In December last year, President Akio Toyoda's BEV conference also impressed many people. Toyota is expected to introduce 30 all-electric models by 2030, and the global annual sales of pure electric models are planned to reach 3.5 million units.
Now, toyota TOYOTA bZ pure electric exclusive series of the first work bZ4X officially debuted.
On April 28, the first model of the Toyota bZ (beyond ZERO) series, the bZ4X, was officially released with Chinese consumers in the form of online release, and released a pre-price of 220,000 to 300,000 yuan. The new cars will be sold on FAW Toyota and GAC Toyota soon.
The bZ4X is a 100% restored concept car designed with the "Activity Hub" concept in mind, in addition to the powerful exterior, but also the avant-garde digital cockpit design. This is also a new car based on the e-TNGA architecture, with a low center of gravity and AWD experience brought by X-MODE.
However, today's smart electric vehicle to succeed, only rely on traditional power, chassis control and other traditional advantages or not. I think there are two more points that need to be made:
One is the unforgettable cool design and a good car experience; the second point is also very important, there must be some "I have someone no" black technology.
So Toyota bZ4X, what are the black technologies that make your eyes shine?
The solar charging dome can drive 1750km of electricity per year
In the future, when everyone buys an electric car, they may be accustomed to asking: "Have you chosen automatic driving?" And now when you buy an electric car, you can happily say to someone, "My bZ4X has a solar charging dome." ”
Toyota bZ4X this black technology, that is, its active production car ahead of the solar charging dome - panoramic sunroof designed with solar panels, in the summer of exposure not only can effectively insulate, even in the parking lot without charging piles can continue to charge the vehicle, and the power generated during driving can also be powered by the backup battery.
According to Toyota's internal calculations, the daily solar charge can be used to charge a smart phone 140 times, the annual power generation can be used for the vehicle to travel 1750km, if calculated at the annual driving range of 10000km, theoretically nearly 20% of the electricity in a year can be provided by solar energy.
Maybe you think that this bit of power is not nothing, but in fact, it can alleviate the battery life anxiety of electric vehicles, such as when traveling by car. Toyota also considers that solar charging can play a larger role in natural disasters, and then equipped with external power supply functions, which can be used as a power supply outdoors or in emergency situations.
25 years of zero accident battery safety record
But behind the best experience, everyone will still care about the safety and durability of the battery - the power battery.
As we all know, Toyota has 25 years of experience in electrification, and its electric models include HEVs, PHEV, EVs, FCEVs and so on. After four generations of development of the potential core technology of the three-electric system such as batteries, motors, and PCU, Toyota's battery system has maintained a record of zero accidents.
On the new pure electric bZ4X, Toyota uses the Battery Pack of the Ningde Era, which is developed with the goal of ensuring that there is still a 90% power retention rate after 10 years of use.
So what efforts has Toyota made to this end?
Lithium batteries are mainly aging for two reasons: First, the normal number of charge and discharge, especially if the rapid charge and discharge are repeated. The second is that the high temperature state will accelerate aging.
Toyota's method controls the amount of charge in an area that is not prone to aging to suppress battery aging, so it designs a battery temperature control system that stabilizes battery output and can suppress battery aging. Through continuous battery status management, we deal with unexpected failures inside the battery.
For example, under each battery cell, there is a battery electric heating device, which is a method of ensuring the temperature of the battery, and the experiment proves that the charging time can be shortened by more than half at most when charged to a full state. Moreover, Toyota has tested that even in the harshest -30 ° C environment, it can ensure that the battery heats up to a reasonable temperature within a certain period of time (8 hours).
In addition to the high safety of the battery itself, the bZ4X needs to have a body structure that can cope with all aspects of collisions, as well as a battery pack that can ensure safety in the event of a collision.
In China, bZ4X implements a 3-year or 100,000-kilometer vehicle warranty, of which 10 years or 200,000 kilometers are free basic maintenance. 10 years or 200,000 km (whichever comes first) free electric vehicle safety check (with free insurance).
The three electric aspects we care about are 10 years or 200,000 kilometers of warranty, and the battery is also 10 years or 200,000 kilometers (battery capacity warranty, free replacement when the attenuation is greater than 30%).
In addition, there is a reassuring value-preserving repurchase policy, on-site service based on digital keys (valet maintenance, valet charging, etc.), multi-scenario convenient player scooter service and 24-hour all-weather emergency rescue, which can be said to be completely free of worries.
Driving made easy, revolutionary steer-by-wire technology
What is the origin of Toyota's OMG (One Motion Grip) driving control kit? The set is a combination of the racer's steering wheel and steer-by-wire, which mechanically separates the steering wheel from the steering actuator, and yes, there is no mechanical connection between the steering wheel and the wheels.
As with the evolution from traditional mobile phones to smartphones, the use of digital signals instead of mechanically connected in-line steering has many advantages:
The first is that the steering ratio can be changed at any time, and the steering wheel does not need to spin wildly even when parking. The bZ4X sets the normal steering wheel rotation angle to ±150°, which can complete the steering operation without changing hands and wheels, which greatly reduces the driver's operating burden when making a U-turn, entering the warehouse, driving in curves, etc.
The road sense of the mechanical age is immutable after tuning, but the steering by wire is not mechanically connected, and all the road sense is simulated. Comfort mode, for example, filters out the vibrations of the road surface, while sport mode retains more road feedback, allowing the fish to have both the bear's paw.
Steer-by-wire also has many benefits. For example, the expansion of legroom, the improvement of the freedom of the driver's seat and the convenience of getting on and off the car, and the lack of mechanical steering columns, the protection of the driver's legs in passive collision accidents is more in place.
Now it is more expected that Toyota can introduce OMG (One Motion Grip) driving control kits into the Chinese market as soon as possible.
brief summary:
All along, it seems that every consumer has their own answer to "what an electric car should be like", and traditional car companies and new forces also have their own understanding and views.
But with the arrival of Toyota bZ4X, let us see another attitude of electric vehicles, it is very Toyota is also very pure, from the design of The Activity Hub to the BEV exclusive platform based on the e-TNGA architecture, from the e-Axle three-in-one electric drive to the X-MODE four-wheel drive jointly developed with Subaru, are all high-level play, and black technologies such as steer-by-wire steering and solar charging are the finishing touches, such a bZ4X is worth having.