Range extension is not a backward technology, on the contrary, I think it is a particularly good development route.
What is Range Extender?
A simple and crude one-sentence analysis is a pure electric vehicle with a generator on its back, which is composed of an engine, a battery, and a motor, of course, the engine here does not directly drive the vehicle, so the rigorous name should be "range extender", or "generator".
Many people think that the electric car that burns oil has an extra energy conversion and wastes more, and this kind of technology that even junior high school students know is too low and not advanced.
The combination of the two logics leads to the conclusion that "the range extension technology is too backward".
In fact, on the contrary, a good technology should have two very good characteristics, one is "pervasiveness" and the other is "direct user perception".
The extended range is because of the simple structure, so the manufacturing and design costs are very low, and can be built at a lower cost, because of the 100% motor drive, enjoy the characteristics of fast acceleration and strong ride brought by the motor era, and the most important thing is that from the point of view of the results, the fuel consumption of the extended range is at least 30% less than the fuel consumption of the oil car.
So, is range extension still a set of outdated technologies?
In fact, it is not important to fall behind, the important thing is to bring a new way of travel, and popularize this sense of experience, if you have to say that the range is lagging behind, in fact, there is another view.
Range extension is a technology with a low threshold but an extremely high ceiling.
It is very difficult to build a good range extender, and a strong range extender is needed, with better thermal efficiency, stability, power generation capacity and NVH, and if you can add No. 92 oil, it must be another breakthrough.
In addition, it is also important whether high-efficiency 10,000-speed motors can be mass-produced on a large scale and at low cost, and the most important thing is that there is still room for improvement in high-density, flash-charged and flash-discharge battery technology.
This is not only a problem that needs to be faced with range extension, but also a problem that all new energy vehicles need to consider, electrification has lowered the threshold for car manufacturing, but if you want to create a top-level electric vehicle, the pressure is still very high.
Another reason why many companies are willing to choose range extension technology is that range extension technology is essentially an "electric car" in the field of automation, because it is 100% all-wheel electric drive and does not need to consider the problem of engine intervention, so the design ceiling of autonomous driving is higher and better.
For example, Huawei's ADS 2.0 intelligent driving system is equipped with such solutions, whether it is EV or range extension, the engine is not allowed to directly participate in the drive, and the shift logic, speed, etc. will directly affect the design difficulty of autonomous driving.
Essentially, range extender is a very good powertrain.
The reason why many people complain about range extension is essentially complaining about the arrogant ideal car, Li Xiang's own disrespect for technology and industry, as well as the capital attitude behind the high price of ideal car, make many people have emotional resistance to the ideal car with and only the range extension technology route.
Many people hate range extension in fact, but if only from a technical point of view, range extension is a set of promising technology, and more and more companies have begun to choose the range extension route, which also shows that the range extension technology in the market development of new opportunities.