuan, an increase of nearly 23% year-on-year.
"The development of new energy exceeded our expectations, and in order to implement the national 'double carbon' strategy, GAC Group has adjusted the 14th Five-Year Plan." Zeng Qinghong, chairman of GAC Group, said that the proportion of new energy vehicles in the whole group will increase from 20% to 25% in 2025, and the proportion of new energy vehicles in the whole group will reach 50% in 2030.
Shareholders work together to break the gold. On March 23, GAC Mitsubishi's first joint venture hardcore pure electric SUV ATUK WAS OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED, LAUNCHING A TOTAL OF TWO MODELS, THE PIONEER VERSION AND THE HARD-CORE VERSION, WITH THE OFFICIAL GUIDANCE PRICE AFTER SUBSIDY IS 199,800 YUAN FOR THE VANGUARD EDITION AND THE 229,800 YUAN FOR THE HARD-CORE EDITION.
As the first joint venture hardcore pure electric SUV, GAC Mitsubishi has entered a new era of electrification after entering the Chinese market for ten years.
"This year marks the 10th anniversary of GAC-Mitsubishi, and we expect Atuka's unique hardcore energy and hardcore experience to allow users to enjoy the fun of driving and exploring, and start a new life of pure electricity." Li Quming, executive deputy general manager of GAC Mitsubishi, placed high hopes on the new car at the press conference.
Bringing together the strengths of the two companies, Artuka opened a new model of joint venture
Atuka is the first pure electric vehicle in cooperation between Mitsubishi Motors and GAC Group.
For a long time, the Sino-foreign joint venture model is to exchange the market for technology, foreign capital to export products and technology, and Chinese enterprises are responsible for production and sales. The disadvantage of this is that the products developed overseas have not been localized and improved, and they may not be suitable for the needs of Chinese consumers. In the post-joint venture era, the cooperation model between GAC and Mitsubishi has also changed.
Atukao, Mitsubishi Motors was involved in the design of exterior interiors, and GAC Group provided technical support in new energy. Specifically, GAC is the builder of the underlying architecture, with advanced technologies such as the GAC GEP2.0 platform; Mitsubishi is responsible for the design of the exterior interior and the quality control of software details.
The advantage of this is that both shareholders play to their respective strengths. Artuco combines Mitsubishi Motors' global design language, GAC-Mitsubishi's professional manufacturing process, and GAC Group's advanced technology in the field of new energy.
In terms of appearance, the front face of Artuco follows the Mitsubishi family-style "Dynamic Shield" design language, which is tough and atmospheric; the side profile is strong and smooth, and the overall outline of the suspension roof design, the body streamline is very aesthetic. Atuka's headlights have a total of 42 beads inlaid, 21 on one side, and are equipped with intelligent far and near light switching function, which is highly technological. There are a total of 166 LED taillights with horizontal T-shaped extension sculptures, and the light area is clear in the use of brake, turn signal, and reversing functions.
Inside, Artuco embraces the interior horizontally with Japanese hospitality, covering it with a large area of soft-wrapped material where it can be touched, and a thickened seat with an ergonomically designed high-wrapping material that is highly wrapped and equipped with functions such as seat welcome, 6-way electric adjustment, three-stage seat heating and ventilation.
Spatially, Artuco's wheelbase is 2830mm long, achieving an extreme space utilization rate of 66%. Flexible storage space, providing 25 storage spaces, tail box volume of 368L, the maximum expansion to 1102L, to meet the needs of consumers storage, shopping, outing multi-scene life needs. Atuka is also equipped with an oversized panoramic sunroof that increases the brightness of the interior while also effectively expanding the interior space.
It is worth mentioning that in the special period, Atuka is equipped with a fresh air static oxygen system, which can realize one-click killing in the car, realize N95-level air filtration, and remote one-click purification of mobile phones.
In terms of electrified products, GAC Mitsubishi has shown a new look, and the new exploration of the cooperation model between the shareholders has brought together superior resources and shown more possibilities in the future.
For this blockbuster new energy model, GAC Mitsubishi has also launched a hard-core car owner's car purchase rights. Atuka's first car owner can enjoy the dual lifetime privileges of lifetime triple-electric warranty and lifetime free car networking traffic.
The "0" anxiety car purchase plan and battery rental policy greatly reduces the burden of car purchase for consumers; the use of financial solutions to buy a car can also enjoy a 2-year and 30% discount to buy a value of the right; at the same time, there is a 5-year or 150,000-kilometer vehicle ultra-long warranty, replacement subsidies and 20,000 yuan exclusive tourism fund. Solving consumers' worries in terms of car purchase, car use and car maintenance shows the full sincerity of GAC Mitsubishi.
Atuka fired the first shot of Japanese electrification
Under the irreversible wave, the Japanese legion has also opened a collective electrification transformation, honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda and other Japanese car companies have clearly defined the goal in the field of electrification.
On April 12, Honda Motor Corporation announced that it plans to invest about 8 trillion yen in research and development over the next 10 years, and a total of about 5 trillion yen in electrification and software; Toyota will raise its global annual sales of BEVs in 2030 from 2 million to 3.5 million units; and Nissan plans to invest 2 trillion yen (about 112.84 billion yuan) in the next five years to accelerate the promotion of electric drive product layout and technological innovation.
As a representative of Japanese brands, before Toyota and Honda, GAC Mitsubishi fired the first shot of transformation in the Chinese market, setting up a benchmark in the direction of electrification and intelligence.
In terms of intelligence, Artuka is equipped with dual 12.3-inch high-definition dashboards and a large central control suspension screen to provide AR real-world navigation, driver assistance information, AutoNavi maps, Bluetooth phones and other display functions. The all-scenario intelligent voice interaction system has a new generation of iFLYTEK XTTS voice built-in, which supports sound source positioning and deep car control, enhancing the live-action dialogue and communication experience.
In terms of intelligent driving, Artuco has 4 high-definition panoramic cameras, 3 ultrasonic radars, 1 millimeter wave radar and 1 intelligent camera, supporting the 360 panoramic parking system. In addition, Artuka has an L2 level automatic driving assistance system equipped with seven driver assistance functions, including ACC adaptive cruise.
In terms of driving control, Artuco is based on an exclusive platform of pure electricity in aluminum alloy, which can achieve a weight ratio around 50:50, which has the advantages of high safety, light weight, high performance and high durability.
The CLTC of the new car has a cruising range of 520 kilometers; the ternary lithium battery uses the same supplier of Mercedes-Benz, with a maximum battery of 69.9 kWh and a fast charge of 30-40 minutes up to 80% of the charge.
In the era of electrification, Artuka also did not have to give up the pleasure of driving, the new car motor system using permanent magnet synchronous motor, is the industry's first use of Nidec "three-in-one" electric drive products, to achieve a maximum power of 165Kw and a maximum torque of 350N· m, 0-50KM acceleration time of 3.5 seconds.
In terms of safety, Artuco is equipped with a reliable chassis structure, and the application of a large number of aluminum components greatly improves the strength of the body, of which the front longitudinal beam adopts extruded aluminum alloy structure, which increases the efficiency of crushing energy absorption by 2.5 times. In terms of active safety, Artuco uses a large number of intelligent safety systems, such as LDW lane departure warning system, FCW automatic braking system, ACC adaptive cruise system, 360-degree panoramic imaging system, etc.
In terms of appearance, space, quality, and sense of science and technology, Artuka has shown good strength and conveyed the determination of GAC Mitsubishi to promote electrification and upgrading. With Atuka as the origin of electric intelligence, in the future, GAC Mitsubishi will strengthen the research and development and production of new energy vehicles, open up the deepening layout of new energy vehicles, and launch more and more leading new energy models.
In the era of electric vehicles, the homogenization of products is getting higher and higher, and how to create differences needs to be considered from multiple dimensions such as brand, design and technology. From Artuka, we glimpsed GAC Mitsubishi's imagination of the electric world and its sincerity to the Chinese market.
In 2020, GAC Mitsubishi released the brand slogan of "Driving the Fun of Exploration" to express a new image of continuous exploration and fun. When the tough guy pure electric wiped out a different spark, the arrival of Artuco brought a new choice to the market.
This article was originally produced by Automotive Business Review
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