"Where will the next 'big war' of Chinese brand new energy vehicles take place?"
I think this "battlefield" will be linked to the following keywords: medium size, sports type, rear motor, car. After all, after years of operation, the compact, front-motorized new energy car market has been divided up by domestic brands. In order to achieve the improvement of brand image and coverage price point, it is easier to launch a "rear-wheel drive new energy car". What's more, it is precisely by relying on the products of this market segment that the new energy head brand has its today.
Probably for this reason, Changan Deep Blue, which recently released its brand name, will bring a medium-sized sports sedan to the market as its first car. At today's press conference, Changan Deep Blue released the technical details of this sedan code-named C385. At the same time, there is also the platform EPA1 for creating a series of new energy models.
The platforming allows us to glimpse the leopard and see the new cars launched by a brand in the coming period, their technical characteristics, main performance parameters and even scalability. Do the engineers of Changan Deep Blue have any ideas for new models in the next few years?
The choice for adults is...
For all models of the EPA1 platform, the direct power source is the electric motor. Just as there is a "Well to Wheel" algorithm for calculating the carbon emissions of the whole process from oil well to wheel in the era of fuel vehicles, Changan also proposed the efficiency calculation law from the power grid to the wheel, including charging efficiency, battery and electronic control efficiency, motor efficiency and energy recovery efficiency. Under this standard, the efficiency of the highly integrated EPA1 platform electric drive system will reach about 78%, of which the motor efficiency will reach 95%.
The motor used for the C385 has a maximum power of 190 kW (258PS), which allows the single-motor rear-drive version of the C385 to accelerate to 5.9s per 100 km /h (of course, the EPA1 is also compatible with the front motor, achieving dual motor four-wheel drive). But at the same time, the pure electric version of the CLTC standard consumes about 12.3kWh/100km and has a cruising range of 700km.
Coupled with the high-frequency charge-discharge pulsed battery self-heating function, vehicles on the EPA1 platform can maintain battery performance in minus 30 degrees Celsius, which is 50% better than battery systems without this function. Battery BMS access to the cloud platform management to ensure cell security.
So far, the EPA1 platform has appeared as a BEV platform, but the energy source of the motor is not all batteries. In fact, EPA1 is a pure electric platform that is compatible with BEV, EREV (extender electric) and FCEVs (fuel cell electric) systems. All power architectures will appear on the C385, which will become the first hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle in China to enter mass production.
When paired with a four-cylinder Atkinson internal combustion engine, 1L gasoline can deliver 3.3 kWh of electrical energy, plus the 200km CLTC battery life provided by the battery, with a comprehensive endurance of 1200km. Even in the operating condition of the lost electricity, the fuel consumption in the B state will still be less than 4.5L/100km.
On the other side of the hydrogen fuel cell version, it only takes 3 minutes to replenish hydrogen, the cruising range of a single replenishment CLTC exceeds 700km, and the hydrogen consumption is controlled within 0.65kg/100km.
Pure electric vehicles in the domestic market today's rapid development, we also do not ignore the plug-in hybrid, extended range electric segment of the recent more than a year of outbreak - so that users without charging conditions also enjoy the advantages of electric drive, including the C385, such non-BEV electrified models mission.
From domain controller to L4
However, to enter this higher-level market, electrification at the mechanical level is not enough. Don't forget that in the new four modernizations of the automobile industry, there is also "intelligence" alongside "electrification". The EPA1 platform divides the whole vehicle into three domains: vehicle control, intelligent cockpit and intelligent driving, and the three domain controllers developed by Changan are responsible for the data processing of the whole vehicle. In order to avoid OTA taking too long or failing, EPA1 introduces a dual-partition design to achieve OTA non-inductive, and the software upgrade time of the vehicle control domain is controlled within 3 minutes.
In terms of user-perceived car machine, the first to be used for the C385 will be the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 cockpit processor, ensuring the fluency of the system at the time of delivery and sufficient processing power redundancy to cope with future OTA upgrades. The 14.6-inch "Sunflower" central control screen can be turned at a certain angle to adapt to the operation of the main co-pilot.
In terms of intelligent driving, Changan Deep Blue said that the EPA1 platform will have the expansion capability of L4 level assisted driving; the C385 vehicle has 27 sensing components. When we zoom in on the sides of the C385, the side front and side rear cameras can already be seen on the front fenders and rearview mirror brackets, indicating that the C385 has achieved at least 360 ° visual perception coverage, which can be supported to the level of urban assisted driving when paired with appropriate algorithms.
2022 will become the first year of the domestic "urban assisted driving", including the head members of overseas and domestic new power brands, and will push the urban navigation assisted driving function from the end of the second quarter. From the underlying electrical architecture to the embedded sensor hardware on the car, Changan Deep Blue also has the ability to attack the jewel in the crown of automotive intelligence.
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The increase in the penetration rate of new energy vehicles has given the "second batch of new force car-making enterprises" like Changan Deep Blue an opportunity to play. With the experience of manufacturing and research and development of traditional car companies, combined with the mature electric vehicle supply chain, the growth of these car companies will be faster than their predecessors.
It won't take long for the C385, the first product of the EPA1 platform, to move towards the highly competitive Chinese new energy vehicle market. Next, more news about this car, as well as other models, awaits us.