Last month, we saw a strange invention of a Korean friend -- wheel drive, and today we have seen an even more bizarre invention, which can "greatly increase" the cruising range of nearly 6 kilometers by putting on a gas skirt for electric vehicles! Are you completely stunned? However, don't underestimate these strange inventions, this company has made great progress in the United States with various innovations, and the sales of electric vehicles have ranked second, second only to Musk's Tesla!
The company is South Korea's Hyundai Motor, and this innovative invention is called Active Air Skirt (AAS), which is installed between the front wheel and the bumper, and adjusts the airflow under the bumper according to the speed of the vehicle, thereby minimizing wind resistance at high speeds, achieving longer range and better control. According to Hyundai's calculations, the Genesis GV60 electric vehicle using AAS technology can reduce the drag coefficient by 0.008, or 2.8%, and allow the vehicle to travel nearly 6 kilometers more on the highway.
Don't underestimate this 0.008 reduction, for electric vehicles, a slight reduction in drag coefficient is precious, because compared to gasoline vehicles, lithium-ion batteries have a very low energy density. For example, a liter of gasoline contains 8.5 kWh of energy, while a lithium-ion battery is only about 0.8 kWh/L, and a car with 8 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers consumes 68 kWh of energy for every 100 kilometers driven. The battery of the new Tesla Model 3 is 66 kWh, which is about the same, but the range is 610 kilometers.
In other words, Tesla's battery only contains the energy of the car to travel 100 kilometers, but it has to travel 600 kilometers, which is determined by the low energy density of lithium-ion batteries compared to gasoline, you can add more gas, but you can't stuff an extra battery into the battery pack, so every innovation that can reduce power consumption is very meaningful.
When the speed of the car is lower than 80 km/h, it hides between the front wheels and the bumper and does not work, when the speed is higher than 80 km/h, the fence will be actively lowered, disturbing part of the airflow through the front wheels, thereby improving aerodynamics, increasing the downforce of the front of the vehicle, and improving the traction and high-speed stability of the vehicle. When the speed of the vehicle is below 70 km/h, the AAS will rise again and hide.
According to Hyundai, they are also incorporating various innovative technologies such as rear spoilers, active air baffles, wheel air curtains, wheel gap reducers, and separation traps into the vehicle to minimize the drag coefficient. Through these technological innovations, they have reduced the wind resistance of the IONIQ 6 to 0.21, which is the lowest of all production cars in the world, and I took a look, and the new Tesla model 3 is 0.219, so there is probably no problem with this statement.
However, if there is only this seemingly strange innovation, you are underestimating South Korean Hyundai, the strange wheel drive technology I introduced last time, Uni Wheel, with planetary gears instead of universal joints, transmission shafts and other major components, and integrated into the wheel hub, the position of the engine, reducer and transmission shaft is completely vacated, while greatly increasing the interior space of the car, it also reduces the weight of the car, improves the transmission efficiency, and can even install more batteries to bring greater mileage. They claim to be a paradigm shift in the field of electric vehicles, which will potentially revolutionize the way electric vehicles are driven, revolutionizing the electric vehicle industry.
Then in December, they introduced a new tyre that looks a little weird, with its own retractable invisible snow chains to make winter driving safer. Specifically, the tires have radial grooves in them, and modules made of shape memory alloy are installed inside, and when you press a button in the car when passing through the snow, these modules will unfold and protrude from the wheels, thus providing a snow chain-like grip, and when you press it again after the snow, it will retract and hide. Isn't it convenient and fast, you don't have to get out of the car and brave the cold to put on snow chains, a finger can solve the problem, no wonder they say it may be a game changer for snow tires.
So take a look, Hyundai has a disruptive innovation - wheel drive, a brain-opening innovation - anti-skid tires, and an active air skirt that does not let go of refined innovation that even increases the range of 6 kilometers, and is always on the road of innovation, so the results are also very significant. According to statistics, South Korea's Hyundai sold 117,000 electric vehicles in the United States last year, beating Ford and GM and ranking second behind Tesla.