For a long time, the MPV market has been the world of joint venture brands, and the mid-to-high-end market is firmly occupied by models such as Buick GL8 and Toyota Sena, while the high-end market is dominated by models such as Toyota Alpha and Lexus LM. With the rise of Chinese automakers in the new energy era, the market structure dominated by joint venture brands is being reconstructed.
It's only a matter of time before the MPV market changes hands. In 2021, the first plug-in hybrid MPV, the VOYAH Dreamer, was launched, marking the official entry of Chinese automakers' new energy offensive into the MPV market.
It was also from this time that the joint venture MPV represented by the United States began to come out of the monopoly market. The joint venture MPV, which once required a price increase, now inevitably needs to be discounted.
Finally, Buick also launched a plug-in hybrid version of the GL8 this year, two generations later than Chinese brands such as VOYAH and Denza, further proving the forward-looking and correct nature of Chinese brands.
Why is MPV more compatible with plug-in hybrid?
For Chinese people, MPV is actually not unfamiliar. It was born out of business use, naturally suitable for business travel and business reception, and now MPV is integrated into family travel use, can provide the most suitable for multi-person commuting or travel.
With the advent of the new energy revolution, MPVs also have a strong motivation to bid farewell to the pure fuel era.
In the past, the trade-off between energy economy and power performance has always plagued large-size MPV models. With a high-powered engine, fuel consumption for daily commuting is unbearable, and most MPVs choose to sacrifice power and driving experience in order to meet low cost of ownership and environmental requirements.
Compared to sedans and SUVs, MPVs need to be optimized for business use. In the actual business travel connection, there are often scenes of waiting for passengers, and the engine is idle for a long time, which not only consumes fuel but also affects the service life, and its shaking and noise make the people on the car experience poor.
Pure fuel power must be eliminated, but at the same time, pure electric is not completely suitable for MPVs. When used for business connection, the existing energy replenishment speed and energy replenishment facilities of pure electric vehicles are difficult to meet the requirements of high-frequency round-trips and rapid response, and when used for family travel, the three generations of a family sit in the car and wait for charging, which is also more embarrassing and difficult.
Therefore, in a comprehensive comparison, plug-in hybrid has become the most suitable new energy power category for MPV, especially the new generation of large battery plug-in hybrid born from the new energy architecture.
What kind of plug-in hybrid stands out?
It is also a plug-in mix, but in recent years, the new plug-in mix wave led by Chinese brands has been completely different from the old plug-in mix represented by foreign brands in the early years.
If it is said that the plug-in hybrid with a pure electric range of less than 50km and a small motor and small battery based on the architecture of fuel vehicles was the 1.0 era, and then the plug-in hybrid with a pure electric range of less than 100km was still based on the architecture of fuel vehicles is the 2.0 era, then the plug-in hybrid with a pure electric architecture and a special hybrid engine, equipped with a large battery, long battery life, low feed energy consumption, and high-performance four-wheel drive has entered the 3.0 era.
The VOYAH Dreamer, which is the first Chinese brand to open the plug-in hybrid MPV track, is equipped with the intelligent multi-mode drive prepared by Lanhai Power for the plug-in hybrid 3.0 era. Different from the single-motor P2 parallel plug-in hybrid that has been eliminated from the market, Lanhai Power's intelligent multi-mode drive adopts a six-in-one series-parallel P1+P3+P4 hybrid architecture, thus realizing the standard four-wheel drive of the whole system.
Upgraded to "plug-in hybrid 3.0", this kind of plug-in hybrid can realize intelligent switching in urban pure electric, power loss range extension, high-speed direct drive, acceleration parallel and other modes, and cope with various scenarios with the best working mode; higher degree of electrification than Japanese power split hybrids, so that they can be comparable to pure electric models in terms of performance and smoothness; with high-efficiency hybrid special engines to achieve extremely low power loss energy consumption, giving full play to the advantages of pure electric architecture and large battery packs. Compared with the pure series range extension power, the intelligent multi-mode drive retains the direct drive capability and reduces the energy conversion loss under high-speed cruise and other working conditions.
These advantages and characteristics of intelligent multi-mode drive are naturally more suitable for MPV models. Long-term high-speed cruising is just the key working condition that MPV can not be underestimated, intelligent multi-mode drive direct drive and hybrid ability, not only reduce energy conversion loss and improve efficiency, but also make the mechanical vibration and noise at high speed less quiet, especially in the state of power loss engine operation more calmly, for the whole car to create a quieter and more comfortable mobile space.
After the VOYAH Dreamer, the Denza D9 and Wei Gaoshan, both Chinese brands, also coincidentally chose the series-parallel plug-in hybrid. After the Chinese brand, Buick just launched the GL8 plug-in hybrid version, and the core of its hybrid system is also a series-parallel structure, which shows that the hero sees the same.
Although plug-in hybrid 3.0 has become a consensus in the industry, many joint venture brands are limited by the slow speed of transformation, and even if they finally launch plug-in hybrid models, most of them are based on the fuel platform. Chinese brands that have made efforts earlier have been developing plug-in hybrid models based on pure electric platforms, which may as well be called "electric-to-hybrid".
Thanks to the forward-developed ESSA native intelligent electric architecture, the VOYAH Dreamer can be equipped with a large 43-degree battery, which in turn brings an ultra-long pure electric range of 236km. In comparison, the GL8 plug-in hybrid version is only 24 degrees, and the pure electric range is only 138km.
The large battery pack not only means longer pure electric range, lower comprehensive energy consumption, and stronger electric drive performance, but also has a significant increase in body stiffness due to the sturdy structure of the large battery pack, which will improve the NVH performance of the whole vehicle, thereby improving the comfort and driving quality of MPV models.
The plug-in hybrid model based on the electric architecture has a battery pack that is laid flat on the chassis like a pure electric model, and has a complete protection structure designed for battery safety, which in turn strengthens the body and raises the safety of the MPV to a new level.
With the forward-developed ESSA native pure electric architecture and Lanhai power platform, VOYAH's intelligent multi-mode drive has led the MPV market to the plug-in hybrid 3.0 era, and it is also the first to discover and master the success code of MPV in the new energy era.
The advantages of plug-in should be maximized
Pure electric architecture and multi-mode drive sound forward-looking, but in the end, they need to be implemented in specific models and daily experiences, and transformed into product experience advantages that users can perceive every day, so as to truly give full play to the conceptual and technical advantages.
The VOYAH ESSA architecture allows the Dreamer to have a 43-degree ultra-large battery, which is far better than the 24-degree plug-in hybrid version of the joint venture mainstream model. Nearly double the advantage of pure electric battery life, which also means that in practical use, dreamers have a greater opportunity to make full use of the power of the grid and expand their already excellent economic advantages.
In fact, the internal combustion engine is also VOYAH's strength, and the Dreamer is equipped with a new VOYAH hybrid engine with a thermal efficiency of up to 45.18%. As a large MPV, the fuel consumption under the feed is only 5.36L/100km, which is moderately supplemented by charging and supplementing, and the cost of using the car can be lower.
Lanhai Power's new hybrid engine
The large battery also provides an ultra-long 12-hour external discharge capability, supporting the household standard 220V discharge voltage. For business use, the Dreamer can be used as a stable and reliable mobile power station, and when friends and family are on an outing, it can meet the various power needs of camping.
Thanks to the ESSA architecture, the Dreamer has an excellent driving quality that is unimaginable for traditional MPVs, completely reversing the inherent concept of slow and bulky MPVs. The all-new electric architecture supports a higher-spec suspension structure, and the Dreamer is not limited by the MacPherson suspension commonly used in budget cars, but has a front double wishbone and rear multi-link all-aluminum chassis, and the top-of-the-line model is blessed with magic carpet suspension and CDC shock absorbers.
The powerful chassis performance allows the dreamer to easily harness the power that ordinary MPVs cannot reach. All Dreamers are equipped with four-wheel drive as standard, and the front 150kW and rear 160kW partial rear-wheel drive settings are more conducive to performance. With a combined output of 420kW/571 horsepower, it delivers a 5.9-second acceleration that is "superb" for an MPV. The only standard torque vectoring intelligent control in the same class, which can realize 0-100% stepless adjustment before and after, and is more calm and stable in the face of low-adhesion roads such as ice and snow and light climbing.
Torque vectoring intelligent four-wheel drive system
It is not difficult to see that the new generation of plug-in hybrid MPV based on electric architecture and multi-mode hybrid, compared with those plug-in hybrid models that are "halfway home", no longer needs to be limited by congenital structural regrets such as small batteries and MacPherson, so that they can give full play to the advantages of new technologies and new structures, and bring users progress in actual car experience.
Write at the end
VOYAH is the pioneer of the new generation of plug-in hybrid MPV market in China, and after more than two years of market testing, and even based on user feedback, Dreamer has completed an upgrade and facelift, and Lanhai Power has opened up the technical advantage of generation difference in the plug-in hybrid MPV market. With the first-mover advantage at the technical level and the user base at the market level, today's dreamers have become more and more mature, but they are more reliable than the plug-in hybrid products launched by joint venture brands in an emergency turn and panic.
In the new energy revolution, time passed quietly, and the joint venture brand finally turned around. GL8, a classic representative of the domestic MPV market, can only adapt to the changes of the times to enter the plug-in hybrid even if it knows that it will face many challenges, which further proves the inevitability of MPV moving towards plug-in hybrid. The plug-in hybrid MPV market, including the VOYAH Dreamer, will also become more mature and richer.
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