This core component, which has been gradually forgotten in the era of new energy vehicles, has also begun to roll in?
On April 8, GAC Group announced that it has once again made a major breakthrough in the thermal efficiency of its engines, with the indicated thermal efficiency of a single-cylinder engine exceeding 52.5% and the effective thermal efficiency of a multi-cylinder engine that can be installed on the whole vehicle exceeding 46%.
As we all know, the engine is one of the three major parts of traditional automobiles, and for fuel vehicles, it can almost determine the position of the product in the market. However, in the new energy era of competing motor speed, battery capacity, and intelligent cockpit/driving, the focus of the engine is far less than before.
It is worth noting that GAC Group is not the first or only Chinese car company to announce engine research and development results recently, before that, Chery Group's 2.0L high-end advanced hybrid engine was successfully ignited, Dongfeng Company's Mach electric hybrid PHREV hybrid engine announced a thermal efficiency of 45.18%, and there are plans to further improve, Changan Automobile released the new Blue Whale power in March, and the engine is also regarded as a key ......
It seems that the roar of the engine has not gone away, and has even become more and more loud, and why is this?
Roll-up engine technology Thermal efficiency is the focus
Nowadays, electrification and intelligent transformation are absolutely high-frequency words in the automotive industry. Compared with the engine, the battery, motor, chip, algorithm, etc. are more like the technical points that the automotive industry needs to focus on, in fact, the key points of the automotive industry's technological involution are also these.
However, engine technology seems to be being re-emphasized. According to the official account of GAC Group, the independent R&D team of GAC Powertrain has carried out fine optimization of the combustion process in the cylinder based on the patented combustion control technology of GAC GCCS, combined with turbulent jet ignition technology to improve the ignition energy, ensure the reliable ignition of the lean mixture and the stable expansion of the flame, realize the in-depth optimization of the combustion process, and finally realize the indicated thermal efficiency of the single-cylinder engine exceeding 52.5%, and the effective thermal efficiency of the multi-cylinder engine that can be equipped with the whole vehicle exceeding 46%, and continue to move towards the effective thermal efficiency of 50%.
Not long ago, at the Dongfeng Fengshen L7 press conference, You Zheng, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and deputy general manager of Dongfeng Company, mentioned in the introduction of Dongfeng Company's technical reserves that in recent years, Dongfeng has continued to lead the industry in the breakthrough of the core technology of hybrid special engines, and the thermal efficiency has continued to create a record of thermal efficiency of hybrid special engines, creating the industry's first highest thermal efficiency of 41.07% three years ago, and exceeding 45% in 2023 At the same time, the thermal efficiency of the engine under development has exceeded 47% and will exceed 48% in 2026, and the new technology pre-research with thermal efficiency exceeding 50% is being carried out.
Changan Automobile also mentioned when releasing the new Blue Whale Power that the new Blue Whale Power has a mass production thermal efficiency of 44.28% with a 500bar ultra-high pressure fuel injection system, a 1.45 stroke bore ratio and a 150mJ high-energy ignition technology. After laboratory testing, the reserve thermal efficiency can reach 47.03%, and the successful ignition of Chery Group's 2.0L high-end advanced hybrid engine mentioned in the news that Chery i-HEC 5.0 fifth-generation intelligent combustion system has the ultimate potential, and the thermal efficiency is expected to be further improved, achieving the ultimate and leading the development of the industry......
In fact, as early as 2019, the Japanese car company Mazda brought an internal combustion engine SKYACTIV-X with the highest compression ratio at that time, from the first generation of SKYACTIV-G to the second generation of SKYACTIV-X, Mazda increased the compression ratio of the internal combustion engine to 16:1, and the thermal efficiency reached an astonishing 50%, which is 7% higher than Toyota's TNGA engine.
Today, Mazda's record is broken by GAC Group's thermal efficiency of 52.5%.
An automotive engine engineer once told the editor of "Caiquan Society & Daoge Says Che" that in the era of traditional fuel vehicles, it is remarkable that the thermal efficiency of automobile engines exceeds 40%, and it is difficult to achieve a thermal efficiency of 45%. However, judging from the fanatical pursuit of thermal efficiency of engines by several car companies, it seems that "40% is not enough, 45% is not high, and 50% smiles". Of course, the technology development of car companies still has to be applied to products in the end, and the fanatical pursuit of engine thermal efficiency also comes from market needs.
Mazda's HCCI technology is currently installed in the second-generation SKYACTIV-X engine, and the Mazda 3 Nexera and Mazda CX-30 are also available in the landing.
The rise of plug-in hybrids Engine thermal efficiency has become a key technical indicator
"New energy vehicles equipped with this engine will significantly reduce fuel consumption and achieve energy conservation and emission reduction," said GAC Group when announcing the breakthrough in engine thermal efficiency. In fact, this is also the ultimate goal of the above car companies to pursue engine thermal efficiency, that is, to reduce the fuel consumption of their new energy vehicles and enhance their competitiveness.
Of course, since the engine is mentioned, the new energy vehicles they refer to are naturally plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV, REEV). From a market perspective, from 2023, the sales of plug-in hybrid models will begin to show a blowout growth, and in 2023, China's new energy vehicle sales will reach 9.495 million units, a year-on-year increase of 37.9%. Among them, 6.685 million pure electric vehicles were electric, up 24.6% year-on-year, and plug-in hybrid vehicles were 2.804 million, up 84.7% year-on-year.
From January to February this year, the sales growth rate of plug-in hybrids significantly exceeded that of pure electric vehicles. According to the data, from January to February, the sales of pure electric vehicles were 740,000, a year-on-year increase of 11.7%, and the sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles were 467,000, a year-on-year increase of 72.8%. It's clear that the plug-in hybrid vehicle market is on the rise. Since 2023, car companies have also paid special attention to the field of plug-in hybrid models, and even joint venture car companies that have disdained plug-in hybrid models in the past have launched plug-in hybrid versions of existing models, such as the Buick GL8 PHEV that will be launched at the Beijing Auto Show.
Engine thermal efficiency is a key indicator, after all, energy efficiency has always been the meaning of the birth of new energy vehicles. It is worth mentioning that even from a market perspective, high engine thermal efficiency is also a huge help for model sales and even brand development. In 2020, BYD's DM-i super hybrid technology was launched, and one of the key highlights was the thermal efficiency of the 1.5L engine for Xiaoyun-plug-in hybrid with a thermal efficiency of 43%, which was the world's most thermally efficient mass-produced gasoline engine at that time.
In the process of BYD's domination of the Chinese auto market, plug-in hybrid models have also been contributing to the key force, data shows that from January to March, BYD's pure electric sales increased by 13.4% year-on-year to 264,600 units, and plug-in hybrid sales increased by 14.48% year-on-year to 283,300 units.
In the context of the penetration rate of new energy vehicles has exceeded 30%, traditional fuel vehicles have indeed shown a weakening trend. However, the engine does not seem to be there yet, and even ushered in a "second spring" in the context of the rise of plug-in hybrid models. Next, the focus of car companies' involution may not be limited to "electrified" technology.