Under the wave of new energy transformation of automobiles, Honda, as the vanguard of traditional joint venture car companies, is also actively planning the transformation and development of electrification. Over the past 25 years, Honda has gained recognition from more than 18 million users in China. In order to continue to bring more powerful models to Chinese users in the next new energy market. ON APRIL 16, HONDA CHINA UNVEILED A NEW ELECTRIC BRAND BUILT WITH THE NEEDS OF CHINESE USERS AS THE CORE, ALONG WITH THE YE, 7 AND P7 MODELS, WHICH WILL BE LAUNCHED AT THE END OF THIS YEAR, AND THE YEG GT CONCEPT, A PURE ELECTRIC COUPE CONCEPT CAR THAT IS EXPECTED TO BE MASS-PRODUCED AND LAUNCHED IN 2025.
According to Honda China, Honda will achieve 100% full electrification by 2035. The all-new Ye brand will launch six models in China by 2027. "Ye S7" and "Ye P7" are the first models of the "Ye" brand, and "Ye GT CONCEPT" is the second model of the "Ye" brand. At present, the "Ye S7" and "Ye P7" are likely to be sister models, and will be produced by Dongfeng Honda and Guangqi Honda respectively.
The "Ye" brand contains "Hua" and the amount has risen sharply
In fact, as early as 2021, Honda was already trying to transform into electrification, and Honda China released the electrification brand e:N at that time, and successively produced the e:NP1 and e:NS1 in China. Unfortunately, due to the lack of preparation for these two products, the product power is not high, and the final response is mediocre.
With the release of the "Ye" brand, Honda has fully absorbed the previous experience and made a large number of changes based on Chinese localization. It is reported that the new brand is based on the needs of Chinese users, with Chinese research and development, Chinese intelligent manufacturing, and independent design by local teams. In addition to the models of the "Ye" brand equipped with CATL batteries, local suppliers such as Huawei, Hangsheng Electronics, and iFLYTEK rarely appear in the supplier list, which can be said to be full of localization attributes
In addition to the selection of many local Chinese suppliers by parts suppliers, the model designer team of the "Ye" brand is also entirely from China. According to the introduction, the average age of the "Ye" brand designer team is 32 years old, which is a fairly young design team, mostly composed of post-90s. A team of designers of this age group can also better examine the needs of Chinese car buyers, and better meet the needs and scenarios of Chinese users in terms of model design and functional support.
Not only is the design from China, but the technical foundation of the "Ye" brand also comes from the development of the Chinese market. The "Ye" brand adopts Honda's intelligent and efficient pure electric "W" architecture, which is exclusive to the new generation of pure electric vehicles created by Honda for Chinese consumers. This architecture is equipped with a "three-in-one" high-power drive motor and a large-capacity and high-density battery with an integrated die-cast all-aluminum shell, and a specially designed split isolated battery cooling system is adopted, which greatly improves the safety factor of the power battery pack. This also has a certain help for the rigidity and driving performance of the whole vehicle, and further improves the user's car experience.
"Ye S7" and "Ye P7" will be launched at the end of the year
At the "Ye" brand press conference, Honda officially unveiled three new models of the "Ye" brand, among which the pure electric coupe concept car Ye GT CONCEPT is very sporty. The overall swooping stance and features such as the sports rear wing all underline its positioning as a sports coupe, although the production model may not be available until 2025.
ALTHOUGH THE YE GT CONCEPT WILL NOT BE RELEASED UNTIL 2025, THE OTHER TWO MODELS, THE YE S7 AND YE P7, will be officially launched in the Chinese market at the end of this year. Judging from the information revealed at the press conference, the two new models will use front double wishbone rear five-link suspension, with two drive systems of rear-wheel drive and dual motors, and a 50:50 weight ratio. For safety, an all-aluminum battery case is also made and equipped with a special skeleton for electric vehicles with "high rigidity and strong toughness", with hot-stamping steel accounting for more than 24% and torsional rigidity of 40,000 Nm/kWh. In addition, in terms of space, thanks to Honda's proud MM concept, the new model is likely to have a longer wheelbase, which will make the interior more spacious, and the high-damping seats will also ensure ride comfort.
It is worth noting that "Ye S7" and "Ye P7" may jointly create a more advanced and better experience automotive intelligent cockpit system with Huawei's intelligent cockpit technology and iFLYTEK's voice control technology. In addition, "Ye S7" and "Ye P7" also support OTA online upgrade, which can continuously enrich and upgrade vehicle functions, and is also equipped with highly expansible FoD services, including R super mode and V exclusive mode. The "Ye S7" and "Ye P7" integrate Honda SENSING 360+ and Honda CONNECT 4.0 into the intelligent digital cockpit, combined with advanced active AI intelligent technology, to provide Chinese users with an easy-to-use, easy-to-drive, and more secure driving experience.
Through the press conference of Honda's "Ye" brand, it can be seen that Honda has considerable determination in the new energy transformation level, and has been taking action. The release of Honda's "Ye" brand this time officially sounded the clarion call for Honda's "counterattack" in the electric field. Although the three new models unveiled together have performed well, whether they can really succeed in the Chinese market is one thing, technology is one thing, and price is more critical. It is hoped that Honda can learn from the pricing mistakes made in the past on the Extreme brand models, formulate a truly competitive pricing for the "Ye" brand, and go further and more steadily on the new energy electric track.