Introduction: As more and more independent brands blossom in hybrid technology and the market reputation precipitates, the chaotic war in China's auto market has begun.
(Text/Zhang Jiadong Editor/Lou Bing) There is no doubt that China's auto market in 2021 belongs to the new energy market. Among them, the outbreak of the hybrid market with a year-on-year growth rate of up to 171.2% has undoubtedly become the most attractive market segment for car companies in addition to pure electric products under the trend of electrification transformation.
Although the hybrid market was seized by BYD nearly half of the market share last year, since the second half of last year, Great Wall, Geely, GAC Trumpchi, Chery, Dongfeng and other car companies have announced their own strategic promotion results in the hybrid market.
Since the fourth quarter of last year, the Great Wall Lemon Hybrid, Geely Raytheon Hybrid have entered the mass production and listing stage of real cars, although in terms of sales performance, the car companies that have entered the game have not been able to directly touch the bydder DM-i cake, but as more and more independent brands blossom in hybrid technology and the daily precipitation of market reputation, the chaotic war in the Chinese auto market has officially opened.
In April this year, following Geely's successive releases of Raytheon HEV and PHEV products, GAC Trumpchi also officially released a new hybrid technology brand name on the 26th, and named it Julang Hybrid.
According to reports, Julang Hybrid is the only car company in China that has a dual hybrid technology route: with the help of GAC Toyota's blessing, digest and absorb Toyota's latest THS hybrid system achievements, and bring the turbocharged engine into the THS system to form Trumpchi's own THS technology; on the other hand, based on years of positive independent research and development, GAC has also created a GMC dual motor series parallel hybrid system.
"Two-wire operation"
Compared with other independent brands, GAC Trumpchi has a unique advantage in the hybrid market technology support, its parent company GAC Group's GAC Toyota, GAC Honda and other joint venture car companies have introduced HEV technology products in China early, therefore, GAC Trumpchi on the HEV route also hitched a ride on the group's resources to a certain extent.
In December last year, the GS8 hybrid version model based on Toyota's THS power-split hybrid technology became the first product of GAC Trumpchi for the innovation and upgrading of THS technology. Although on the surface, Trumpchi's THS technology only replaces Toyota's naturally aspirated engine with a 2.0T turbocharged engine, from the perspective of matching the engine with the electronic control system, it can perfectly combine the power characteristics of the turbocharged engine to the THS system, and gac Trumpchi's "hard work" in hybrid technology is indispensable.
According to official data, the NEDC fuel consumption of GAC Trumpchi GS8 dual engine series is 5.3-5.8L/100km, as a 2.0T displacement medium-sized SUV with a weight of more than 2 tons, compared with its fuel vehicle products, it has a fuel consumption advantage of nearly 4L/100km.
However, GAC Trumpchi, which has obtained Toyota's "true transmission", has not been flat on THS technology, and in the era of hybridization, self-research to create hybrid technology competitiveness is still the core endorsement of GAC Trumpchi in competing with COMPETITORs such as BYD in the market.
Therefore, GAC Trumpchi took advantage of the listing of the new car shadow series new car shadow cool (EMKOO), and moved the self-developed GMC hybrid technology to the front of the stage.
From the perspective of technical route, although THS has excellent fuel-saving efficiency, in the face of the outbreak of the PHEV market, the high cost of its hybrid system is not enough to achieve trumpchi's mass production assembly in the mainstream market of 100,000-200,000 yuan. The various hybrid technology routes that GMC hybrid technology has tried since the beginning of research and development have enabled Trumpchi to realize a variety of hybrid requirements including HEV, PHEV and REEV on the technical platform of the GMC hybrid system.
According to reports, the new GMC 2.0 hybrid technology has been determined to be installed on the new Shadow Leopard, Shadow Cool and M8 models, and in the future, Trumpchi will also adhere to the "double-line parallel" strategy of THS dual engine and GMC hybrid, and continue to carry out a comprehensive market layout in the hybrid market.
The same "tech house"
Trumpchi's exploration of hybrid technology can be traced back to 10 years ago.
In 2009, when many independent car companies were still seeking breakthroughs in product design and configuration based on market dividends, Trumpchi officially opened the research and development of the first hybrid model, and quickly launched a hybrid demonstration model based on the P1+P4 configuration.
In 2014, Trumpchi officially launched the first range-extending electric vehicle in China - GA5 REV, and many car companies that developed hybrid technology early, at that time, Trumpchi hybrid system, although it had an ultra-low fuel consumption of 2.4L/100km, was limited by the battery capacity of 13kWh and the price of nearly 200,000 yuan, Trumpchi did not fire the first shot in the domestic hybrid market.
In 2017, Trumpchi abandoned the range-extended hybrid route and built a series-parallel hybrid system with a dedicated 1.5-liter Atkinson cycle engine. For the first GA3S PHEV model equipped with the hybrid system, the fuel consumption of nedc working conditions was reduced to 1.4L/100km. This system is also the predecessor of the current GMC hybrid, trumpchi called it the GMC 1.0 system, the English meaning is GAC's self-developed electromechanical coupling system.
In fact, in the application of the GMC 1.0 era, the GS4 PHEV launched by Trumpchi in 2020 has reached a NEDC fuel consumption of 1.3L/100km and a loss of 4.6L/100km, which is comparable to the current first-line hybrid market products in terms of energy consumption indicators.
However, as one of the "forerunners" of domestic hybrid technology, GAC Trumpchi stopped at the product end in the outbreak year of the hybrid market, and was not willing to do homogeneous competition on the 1.5T engine, and chose to continue to develop a more powerful engine and a hybrid special transmission with a richer configuration.
At last year's Guangzhou Auto Show, GAC Trumpchi finally brought the core product of the GMC 2.0 era - the 2.0ATK Atkinson cycle hybrid special engine with the GMC integrated dual motor multi-stop DHT power combination. According to data released by GAC Trumpchi, the new 2.0ATK engine has a maximum thermal efficiency of 42.1%, and is combined with the GMC 2.0 second-generation electromechanical coupling system to achieve a balance between stronger power output and low energy consumption.
When Geely Thor was listed, the author talked about the need for the "latecomers" in the hybrid market to create their own differentiation in a close power model. Compared with the mainstream single-gear Honda i-MMD and BYD DM-i products on the market, Geely uses a three-speed shift, while Trumpchi's characteristic is a two-speed shift + AT.
Set off a wave
Regarding the julang dual hybrid technology route, Zhang Yuesai, general manager of GAC Passenger Vehicle, said at the press conference: GAC Trumpchi will fully promote the landing of HEV and PHEV hybrid technology. In the future, multi-type hybrid models based on THS and GMC will also be promoted on a large scale.
At present, the hybrid products sold by GAC Trumpchi are not outstanding in the market: the GS8 dual engine series achieved a total of 4471 units in the first quarter of this year, while the Trumpchi GS4 new energy equipped with the first generation of GMC power system, the average monthly sales in the first quarter of this year reached about 4000 units.
From the perspective of the application of hybrid technology, most car companies still choose to take the lead in their best-selling products. Whether it is Geely Raytheon's choice of Emgrand, ORD's favor for Qin PLUS, or Toyota's choice of Corolla and Nissan's choice of Xuanyi, due to the uncertainty of hybrid technology in many aspects of cost and reliability, consumers still have many concerns about such new products when choosing in the market.
From the perspective of the market, although hybrid technology is an empowerment for car companies in the era of electrification, the overpriced Corolla/Leiling dual engine and Xuanyi, which lacks technical advantages and fails to do a good job in marketing, its market performance has issued a warning to the "latecomers" in the hybrid market.
For GAC Trumpchi, creating a product with more explosive potential will continue to be an important prerequisite for Trumpchi in promoting the double hybrid route.
At present, in the stage when new technologies and new models are still in the stage of just being unveiled, how does GAC Trumpchi play with "double-line operation"? In the face of competitors already entering the hybrid market, whether the Trumpchi Julang hybrid that entered the game later will be left and right in the chaotic war, or hindered by the "double line" left and right, it is necessary to use data after the new product is officially launched.
In the short brand history of GAC Trumpchi, building itself as a "technology flow" has become its highest pursuit for a long time. But unfortunately, GAC Trumpchi failed to obtain a "certificate of completion" in the era of the once ambitious "post-Alfa Romeo 166 technology platform" and collapsed in the weak car market in the same period.
Now, the "double-line operation" of the GAC Trumpchi hybrid route is almost the same solution idea, but can it work this time?
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