In June last year, Ferrari publicly stated that it would launch 15 new cars between 2023 and 2026, of which the first new pure electric vehicle will be launched in 2025, and will develop and manufacture its own electric motors, inverters and battery modules.
After the global automotive industry entered the era of "carbon neutrality", Ferrari and other supercar brands also began to find another way, electric vehicle products have become a new breakthrough point, but because of the lack of internal combustion engines, how to make up for the disappearance of the iconic "exhaust sound" has been inconclusive.
Recently, Ferrari's electric vehicle patent application map was exposed, and an exclusive sound technology patent was registered at the same time. As soon as this news came out, many Ferrari crowded to ask questions, maybe everyone can only listen to it after three years?
01
Will the first electric car be air-cooled?
It is reported that from the exposed patent picture, we can see that Ferrari's future all-electric car will continue the family elements and keep the two-door two-seat structure unchanged. In the most critical powertrain layout, although it still remains mid-mounted, the engine has become a battery pack.
As we all know, most family cars on the market have adopted chassis battery integration technology, that is, the power battery pack is buried under the chassis, which naturally saves space in the car. But this layout also brings an unavoidable embarrassing problem, that is, the chassis will increase a lot of height, thereby increasing the overall body height.
Such a result may not matter to family cars, but for a supercar like Ferrari, it will increase a lot of air resistance at high speed, and this design is not in line with the "low-profile" supercar tunality, so it is scientific and reasonable to put the battery pack in the position of the original mid-engine.
In addition to this mid-mounted battery compartment, there are four smaller battery compartment cars arranged under the seats on the floor, which can be understood as adding a certain range to the car.
In addition, many industry insiders pointed out that in the patent application map released by Ferrari, Ferrari proposed at least two sets of power solutions, namely hybrid and pure electric systems.
In terms of heat dissipation, the car will use an air-cooled design to help the battery pack dissipate heat, and as can be seen from the patent drawing, the rear of the subframe with a large battery is slightly tilted upward. This design can both generate downforce on the vehicle and also cool the battery, while the fins of the rear diffuser can also become huge radiators.
02
"Electronic sound" will be the only way out for supercars?
Since the global market of pure electric vehicles has been opened, the discussion about "electronic sound" has never stopped. Some industry experts have said that pure electric vehicles have no exhaust sound and only electric sound when driving, so the perception of road participants in the same scene is relatively weak, which increases traffic safety hazards to a certain extent.
Therefore, adding electronic analog sound waves to pure electric vehicles can be said to not only meet the psychological needs of car owners, but also improve road safety. Of course, it is illegal to add and modify electronic acoustic wave generators without permission, but if car companies integrate this component when designing and manufacturing new cars, it is within a reasonable range.
In fact, as the global emission threshold becomes higher and higher, whether it is a supercar such as Ferrari or most ordinary family cars, it will be transformed to pure electric in the future, and the time when the engine exhaust sound completely disappears is probably getting closer and closer.
The so-called electronic sound wave, the principle is to use electronic control equipment, real-time detection of vehicle motion state, and synthesize the sound corresponding to the state of the car, the sound wave through the amplifier amplification through the speaker installed outside the car sound, the synthesized sound can mostly simulate the sound of 6-12 cylinder internal combustion engine.
Ferrari's patented sound technology is slightly different, allowing the vehicle system to measure the resonant frequency of electric motors, gearboxes, differentials and even wheels, and then amplify these sounds through the resonators to produce sounds associated with the speed of the motor.
Since the sound wave current is variable, after the sound wave current is amplified by the resonator, the corresponding sound effect can be produced by the motor at different speeds.
Compared with the analog sound provided by electric vehicles currently on the market, the sound produced by Ferrari's pure electric vehicle sound effect patent will be more realistic and more intuitively reflect the current speed of the electric motor.
The trend of pure electric vehicles is irreversible, the exhaust sound of the internal combustion engine will disappear sooner or later, for these car companies that focus on manufacturing top supercars, electronic simulation sound may be the only way out, and what can be done can only be continuously optimized in the later stage, so that customers passively accept.