For the mainstream market, hybridization has become a general trend with consensus, and SAIC passenger cars with sales of nearly 500,000 in the first three quarters of this year are naturally not to be missed.
A few days ago, in the "Announcement of Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and Products" (Batch 349) issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, a brand new SUV model of Roewe - Totoro, attracted our attention.
With dimensions of 4440mm×1810mm×1634mm and wheelbase of 2625mm, the new car is a standard compact SUV model. At present, Roewe's product at this level is RX3 PRO, the three-dimensional size is only slightly different from totoro, and the wheelbase is consistent with totoro, and the body side lines and totoro also have many similarities. It can be guessed that the Totoro will be an improved model of the RX3 PRO.
The front face design of Totoro adopts an upper and lower layered design, with a through-through blue trim + Roewe letter logo at the top, and a borderless middle net design below, which is also a popular design element at present. The rear of the car also has a slight change from the RX3 PRO, mainly due to the addition of some sporty style embellishments to the lower bumper, in addition to the blue trim that echoes the design elements of the front face.
In addition, Roewe Totoro can also choose a two-color roof design, as well as a variety of rim styles, but also optional panoramic sunroof, keyless entry, 360 ° panoramic image and other configurations, compared to the RX3 PRO, totoro's appearance is more personalized.
Of course, with the existing RX3 PRO sales of about 1,000 units per month, if Totoro only upgrades its appearance, I am afraid it will not be enough to attract enough attention from the market. What really deserves attention is the eye-catching "HYBRID" logo at the rear of the car, which reveals that Totoro will be a hybrid product, and indirectly explains the meaning of the blue trim strips on the front and rear of the car.
At present, the hybrid system assembly has less information released to the public, but it may be advisable to make some speculation based on the existing information.
First of all, in terms of form, Totoro uses a plug-in hybrid system that is not a large battery and does not support external charging. Its battery supplier is Tianjin Rongsheng Mengguli, which uses ternary lithium cathode. Rongsheng Mengguli was previously a supplier of SAIC-GM-Wuling, Chery and BAIC BJEV, and its small-capacity battery cell products (6Ah) have high-power charge and discharge capabilities, which are more suitable for full hybrid architectures than weak hybrid forms such as 48V light hybrids.
In addition, in the details of the maximum speed, the data declared by Roewe Totoro is 168km/h, and as a reference, the maximum speed of the Roewe i5 CVT version can reach 180km/h. In addition to the difference in the body form of the SUV and the sedan, another part of the reason for the low maximum speed of the Roewe Totoro may be the speed limit of the spindle drive motor, which also verifies that the Roewe Totoro should be driven by the direct participation of the motor in the full hybrid form.
In terms of engines, Roewe Totoro still uses 15S4C multi-point EFI naturally aspirated engines, which are consistent with the engines on Roewe i5 and MG ZS, and the maximum power output of 88kW is also consistent with the data of the previous 15S4C engines.
Full hybrid form can effectively reduce fuel consumption and improve power performance, taking Song PLUS DM-i as an example, its power loss fuel consumption (that is, roughly regarded as the fuel consumption of non-plug-in full hybrid models) is 4.4L/100km, the minimum 100 km acceleration performance is 8.5s, and the actual fuel consumption performance of the owner is not much different from the official data, and the fuel consumption performance of congestion and other working conditions is very significant. Considering that the engine technology of Roewe Totoro is relatively old, we predict that its target fuel consumption may be within 5L/100km, and the acceleration time of 100km/h is also expected to enter 10s.
Compared with plug-in hybrids, non-plug-in full hybrids not only take into account fuel consumption and power, but also have certain advantages in terms of cost, space and vehicle weight:
• Small batteries don't take up a lot of seating or storage space in the car
• Compared to the 1.5L fuel version of the RX3 PRO, the totoro curb weight increase is about 110kg (1430kg), and the increase is relatively limited
• The overall cost is relatively controllable, and the cost savings of the battery can be used for the motor and electronic control parts of the full hybrid system
At present, the price of SAIC Passenger Vehicle's plug-in hybrid models is relatively high, subject to the cost of the battery, and its electric drive assembly part adopts a single motor + 10-speed EDU structure, in the power loss mode, the single motor has a weak ability to adjust the engine conditions, and the fuel consumption performance is not good. Therefore, we speculate that under the condition of cost permitting, Roewe Totoro is more likely to adopt the dual-motor architecture form of mainstream full hybrid models such as Honda and Toyota to achieve lower fuel consumption.
The MG6 XPOWER has excellent performance, but limited fuel consumption and price advantages
At present, the Roewe RX3 PRO is priced at 75,800-9.68 million, and under the premise of cost control, the price of roewe Totoro's main sales model is expected to be controlled at a level slightly higher than 100,000.
This is also expected to constitute the core competitiveness of Roewe Totoro - the current BYD Song PLUS DM-i and WEY Macchiato DHT and other compact SUV models with low fuel consumption as the core selling point are priced at nearly 150,000. In the range of 100,000-150,000, compact hybrid SUVs still have a large market gap.
Regardless of the impact of factors such as licenses, the pricing of Roewe Totoro may surprise users. If the product experience of the real car can stand the test, it will be a model with potential. In addition, the hybridization trend of other models of SAIC Passenger Car Roewe and MG brands is also worthy of attention.
Full hybrid is becoming the mainstream choice for the transformation of most fuel vehicles in the current market, the hot sales of BYD DM-i models fully prove the tendency of mainstream users, Great Wall, GAC and other independent brands have followed up, Nissan is also about to try e-Power hybrid assembly in mainstream market models such as Xuanyi. As China's largest car company with annual sales, SAIC Motor, its own brands naturally cannot miss this trend.
The reason behind it is also obvious: in the charging infrastructure still needs to be improved, and the emission and fuel consumption regulations are becoming more stringent, and the energy cost is rising, the full hybrid technical route effectively reduces emissions and energy costs, and avoids endurance anxiety, which is expected to become a more pragmatic car purchase choice for most users in a few years.
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The author of this article is a kick car gang Wen Feng