Produced by | Billion car tide
Author | Original Liu Hanwen
On the evening of August 27, Dongfeng Motor officially released its luxury electric off-road brand - Mawce in Wuhan. From the inability to go from the news of the small road, to the current two cars in unison, ringing the high-end horn to make a strong debut, this mysterious M business department is shouldering an unprecedented mission and heavy responsibility, and is really going to Chinese's ultimate off-road dream.
With the march of the warriors, Dongfeng Motor's new energy territory has two high-end generals. Lantu focuses on technology to empower comfort, intending to break the monopoly of mainstream luxury foreign companies; The warrior focuses on hardcore technology, the performance is more extreme, and the positioning is even one step ahead, exploring the technical limits of electric off-road alone. Can this fearless conquest of the majestic courage pave a different path for China's off-road journey to the peak of the world?
01
Six years of hard work, classic military products have been revitalized
Speaking of Dongfeng Warriors, it is naturally inseparable from the two development routes of military products and civilian products, which complement each other and finally usher in a good opportunity to accumulate thick and thin.
Among them, the military route is naturally no stranger to the Chinese people. After three generations of evolution, the Warriors series, with more than ten years of development history, has become the number one trump card of China's military off-road vehicles. From the initial "Shiyi long skill is more victorious", to the complete independence, based on the needs of the battlefield tailor-made military boutiques, and even ahead of the times to make a new energy military vehicle with an interaxial motor, this also allows Dongfeng Maverick to have an incomparable off-road technology accumulation of other competing brands.
On the civilian route, before the official launch of the M Division, the "military to civilian" strategy of the warriors has also tested the waters. Dongfeng has foreseen the full development potential of the personalized off-road market from the beginning, and the entry of the M50 into the high-end price is also a manifestation of technical confidence. With Dongfeng taking the lead in laying out the "Lantu" of the high-end market, it has begun to emerge in the mainstream luxury car field, and it is naturally expected to bravely climb towards a higher technical mountain.
With the forward-looking layout of these two development routes, the transformation of The Maes into a luxury electric off-road brand can be regarded as the real "everything is ready only to owe the East Wind".
Although the outside world learned that the M business department behind The Mask was only more than a year old, at the press conference of the Fierce Brand, Zhu Yanfeng, chairman of the board of directors and secretary of the Party Committee of Dongfeng Company, bluntly said that it had been preparing for this for six years.
This shows that as early as the period when new energy vehicles have just ushered in rapid development, Dongfeng Motor foresaw that the "personalized, characteristic, and heroic" consumer trend will become the mainstream market electrification, and the future new market increment. This "no man's land" that Chinese and foreign car companies have never set foot in is an excellent opportunity for Dongfeng To lead China's national automobile industry to the top.
To this end, Dongfeng Company has taken the strength of the whole group to develop the business of Mengshi in a new model, and regards it as the core pole of the "Oriental Wind Rise" plan and the strategic support of the "leap" action of science and technology.
However, only a forward-looking strategic vision is by no means enough to apply the most advanced technological achievements to the market-oriented mass production models.
As a veteran state-owned enterprise, Dongfeng Motor has taken advantage of the historical opportunity of the warrior to impact the high-end and promote the comprehensive renewal of the group's institutional mechanism. Relying on the digital marketing system with boundless connections, we will build an agile and efficient market-oriented mechanism, customer-centric business philosophy, business model, and operation process system, so as to quickly respond to the rapidly changing market and transform into a new technology-based state-owned enterprise facing market competition.
02
M TECH is driving strongly, hardcore technology all-round cluster
Released together with the Dongfeng Magus brand, it is dongfeng motor group's self-developed M TECH magus intelligent off-road architecture. As the first exclusive luxury electric off-road comprehensive technical solution in China, it can be seen from the book information alone that Dongfeng Motor has taken out the strongest technical strength in the field of off-road vehicles and new energy vehicles, and has made this world-class intelligent off-road vehicle architecture with unprecedented technical redundancy that expands globally, evolves extremely and has excellent performance.
Even looking at the global automotive market, there are very few car companies that can make this off-road technology solution. And if you exclude those start-ups and only look at the car companies that really lay out the mass production plan, Dongfeng Maverick is definitely one of the few.
According to the relevant information released by Dongfeng Magus at the press conference, M TECH Magus intelligent off-road architecture supports 5G communication, Gigabit Ethernet and other technologies, and adopts the most advanced domain-controlled centralized electronic and electrical architecture, and combines the reliable durability performance development and test verification system of military vehicle-level strength to create the most comprehensive electronic control intelligent chassis system.
Under this advanced architecture, MORA Maws skateboard off-road platform, M ATS Maws intelligent off-road all-terrain system, MEGA POWER Mawce power three new technology clusters, to provide users with world-class oriental off-road experience.
As China's first electric off-road skateboard platform, the MORA Maws Skateboard Off-Road Platform supports multi-function in-line control, fusion domain control, highly integrated thermal management, L3 intelligent driving assistance and other technologies. The body is decoupled from the chassis up and down through innovative in-line control and steer-by-wire.
This is the most orthodox off-road vehicle used in the non-load-bearing body structure, but Dongfeng Mavericks for the traditional sense of the "girder" part, equipped with intelligent rear wheel in-line control active steering technology, with standardized interface for software and hardware decoupling, to achieve a minimum turning radius of 5.1m and low-speed "crab line" mode, driving flexibility strongly beyond all hardcore off-road products, and small and medium-sized scooter models.
In the body part, the MORA skateboard platform supports ultra-large bandwidth wheelbase expansion, compatible with SUVs, pickups, VAN and other body forms, high modularity will greatly shorten the product development cycle, easily develop diversified, stylized products on the same platform, and truly achieve "a hundred cars have a hundred states, belonging to one platform".
M ATS Warrior off-road all-terrain intelligent solution, support "snow, mud, sand, rock, wading" five off-road driving modes and intelligent off-road "AUTO" mode, according to the specific road conditions and user needs, intelligently choose the most ideal off-road mode. Through the electric drive force, air suspension, steer-by-wire, three differential locks and other subsystems to achieve high-precision and rapid response adjustment, systematically enhance the vehicle's traction, maneuverability and stability on the off-road road, effectively cope with the challenges of complex terrain and road conditions.
Of course, the most exciting technology cluster is the Warrior Power MEGA POWER. After all, we have never seen a Chinese brand off-road model that can carry a four-motor four-drive power assembly composed of dual motors + two-speed transmission between axles; I have never seen a Chinese brand-built off-road model that can achieve more than 1,000 horsepower output, more than 16,000 N·m of wheel side torque, 4.2s of 100 km/h acceleration, and 100% climbing.
In order to solve people's anxiety about the endurance of electric off-road vehicles, MEGA POWER also supports pure electricity and extended range two power systems, whether it is short-distance exploration or long-distance travel. Through the visual integration of binocular camera and infrared night vision camera, MEGA POWER and M ATS seamlessly connect, this full brute force does not need to worry about uselessness, every minute is only to conquer thousands of terrain.
In terms of products, the Maus brand also brought two concept off-road vehicles - the two-door four-seat M-Terrain concept car and the five-door double-row M-Terrain S. These two amazing hard-core technology works convey the design concept of "male soul" inspired by the DNA of the oriental lion to the outside world, and pay tribute to the heroic military soul with the domineering majesty of stopping the war. Compared with the competitive models in the same industry, the Magus took the lead in jumping out of the path dependence of retro flavor, organically combining traditional culture with mecha science and technology, showing a unique design style, which is more conducive to playing the card of differentiation.
03
Sound the pioneer horn and the warrior climbs to the highest end of off-road
"High-end", "luxury", "pure electricity" and "off-road", these keywords are combined together, it is inevitable that some people will doubt this, thinking that although the high-end road of Chinese brands has made a small gain in the mainstream market, using the technical advantages of electrification and intelligence, it initially shows the incremental replacement and stock threat to traditional luxury brands. However, in the niche personalized market with higher bicycle profits, the historical accumulation and word-of-mouth image of overseas brands can still build a moat to block the latecomers.
On this point, I wrote in "China's Electric Hummer Is Coming!" Dabbling in the million-level BYD luxury SUV", it is pointed out that the cars that were once regarded as niche but now attract much attention have assumed the role of "business and passenger technology connectors", such as Van vans, pickup trucks, and hardcore off-road.
Coincidentally, in the product planning of the Maws brand, these three types of cars are mentioned, but why did the first model still choose hardcore off-road?
From the perspective of technical background, the hardcore off-road vehicle still retains the original structure of the car when it was founded - the non-carrier body, but it also provides a driving comfort that is stronger than pickup trucks and vans, and the passenger identity is enough to support a higher-end brand premium. In addition, in the past, hardcore off-road often communicates with pickup trucks and vans of the same brand in technology, and it has become its own faction after a long time, becoming the preferred direction for comprehensive car companies and businesses to take advantage of the linkage.
As the most outstanding representative of Chinese car companies, Dongfeng Motor is undoubtedly the first to break the clear technical system between passengers and businessmen. When the off-road market develops in the direction of personalization, extremeization and fun, there are always people who must stand up and take the initiative to break the barriers, cross-integrate their own technical strength, form a two-wheel drive development model, and go steady and far in the era of coexistence of opportunities and challenges in the future.
At this time, we will look back at the technical route of electric off-road, those overseas brands that have been engaged in exploration, will find that whether it is the General Motors of the United States, Mercedes-Benz of Germany, and bydir that followed up during the year, like Dongfeng Magus, they all have a huge lineup of passenger products, all have the industry's premier technical strength, and have a unique market position in their respective specialized market segments, and there are reasons to use the power of a giant to throw their unique views on the electrification world towards the future.
When the most cutting-edge electrification technology is fully tested and tempered in the most extreme car use scenarios, and put into high-end models with a more considerable net value of bicycles, we must not feel that these seemingly lofty and unclear technologies are far away from us.
Only when the specialized and expensive market is tested first, attracting more investors, cultural celebrities, corporate management, Internet people and other high-net-worth people to pay for the premium of the ultimate technology, can car companies have a reason to inject a steady stream of power into technological innovation, and finally decentralize to more mainstream mass production models to benefit more consumers.
From this point of view, the high-end hardcore off-road of "cold in the heights" is like today's Chinese aerospace, there is no reliable precedent to follow, everything depends on ourselves. And when this great cause of soaring is scattered and goes to the sea of stars, we as Chinese will also benefit from it.
04
Write at the end
Unlike previous new brands that focused on the future vision, Dongfeng's press conference highlighted the importance of the word "hardcore" from beginning to end. This is not a deliberate attempt by the Dongfeng Warriors to seek differentiation, but also comes from the battlefield beacon tempering out the value of "speaking with strength".
Hard-core technology, extreme electric, subversive innovation, global access, every bit of brand value of Dongfeng Magus, are pursuing the infinite possibilities brought by the ultimate technological highland. The company has broken through the shackles of traditional vision and made up an unprecedented industrial gap for Dongfeng Motor's new energy cause, which is inseparable from Dongfeng's technical confidence, product confidence, brand confidence and value confidence. Whether such a new brand that dares to be the first can once again amaze the world when the mass production car is born in 2023, please wait and see.