When it comes to the technical term of template platform car building, few people may really understand it. However, I believe that many people have heard a paragraph: Volkswagen only has a golf car, enlarging the chassis is tiguan, adding an ass is sagittarius, and elongating is passat. The important reason why Volkswagen's cars give people this feeling is that these cars are from the Volkswagen MQB modular platform.
In fact, today, not only Volkswagen, but almost all mature automobile manufacturers have their own modular production platforms, such as Toyota's TNGA, Hyundai's i-GMP and so on. So, what are the advantages of these modular platforms over previous platforms? What benefits can it bring to car companies and consumers?
Cost reduction and efficiency improvement Modular platform has become the development trend of the industry
As we all know, the platform determines the basic performance of the car, how to develop and use the platform, directly related to whether the car company can manufacture high-quality automotive products. Because of this, when car companies develop the basic platform, they will invest more time, energy and cost to ensure the high quality of the basic platform.
However, a basic platform can only produce the same level of products, in the context of rapid change in consumer demand, a single basic platform of product production form solidification, configuration level upgrade difficulties, it is difficult to meet today's market demand, and diversified, personalized, customized production platform is more applicable, so the modular production platform came into being.
Simply put, the modular production platform means that the various parts of the car such as the power system, body, and electronic system can be freely combined like Lego. The use of such a production model does not require changing the overall vehicle form, as long as the individual modules can be replaced to achieve platform upgrades, to achieve mass production of a new car, and the new car can span different levels and types. The use of modular platform is conducive to shortening the research and development cycle of the car, integrating a large number of innovative technologies, reducing maintenance costs, and improving the level of production automation.
It can be said that in the current increasingly competitive market, modular platform car manufacturing has become an important guarantee for major vehicle companies to reduce costs and increase efficiency, and to launch high-standard products that are welcomed by the market with quality and quantity.
The strength of the mainstream modular production platform PK Houlang cannot be underestimated
Next, let's take a look at the advantages of the mainstream modular platform applications on the market at present, and what experience upgrades can be brought to consumers at the use level.
The first is Volkswagen's MQB platform. As the first platform to introduce modular concepts in China's automotive market, the MQB platform has reduced design and manufacturing costs through modular applications, and successfully achieved a premium for new cars by introducing high-grade models. The most significant feature of the MQB platform is the high degree of unification of the interior and exterior styling, the development of new models can only add or modify different parts on its basis, and the correlation between the parts is larger, so it is indeed difficult to find amazing highlights from an aesthetic point of view, which is not difficult to understand why the design of Volkswagen models looks more "Volkswagen".
In contrast, the Toyota TNGA platform, which came out later, has been significantly upgraded. On the basis of the advantages of the MQB platform, the common components of each product from the TNGA platform can be replaced at will under standardized calibration, bringing consumers a variety of new products with a more flexible and free production mode. In terms of design, the TNGA platform has also realized the optimization and upgrading of product design schemes compared with the MQB platform, continuing the standardized family design while better highlighting the unique personality of each product.
In the past two years, with the advent of Beijing Hyundai products such as the tenth generation sonata, the seventh generation Elantra, and the fifth generation TuCson L, which have achieved a significant leap in strength, the superiority of Hyundai's i-GMP platform has also begun to be paid more and more attention by the Chinese people. The i-GMP platform was officially launched in 2019, and it integrates the latest modular technology of Hyundai Motor on the basis of the first and second generation platforms, which can not only take into account the development of multiple models, but also make innovative changes in design, practical space, safety, driving performance and other fields.
As the first mass production vehicle of the i-GMP platform, the 10th generation Sonata can be described as the best carrier for the i-GMP platform to show its leading technology and comprehensive strength. The new platform brings a significant improvement in design and space for the tenth generation of Sonata, adjusting the front suspension system, shortening the front suspension and lengthening the rear suspension, which not only has a lower appearance and more sporty style, but also makes the wheelbase of the vehicle reach the longest 2890mm in the same class, which has exceeded people's expectations for daily home space needs.
At the level of daily driving control, the 10th generation Sonata from the new i-GMP platform has readjusted the structure of the vehicle, and the application of the bottom-mounting technology has reduced the height of the body and optimized the weight ratio between the front and rear of the body, so as to make the center of gravity transfer more flexible when the vehicle is moving, and improve the sense of control and movement.
In terms of product hard strength, the main position of the body of the 10th generation Sonata adopts ultra-high tension steel and hot stamping process, which increases the average strength of the platform by more than 10%. At the same time, the multi-skeleton structure of the i-GMP platform can effectively disperse the impact force absorbed by the body, and when the frontal and small area offset impact occurs on the body, it can not only minimize the impact on the passengers, but also reduce the impact on the opponent's vehicle.
The 10th Generation Sonata received perfect marks in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) Safety Crash Test in seven subdivisions in three areas: forward bump, side impact and rollover test, and was also listed on the TOP SAFETY PICK+ list of the IIHS. All this confirms the high safety characteristics of models based on the i-GMP platform.
It is not difficult to find that whether it is the Volkswagen MQB platform, toyota TNGA platform, or the modern i-GMP platform launched later, it reflects that modular platform car manufacturing is becoming the core development trend of the automotive industry, and with the advancement of science and technology, the modular platform is upgrading to the direction of lean, intelligent, diversified, and more customized to meet the needs of consumers, and in this regard, as the "back wave" of modern cars is obviously more powerful.