I remember that last year, Li Xiang, the founder of Li Auto, posted on social platforms that in the next one or two years, there will be more independent brand car companies focusing on multi-gear plug-in hybrids to choose the extended-range electric route, which can be seen in 2025. At that time, as soon as this argument came out, many car companies, especially several manufacturers that mainly focused on multi-gear DHT plug-in hybrids, successively stated that the technical route would not change, or that multi-gear DHT plug-in hybrid is the most advanced plug-in hybrid technology route at present. Many friends also said that it felt incredible, why should advanced technology retreat to more backward and simpler technology?
However, judging from the current situation, many brands and models equipped with multi-gear DHT plug-in hybrid technology are indeed not ideal in terms of sales, especially Great Wall Motors and Chery Automobile, which are very average in terms of sales of plug-in hybrid models. And like BYD, the main single-gear plug-in hybrid and many of the main extended-range electric vehicle manufacturers, sales are getting better and better, although technology and sales are not a strong correlation relationship, it stands to reason that more advanced technology, there should be more user recognition, but the reality is not so.
As we all know, the core advantage of multi-gear DHT plug-in hybrid is to take into account the power and fuel consumption, due to the existence of multiple gears, so this type of plug-in hybrid model in the state of power loss, by adjusting the gear ratio, can make the fuel consumption lower, and in the low-speed state, the engine can intervene to provide stronger power for the vehicle. Therefore, many manufacturers believe that this technology is more advanced than range extension and single-speed hybrid.
However, this advanced technology has several problems that have not been solved so far, plaguing manufacturers and potential consumers who are ready to buy vehicles.
The first is the complex structure. Manufacturers say that multi-gear DHT plug-in hybrid is advanced, part of the reason is that the structure is more complex, multi-gear compared with single-gear and extended range of the two structures without gearbox, it is indeed more complex, and complex technology will bring greater cost, which is reflected in many models. For example, latte DHT-PHEV, this car length 4668mm compact SUV model, the starting price is 229,000 yuan, and the length of the 4750mm dark blue S7 200 km model, the starting price is only 169,900 yuan!
And because of the gearbox, the front cabin space is encroached upon, and the battery volume that can be carried will be smaller, so these multi-gear DHT models, the pure electric battery life is generally not very high, which is not a good setting for many users at the moment, because many people buy this kind of car, many times, they want to be a pure electric car.
The second is that complex structures will bring more failure rates. Because the multi-gear DHT gearbox has relatively more gears, the structure is relatively more complex, compared with the single-gear plug-in hybrid and extended-range electric structure, the probability of failure is relatively much greater, and many previous complaint data also show that multi-gear DHT plug-in hybrid models are indeed prone to transmission failure, which may also be a pressure on manufacturers and consumers.
In the end, it was a setback. We have test-driven several plug-in hybrid models equipped with multi-gear DHT before, there are one or two models, the gearbox setback is obvious, the reason is actually simple, that is, many multi-gear DHT gears are still not enough, plus some front-end motors have a large torque, it will give the gearbox a great impact, resulting in obvious setbacks, and this setback, in BYD's DM-i models and extended-range electric models, is absolutely impossible.
So the shortcomings of these three cores have not been solved so far, in fact, it is at most a small shortcoming, if consumers pay more attention to power and fuel consumption, in fact, the impact is not great. The key issue is that the advantages of multi-speed DHT plug-in hybrid in terms of power and fuel consumption are not perceived by consumers most of the time.
Most consumers buy models that can be oiled and electric, basically thinking about short-distance electricity and long-distance oil, which is also the publicity path of many manufacturers, and there is no problem in nature. However, after most consumers buy a car, a lot of time and mileage are spent on short-distance commuting, that is, on the way to and from work, so many friends will plug-in hybrid cars as pure electric cars, and the engine is best not to intervene, and run so many long distances a year, along the way "half oil and half electricity", and it doesn't cost much. Therefore, single-speed plug-in hybrid and extended-range electric vehicles with longer battery life, easier to customize pure electric mode, and less likely to intervene in the engine have become a better choice.
Some friends may have said that since the advantages of multi-gear DHT technology cannot be exerted in actual scenarios, and there are obvious shortcomings and shortcomings, why can't these multi-gear DHTs be returned to single-gear plug-in hybrids, but directly return to the extended-range electric technology? At present, the single-gear plug-in hybrid technology is a more mature brand, that is, BYD, so there are still patent barriers, it is difficult for other car companies to use directly, at the same time, the extended-range electric technology as a whole is more suitable for the actual use needs of most users, and the extended-range electric technology is more conducive to the landing of high-end intelligent driving, so the extended-range electric technology may be the most reasonable alternative.