【EV Vision Report】As we all know, at present, Japanese brands are concentrating on electrification, and have entered the "2.0" electrification era of products created by exclusive pure electric vehicle platforms, and Honda e:N, Toyota bZ, and Nissan Aria have been intensively preparing for listing.
Honda took the lead, on the eve of the listing of Dongfeng Honda e:NS1, Honda Giken Industry (China) Investment Co., Ltd. held an online event with the theme of "Reinventing EV Driving Fun". Katsushi Inoue, Managing Director of Honda Giken Industries Co., Ltd. and Minister of The People's Republic of China, released the "e:N Brand Declaration" and the brand slogan of "Reinventing EV Driving Fun" that embodies Honda's 70-year-old car-making genes and brand beliefs, and announced that the first mass-produced model of the e:N brand, Dongfeng Honda e:NS1 was officially launched on April 26, and GAC Honda e:NP1 will start pre-sale in May. Honda's electrification business in China has opened a new chapter.
What exactly is the Honda e:N brand?
Whether it is Honda, Toyota or Nissan, the electrification process is relatively slow, and after the independent brand has eaten the market dividend several times, it has only begun to launch real electrification products this year. But it is already a blockbuster, taking Honda as an example, in the accumulation of more than 70 years of car manufacturing experience, the integration of China's advanced electrification and intelligent technology has created a highly anticipated e:N brand.
In the era of fuel vehicles, I believe we are all quite familiar with the anecdotal rumor of "buying an engine and sending a car", so honda without an engine, is there still a soul? In fact, the birth of the new pure electric brand "e: N" is Honda's deep understanding of the Chinese market, and it gives the best solution for "pure electric vehicles with unique Honda characteristics in the new era".
The "e" here represents energy and is also electric. As the world's leading powertrain manufacturer, Honda offers a variety of power options to up to 32 million consumers each year, and will continue to provide strong new power through electrification products and technologies in the future. The "N" is New and Next. Honda aims to provide a new electric vehicle driving experience through continuous innovation, realize the brand transformation toward electrification, and open a new chapter in the mobility business.
Honda's "e:N" series products are the best pure electric vehicles tailored to the needs of Chinese consumers with the Chinese team as the center, bringing an unusual new experience to Chinese customers.
Not only that, for the e:N brand, Honda will also comprehensively upgrade the production and sales model, synchronously launch an online cloud showroom experience store, and offline, GAC Honda will first launch electrified sales service stores and supermarket stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places, and Dongfeng Honda will set up an "e:N brand zone" in the existing special stores. In terms of after-sales, Honda China provides services through a network of more than 1,200 franchise stores that are now located across the country, supporting an e:N lifestyle full of fun, peace of mind and safety.
According to EV Vision, Honda plans to launch 10 e:N brand models in China by 2027 to build a complete series of pure electric products.
E:NS1 and e:NP1 reinvent EV driving fun
As the first achievement of the e:N brand, e:NS1 and e:NP1 will inject vitality into mobile with excellent product power and trigger users' passion for exploration. From the perspective of product performance, e:NS1 and e:NP1 mainly have the three characteristics of "moving", "intelligent" and "beautiful":
The so-called "moving" is that Honda has developed a new intelligent and efficient pure electric architecture "e:N Architecture", which provides "e:N Architecture F" and "e:N Architecture W" for the "e:N Architecture F" and "e:N Architecture W" two different driving modes of intelligent and efficient pure electric architecture.
"e:N Architecture F" is based on front-facing front-drive FWD and will be installed in small and medium-sized vehicles to achieve the driving performance of integrating people and vehicles above the pure electric vehicles of the same level. The "e:N Architecture W" contains two versions, AWD and RWD, which will be installed in medium and large models. The AWD uses two sets of high-power drive motors at the front and rear to optimally distribute and control the driving force according to the driving conditions, and the RWD realizes powerful drive and light and sensitive control with high-power rear-drive motors.
The e:NS1 and e:NP1 are models based on the "e:N Architecture F". It can be said that they are first a Honda car, and then a pure electric car. The e:NS1 continues Honda's sports gene, equipped with the front-drive "e:N Architecture F" intelligent and efficient pure electric architecture, which integrates a special frame for high-rigidity pure electric vehicles, a three-in-one high-power motor and a large-capacity battery.
In terms of driving performance, the 150kW motor equipped with e:NS1 and e:NP1 is powerful, and the acceleration is light and smooth, full of passion. The steering maintains Honda's usual precision and flexibility, the body posture can always be stable, and the dynamic performance maintains the excellent sense of communication between people and vehicles in Honda's fuel vehicles. It is commendable that in sport mode, the Honda EV Sound acceleration sound wave equipped with e:NS1 and e:NP1 can also provide a surging driving experience similar to Honda's high-revving engine.
In order to easily adapt to the ever-changing driving scenario, the control program of the e:NS1 and e:NP1 motors integrates up to 20,000 scene algorithms, which is more than 40 times that of ordinary pure electric vehicles. Infused with unique technologies such as aerodynamics accumulated in the event challenges, it is precise directivity, acceleration responsiveness, smoothness, etc., to achieve sports car-level handling performance. In particular, in everyday scenarios, through the precise control of the motor driving force, it is perfectly adapted to the road conditions in China.
"Wisdom" is the point where e:NS1 and e:NP1 are the most improved by the electric models of traditional car companies compared to previous models. The e:NS1 and e:NP1 emphasize high-level driving fun, and also include the "e:N OS" full-stack intelligent control ecosystem that integrates Honda SENSING, Honda CONNECT, and intelligent digital cockpit.
In the car, e:NS1 and e:NP1 are equipped with advanced HMI systems, with the rare high-definition ultra-thin bezel central control screen of this class model, as well as a color full LCD digital dashboard, to create a digital cockpit, making information acquisition and vehicle control more convenient and intelligent.
Not only that, e:NS1 and e:NP1 are also equipped with Honda CONNCET 3.0 pure electric vehicle special version, which integrates more than 20 functions such as AI voice assistant, car home interconnection, energy management, OTA online upgrade, etc., with the mobile phone as the terminal digital key, remote control of car doors, windows, air conditioners, etc., and keyless start through mobile phones. In addition, for the first time, the DMC driver state perception system can be equipped to effectively identify the driver's state, and even detect emotional changes, actively remind, and make the driving experience safer.
In addition, the latest Honda SENSING safety supersensitive system is another big advantage of e:NS1 and e:NP1. The system provides 360°sensing monitoring of the vehicle's surroundings through radar and cameras throughout the body, enabling powerful intelligent driver assistance functions. It is worth mentioning that the system has added streaming mirrors and automatic parking functions, and will continue to evolve through OTAs in the future, which will also make driving smarter and safer.
The "beauty" of e:NS1 and e:NP1 comes from the future. e:NS1 and e:NP1 newly launched the e:N series symbolic hair light H mark and the tail "Honda" letter mark, and added a full sense of life "Heart beat heart heart heart interactive light language", in the charging process so that users can see the charging status at a glance, full of futuristic beauty of technology.
Write at the end
Although the joint venture brands lag slightly behind in the electrification track, fortunately, they generally have a strong enterprise system, and they have enough strength in product research and development, service sales and other fields to quickly pave a road for electrification in a short period of time. Honda's e:N brand has been fully "electrocuted" in China, and the first launch of two new electric vehicles, e:NS1 and e:NP1, will open up a new scene for Honda, a traditional car company, in the electrification market.
And from the book alone, e:NS1 and e:NP1 subverted my understanding of Dongfeng Honda's previous pure electric vehicles, and the addition of more intelligent and personalized configurations made it stand out in the same class of models. Whether these two cars can occupy a place in the fiercely competitive new energy vehicle market, let's wait and see!