Is rear-wheel steering technology worth buying?
Following the "big color TV", air suspension, and automatic parking, domestic new energy vehicles began to seize the high ground of rear-wheel steering.
On January 1 this year, Xpeng X9 was launched, all models are equipped with active rear-wheel steering system, and the official publicity said that the minimum turning diameter of the new car is 10.8 meters, making this MPV model with a body length of nearly 5.3 meters turn more smoothly in narrow roads, and also make rear-wheel steering technology the focus of attention.
In fact, before that, some models of the Zhiji L7 have also been equipped with four-wheel steering as standard, so that this medium and large sedan with a length of nearly 5.1 meters can achieve a turning radius as low as 5.4 meters.
However, rear-wheel steering is still not a commonly used automotive technology in the world, and it has only been equipped with a few luxury models priced at more than 500,000 yuan. Nowadays, in order to "roll" to win friends, independent new energy brands have a trend of rear-wheel steering technology. For consumers, the most direct advantage of rear-wheel steering is to reduce the turning radius of the vehicle, so that "big cars can also make small corners".
However, this "high-end" configuration, high R&D costs, high repair and maintenance costs, etc., are also very prominent, which will eventually translate into the cost of car purchase and use for consumers.
Rear-wheel steering, is it really worth the money consumers spend?
Domestic trams, began to "roll" turns
With the deepening of electrification, independent new energy vehicle brands have begun to deploy in the medium and large vehicle market. In order to win the competition with fuel vehicles, the size, volume and weight of domestic new energy vehicles are becoming larger and larger, and "large cars" have gradually become the mainstream of the market.
However, consumers have put forward higher requirements for the driving experience of new energy vehicles, and solving the historical problem of "difficult to drive a big car" has become a compulsory course for major car companies - new energy vehicles should also have the driving experience of luxury cars and even performance cars.
At present, BMW X5, Porsche Cayenne, Lamborghini Urus and other luxury cars priced at more than 500,000 yuan are equipped with rear-wheel steering function, in addition to reducing the turning radius, it can also make the vehicle more agile when cornering at low speed, and more stable when cornering at high speed.
Promotional description of the Xpeng X9 rear-wheel steering system (Source: Xpeng Motors' official website)
For this reason, rear-wheel steering technology has also begun to appear in domestic new energy vehicles, and the price of related models is much lower than that of the above-mentioned luxury cars. For example, the Xpeng X9, which is equipped with rear-wheel steering as standard, is priced at 359,800~419,800 yuan, while Zhiji's L7 Dynamic and L7 Pro are equipped with four-wheel steering systems, and the prices of the two models are 368,800 yuan and 408,800 yuan respectively.
Promotional description of the Zhiji L7 four-wheel steering system (Source: Zhiji Auto's official website)
As a result, rear-wheel steering, a technology that was once basically only equipped in luxury cars and performance cars, began to appear in new energy vehicles below 500,000 yuan. With the cooperation of intelligent driving assistance functions, rear-wheel steering has become a powerful tool for car companies to promote driving performance and parking convenience.
However, is this feature that has been heavily advertised at the car company's new car launch event really so flawless, and is it really exceptionally friendly to novice drivers?
The "catch the horse" moment of the rear-wheel steering
Consumers have to pay a monetary price for using advanced technology, and this threshold is still very high at this stage.
There's no denying that rear-wheel steering technology does bring superior handling and agility to cars, but it inevitably comes with some drawbacks.
Vehicles with this cutting-edge technology require more investment in the R&D and manufacturing process. Due to the complex mechanical and electronic systems involved, the R&D cost of rear-wheel steering systems is relatively high for car manufacturers, and these additional R&D costs will eventually be borne by consumers, which also makes the price of vehicles equipped with rear-wheel steering systems relatively high.
Mercedes-Benz launched a paid service for the rear-wheel steering function (Source: Mercedes-Benz official WeChat public account)
Previously, Mercedes-Benz provided paid unlocking rear-wheel steering services for owners who purchased EQS 450+ Pioneer Edition, at a cost of 4998 yuan a year, the active steering angle of the rear wheels of the vehicle was increased from 4.5 degrees to 10 degrees, and the turning diameter was reduced to 10.9 meters, and the owner could experience it for free for three months, and the Zhiji L7 Elite model priced at 338,000 yuan also needed to spend 16,800 yuan to install an optional four-wheel steering system.
The Zhiji L7 Elite model costs 16,800 yuan to install an optional four-wheel steering system (Source: Zhiji Auto's official website)
In addition to the purchase cost, the maintenance cost of rear-wheel steering is also relatively high. Due to the large number of cutting-edge components that are often used in rear-wheel steering systems, these components are relatively expensive to manufacture and repair. Therefore, once the rear-wheel steering system fails, consumers need to pay high repair costs.
In addition to high manufacturing and repair costs, rear-wheel steering systems can also have high defect costs. The rear-wheel steering system is made up of a large number of components, and if one component fails, the entire rear-wheel steering system may not work, causing the vehicle to not function properly. As a result, rear-wheel steering systems require additional maintenance and upkeep measures, which also increases the cost of daily vehicle maintenance for consumers.
Therefore, although domestic new energy vehicles have the courage to reduce the price of models equipped with rear-wheel steering technology, the high cost to consumers when they actually use the car is still an important factor restricting the full rollout of this technology.
In addition, the main application scenarios of rear-wheel steering are narrow roads, busy parking lots and other places where there are many cars and narrow roads, so if you want to maximize the effect of rear-wheel steering, you also need to cooperate with intelligent driving assistance functions such as automatic parking, which puts forward higher requirements for the R&D and manufacturing level of car companies. If the intelligent driving assistance function is not performed well, it may also have a negative impact on the reputation of rear-wheel steering.
At present, for new energy vehicles, in addition to the conventional competitive items such as mileage, charging speed, and human-computer interaction, the handling performance of the vehicle will also be a new competitive highland. Then, it will also be unknown whether consumers are willing to spend more money on related models or pay for additional installations in order to improve the driving experience.
To sum up, rear-wheel steering technology can indeed improve the driving experience of new energy vehicles, especially so that independent brand new energy vehicles can gain more advantages in the competition with fuel vehicles at the same price. However, the objective disadvantages of high manufacturing costs and high consumption costs cannot help but put a question mark on the future of rear-wheel steering.