On November 8, the "2022 China New Energy Commercial Vehicle Technology Conference", hosted by Tram Resources and Chengdu New Energy Vehicle Industry Promotion and Application Promotion Association and supported by China Merchants Testing Vehicle Technology Research Institute Co., Ltd., was held in Ziyang, Sichuan. With the theme of "Next-generation New Energy Commercial Vehicle Technology and Application, Integration and Convergence", 11 technical leaders from automotive research institutions, industry alliances, mainstream automobile companies, core parts enterprises and operator enterprises delivered wonderful keynote speeches.
Fan Yongjun, Secretary-General of Chengdu New Energy Vehicle Industry Promotion and Application Promotion Association, presided over the conference. He said that technology is the root of high-quality development of the industry, the root cause of high product costs is technical problems, and technological innovation after the withdrawal of national subsidies is an effective way for enterprises to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
The standardization, intelligence and low cost of new energy heavy trucks have become a consensus
Li Liguo, Secretary-General of China Electric Heavy Truck Swap Industry Promotion Alliance, and Deng Biao, test engineer of China Merchants Automotive Research Institute New Energy Test Research Center, focused their technological innovation on the standardization of power swapping heavy trucks, respectively bringing keynote speeches on "Industrialization Trend of Heavy Truck Swapping and Progress of Interchangeability Standards" and "Battery Standardization for Heavy Trucks".
Li Liguo said that in 2021, the state has launched the pilot work of the application of the heavy truck power exchange mode, and the power replacement heavy truck has been recognized by the market and entered a stage of rapid growth. However, there is a serious problem in the current heavy truck replacement industry - the lack of interchangeability standard system. The station runs one-to-one and cannot be interchangeable, resulting in repeated construction, inconvenient power exchange and high regional monopoly prices, which have become the main obstacles to the development of electric heavy trucks. He said that he will speed up the construction of the heavy truck swapping interchangeability standard system, build an interconnected power swap network as soon as possible, and truly realize the freedom of the body, the freedom of power exchange, and the freedom of the battery, and it is expected that the heavy truck battery swapping industry will usher in an outbreak in 2024. In 2025, the power exchange mode will account for absolute dominance, possibly at least 70%.
Deng Biao shared the current status of battery standardization construction for power replacement heavy trucks in the mainland, and he said that the power exchange method is ultimately determined by the location of the battery layout. Since there is no unified standard in the industry, it has become a constraint that seriously restricts the development of power replacement heavy trucks. At the same time, he pointed out that the development of integrated electric drive axles will affect the layout, shape and size of battery swaps, which will lead the development direction of new energy powertrains in the future and become the commanding heights of major enterprises.
As an important realization path for the new energy of heavy trucks, Shang Zhicheng, deputy director of the New Energy Center of China Merchants Automotive Research Institute, made a keynote speech on "Application and prospect of hydrogen energy in the field of commercial vehicles". He said that in the field of commercial vehicles, fuel cell vehicles and power batteries suitable for medium- and long-distance and medium- and heavy-duty scenarios form a complementary relationship and long-term coexistence. At the same time, the rapid development of autonomous driving technology will give a valuable opportunity for the integrated development of fuel cell commercial vehicles and automobiles, and fuel cell technology + autonomous driving technology will become the key direction of industrial application innovation.
At the same time, Zhang Ming, director of Sany Electric Technology Chassis Institute, shared some of Sany's achievements in the whole new energy from three aspects: Sany electrification and hydrogen energy planning, Sany hydrogen fuel engineering vehicle application practice, key issues and prospects. In 2020, Sany's world's first fuel cell mixer truck rolled off the production line, officially entering the "hydrogen era", in 2021, Sany established hydrogen energy technology and hydrogen energy equipment company, and in 2022, it will achieve small-batch promotion and Sany fuel cell system to obtain compulsory inspection certification. At present, Sany has promoted about 70 vehicles in Chongqing, Foshan, Yueyang, Tangshan, Tianjin and other places, with a cumulative operating mileage of more than 100,000 kilometers, and is expected to promote another 100-200 vehicles in 2022.
New energy commercial vehicles accelerate the process of intelligence, platformization and modularization
Under the guidance of the next-generation new energy commercial vehicle technology of intelligent networking, the technical requirements of intelligent chassis, electric drive system and motor controller for new energy logistics vehicles in the future have also entered a new stage. At the 2022 China New Energy Commercial Vehicle Technology Conference, Fu Jingwei, Chief Technology Officer of Qianchen Automotive Technology, Gao Dongyang, Director of Research Institute of Karry New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd., Chen Yuanzhang, Deputy General Manager of Shandong Haochi Intelligent Automobile Co., Ltd., Si Shizhan, Deputy General Manager of Jinsu New Energy Vehicle (Chengdu) Co., Ltd., and Zhang Jiefu, General Manager of Shenzhen Esplin Technology Co., Ltd., all mentioned this trend in their speeches.
Fu Jingwei pointed out that intelligence and new energy are twins, and new energy commercial vehicles are more suitable for intelligent development. Through the innovative development of new energy frame structure, driving system architecture, connected data architecture and intelligent driving architecture, Qianchen Automobile accelerates the implementation of the intelligent integrated chassis of new energy commercial vehicles. Qianchen Auto will accelerate the deployment of new energy intelligent integration platform in four aspects: vehicle chassis structure design, driving system design, intelligent network data system, and intelligent driving technology system.
Gao Dongyang said that platform is a common trend in many development methods in the entire commercial vehicle industry. However, in the early days of commercial vehicle platforming, it was greatly affected by passenger cars, and now many problems have been exposed. Karry New Energy prefers modularity as the basic, and gradually expands to a development method of skateboard, hoping to make skateboarding and intelligent driving. In terms of electric drive system, it is developing in the direction of less gear, integration, high efficiency, low cost and light weight. Among them, the drive motor is developing in the direction of miniaturization, high speed and low cost; Motor controllers are developing in the direction of high power density, efficiency, safety and reliability.
Chen Yuanzhangfen enjoyed that the commercialization attempt of Orange Auto unmanned car has made significant progress at the end of express delivery, solving the problem of shortage of express delivery personnel, the problem of rising delivery costs, the standardization of distribution services, the right of way and safety issues, and the reconstruction of terminal production relations in arrival transportation. At present, Orange Auto has obtained a road test license and carried out unmanned vehicle express terminal test operation. At the same time, Orange Auto accelerates the application expansion from the express delivery end to the in-plant logistics, accelerates the commercialization of dimensionality reduction applications, and relies on intelligent manufacturing capabilities to meet the platform-based models of the factory's logistics scene.
Si Shizhan shared the concept of Jinsu Automobile to develop new energy logistics vehicles based on urban logistics pain points. He said that when new energy logistics vehicles can achieve autonomous driving in 2023, it will truly realize the electrification and intelligence of commercial vehicles. Through forward development and modular design, it realizes the separation of vehicle and electricity, and reduces the actual car purchase cost of customer customers, which is also one of the main directions in the future.
In his speech, Jeff Zhang shared the technical precipitation and the latest product - wide power platform controller I30 motor controller. According to reports, the power range of this product is very wide, from 40 kilowatts to 170 kilowatts, covering small vans to light trucks and pickups. There is also a variant of this product, which is currently used in many fields such as unmanned unmanned machinery. At the same time, he also shared the latest progress and advantages of Esplin IGBT integrated modules and SiC products. "Platform integrated controller products not only bring about a decrease in volume and cost, but also greatly help car companies reduce costs and increase efficiency."
The path of domestic volume breaking: going overseas + digital operation attracts attention
Yuan Lei, Executive Deputy General Manager of Marketing Company of Zhejiang Xingeo Automobile Co., Ltd., shared his experience in entering overseas markets with the topic of "Making New Energy Logistics Vehicles Serve More Countries". He said that in the face of domestic volume, car companies can try to increase exports to obtain profits, but automobile exports are a technical activity. "In the Chinese market, companies that crawl out of the heap of dead people and take it to the international market are mostly without competitors." Yuan Lei said that in the field of new energy logistics vehicles, China's first echelon is also the world's first echelon, we have no reason not to go out of China, we hope to let more consumers in the world use Chinese cars, which is also the mission of our generation of automobile companies and automobile people.
Zhang Peng, Vice President of the B-end Business Line of Aboveground Railway Car Rental (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., reviewed some of the main businesses of the aboveground railway at present. "Digital intelligent operation of new energy logistics vehicles helps ESG sustainable development". Through five years of precipitation, the aboveground railway has its own technical requirements in the selection of models, from the selection of manufacturers to the selection of three electricity, and then to after-sales and internal testing. In terms of digital services, the overground railway now has a management platform for the car to the cloud, including the APP of the overground railway and the old iron assistant APP, providing customers with a full range of service content. Compared with micro-surface electric vehicles and oil vehicles, the comprehensive efficiency can save 21% in cost; The cost of light trucks, trams and gasoline trucks can be reduced by 23%.