Electric pickup trucks are a brand new category in the market, and at first glance, many people will think that "electric" and "pickup" are not related, or even contradictory to each other, but is this really the case?
This should be called a multi-purpose vehicle
In fact, the title of multi-purpose vehicle is actually a little unfair for pickup trucks, in a sense, the adaptability, use scenarios, and loading capacity of pickup trucks are far more and stronger than SUVs. Now that pickup trucks are being accepted by more and more consumers, we have found that they can play to their advantages in a variety of vehicle use scenarios.
However, most of our current domestic pickup products are still in the stage of meeting the basic needs, or the general perception of tool cars, cheap products, but this market demand has been found by more and more manufacturers, such as the Great Wall, Jiangling Ford has begun to bring some "high-quality" products in the field of fuel pickups.
But in the field of electric pickups, radar is the first brand to get involved, after the previous launch of the RD6 for makers, now there is a four-wheel drive version of the horizon added to the product matrix, so after a pickup truck is electrocuted, what new function points will it bring? What are the differences compared to the previous pickup trucks?
First of all, one of the most obvious changes is the qualitative change brought about by electrification, which is no longer a simple cargo machine, but a passenger car with more diversified uses, such as L2+ intelligent assisted driving, intelligent interaction, and Alipay ecological applications, to get close to the actual needs of mass consumers for daily cars.
Secondly, because its power source becomes electric energy, then it has a unique 21kW full-scene discharge function, which is unique in the current pickup truck industry, which can meet the needs of 380V industrial/commercial and 220V household discharge, so after driving this car to the destination, its vehicle attributes can be extended here, becoming a "super power plant", and then people's car life is enriched and extended.
In addition, the loading capacity is stronger, the peak total torque of the dual motors before and after the radar horizon can reach 594N·m, which makes its maximum rated load reach 865kg, which is a big increase in the loading capacity of traditional pickups, so it can be at ease in outdoor play, agricultural and fishery transportation and emergency rescue, etc.; and it has a towing capacity of 3 tons, such as RVs, yachts, motorcycles and other "big toys" that increase the fun of outdoor play, and take it away.
Finally, it is the adaptability of road conditions, pickup trucks are also used by many people as off-road vehicles, in the next door, desert, no man's land and other places have traces of pickup infested, then this point is actually a core point to enhance the fun of using the car, back to the radar horizon this car, what kind of different experience will it bring?
It's really fun
We are no strangers to the product characteristics of electrification, and we all know that one of the most obvious characteristics of electrification is the leap in power performance.
Before, there are two main types of products for the brand of pickup trucks, first of all, the first one, the tool car at the public price, the main function is to pull goods, the torque of diesel is greater, but it is also to meet the rigid needs, want this car to be fun? That is not very realistic; the second is to play as the main attribute, 6-cylinder, 8-cylinder engine, with supercharging, turbo, generally appear in the scene of cross-country crossing, fun is really fun, but it is really expensive.
At this time, it is more difficult to want a reasonably priced and fun car, after all, that kind of large-displacement engine will not appear on a product of about 200,000. Then at this time, the advantages of electrification are revealed, just like the radar horizon, with the blessing of the front and rear dual motors, the playability of this car is greatly improved.
Usually the driving characteristics of pickup trucks are generally slightly clumsy, but for the radar horizon, the feeling after pressing the accelerator pedal is like other electric vehicles, light and smooth, and the acceleration of 4 seconds will really make people feel in a trance, is this really a pickup truck?
In addition to the power source to bring people enough freshness, the chassis of this pickup truck is not unusual, no girder, independent suspension, because it is pure electric, so the strength of the vehicle chassis no longer needs the girder to bless, then in exchange for higher comfort, I have to sigh, when sitting behind the pickup, it will finally not be upside down.
So the advantage of this is that when you use the car in daily life, the performance of the chassis becomes softer, and it is no longer the driving feeling of a truck, but the performance of a passenger car, just like an SUV with a cargo body, which may be slightly harder under the bumps, but the overall comfort is much more comfortable than the traditional pickup.
But at this time, there is no need to worry about whether this pickup can cope with bad roads, and it can even be said that bad roads are like a playground for this car.
Needless to say, the stronger power makes climbing too easy, the millisecond four-wheel drive response can bring better grip on the low adhesion road surface such as sand and gravel, and more importantly, it switches to four-wheel drive automatically, even if you don't adjust the driving mode to off-road, you don't have to worry about skidding.
The wading depth of 815 mm can be easily handled on most wading roads, and the minimum turning radius of 3.5 meters can be called flexible for a car of this size, which is more flexible in the forest or in the mountain stream, like some large off-road vehicles can not reach the place, this car can be reached in a more relaxed attitude.
The most important point is that the radar horizon can lower the threshold of off-road this thing a lot, and some of the off-road experience accumulated before is not needed when driving this car, such as gentle fueling, fine control of power, or when to switch to four-wheel drive, etc.
These things are basically all wrapped up in the vehicle, deliberately simulated in some scenarios, such as the sand and gravel slope of the in-situ start, cross axle, wading and other scenes that most people will encounter when traveling, the distribution of power is very intelligent, for the driver, what needs to be done is to control the speed and direction, and the rest is completely handed over to the vehicle, and it can even be said that as long as it is a person who can drive, you can feel the different fun through this car.
In this case, the use scenarios of radar horizon have become diverse, from the perspective of play, such as the hot suburban camping or suburban crossing route in recent years, radar horizon can be a good choice, on this basis, this performance is also a powerful assistant in some work field scenarios, such as animal and plant protection industry, mine engineering operations, etc., to find a balance between all-round and interesting attributes.
Is electrification a perfect match for pickup trucks?
Finally, I would like to talk about a question, after coming into contact with products such as electric pickup trucks, I seem to have found the best use case for electric vehicles.
The development of new energy for so many years, has derived more technical routes from simple pure electric and plug-in hybrid, just like the platform used by the radar horizon also supports range extender and plug-in hybrid, the reason why a variety of power forms are reserved for the vehicle at the beginning of the design, the root is the applicability of new energy in China.
China's auto market has outstanding complexity and diversity in the world, with a large geographical span, concentrated cities, and super cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen and their derivative living circles.
One by one, the most direct way to improve the battery life is to install a large battery, then this requires the vehicle itself to have such a large space;
So at this time, we have to think about what car scenarios are most suitable for the development of pure electric products, and now I seem to have an answer: pickups.
First of all, from the product itself, the size of the pickup truck is large enough, so it can arrange a battery with a larger capacity at the bottom of the vehicle, like a maximum of 140kWh power battery for radar, which will increase the range of such a big guy to more than 800 kilometers, basically covering the car needs of the vast majority of consumers.
The second is the use of pickup trucks and scenes, now the highest frequency of pickup trucks in the country is basically towns and other places, this kind of area and was previously reported charging difficult, charging queue of the first and second tier cities are different? That's right, population density, in such a use environment, charging does not need to consume too much time, energy and cost.
At the same time, after the pickup truck is electrified, it is relative to the same kind of pickup truck on the market before, the intelligence has also been strengthened, some people may say that this kind of tool car to what intelligence, is completely redundant, but you must know that now many towns and towns of the agricultural process has been linked to intelligence, electric pickup truck relies on the network and perfect discharge interface, can become a vehicle agricultural management platform.
The so-called tool car also has to keep pace with the times, pickup trucks in China is actually a category that has been "pressed at the bottom", which is actually in the hearts of consumers in the past, many people also take pickup trucks as trucks, with the entry of some overseas high-end pickup trucks into the market in recent years, as well as the improvement of pickup trucks by domestic manufacturers, consumers began to understand that this thing can still play like this.
The last point is economy, electric pickup truck compared with the same price of fuel pickup, its car cost is obviously lower than that of oil car, such users on the follow-up car cost perception is also more obvious, this will also become a more important reference point when the follow-up consumer chooses.
Of course, in the end, some people may say, didn't you say that the fun attributes of electric pickups are stronger? That's right, but compared to the rigid needs of the township car crowd, this kind of car for play is still relatively a minority, so if it chooses an electric pickup, then this car must be the second or third car in the family, so for the rigid needs, there are other cars that can meet the long-distance distance, and this family condition is not difficult for independent charging.
Therefore, in summary, electric pickup trucks are likely to be the most reasonable and practical category of electrification products at present, and the market in which it is located is also a market segment with an accurate audience.