Recently, at the annual general meeting of shareholders of Great Wall Motors, the chairman of Great Wall Motors talked about the decoupling of off-road vehicles four-wheel drive, and the spearhead was directed at pure electric off-road vehicles.
For Great Wall Motors, which has always been good at building SUVs in the domestic market, and is also in the two market segments of hard-core off-road SUV (tank brand) and pickup truck (Great Wall Gun + Fengjun), which have a layout and have achieved good results, it is natural for Wei Jianjun to think about not making pure electric hard-core off-road SUVs.
Pure electric off-road SUVs are more restricted
Using a pure electric SUV to make a hard-core off-road model will mainly face the following three problems.
The low-speed and high-torque characteristics are not suitable for off-roading
As Wei Jianjun said, compared with the experience of pursuing speed and acceleration in ordinary passenger cars, off-road vehicles are more about the vehicle's ability to control various terrains. For traditional internal combustion engines, when the engine power is constant, the slower its speed, the greater the torque of the whole vehicle.
To this end, Wei Jianjun also gave an example, the international pure off-road vehicle, the minimum speed can reach 2.7 km / h. It is not easy for a large-displacement internal combustion engine to be able to maintain such a low speed and output a large amount of torque.
On the other hand, the current electric vehicles are basically equipped with permanent magnet synchronous motors. From the point of view of the output characteristics of the motor, it can basically output a relatively large torque at low speeds. Although high torque is a good thing for off-road vehicles, the large torque released in an instant can easily break through the grip of the tires, which in turn will make it more difficult to get out of extreme off-road.
So Wei Jianjun will say, "When the motor is slow, there is no torque, and the electric off-road vehicle you see can climb uphill, but the tires are slipping and climbing up, it is not really climbing up." ”
The disadvantage of range anxiety is magnified on hardcore off-road SUVs
Range anxiety about electric vehicles is also an unavoidable topic. Even if the range of pure electric SUVs can reach 1,000 kilometers today, whether it is the calculation of the remaining battery power, or the rapid decline in the range in winter or at high speeds, the mileage of electric vehicles will become unpredictable, and this defect will be expanded in off-road SUVs.
Because at present, the layout of charging stations in large and medium-sized cities is relatively sufficient; And in the barren mountains and mountains, it is simply impossible to arrange charging stations. In these places, not only are there no power facilities, but if there are not many charging customers, there is a high probability that the charging station will lose money. And in feed-in mode, the performance of electric vehicles will decline significantly.
Battery safety needs more consideration
Hardcore off-road SUVs often have to deal with more complex road conditions, while electric vehicles usually have their batteries tiled on the chassis in order to maximize their range. Therefore, when going over mountains and mountains, if the obstacles on the road collide with the battery of the chassis, it will have a certain impact on the safety of the battery.
Of course, manufacturers can also provide additional protection by outsourcing batteries in the early stage, but for many users, they still have certain concerns in their hearts when facing many rough road conditions.
Advantages of an all-electric off-road SUV
Of course, an all-electric off-road SUV is not without its advantages.
The biggest advantage is that the hard-core off-road SUV needs to be able to get out of trouble through a differential lock, which is not necessary for a pure electric model. As we all know, the Mercedes-Benz Big G has three locks, namely the front differential lock (the front axle two wheels are rigidly connected), the rear differential lock (the rear axle two wheels are rigidly connected) and the central differential lock (synchronizes the front and rear axle speeds). For pure electric vehicles, the motors can be arranged separately on the front and rear axles, and the whole vehicle can directly control the torque output by adjusting the voltage/current to achieve fine control of the motor torque, so as to bring better performance out of trouble.
In addition, the center of gravity of the vehicle tends to be lower because the battery tends to be laid flat on the chassis of the vehicle. A lower center of gravity will bring a better handling experience and reduce the possibility of vehicle roll. But on the whole, these advantages are relatively insignificant compared to the difficulties faced by pure electric hard-core off-road SUVs when traveling.
Hybrid may be the best solution
It may not be suitable for pure electric technology to be used in hard-core off-road SUVs, but the problem of high fuel consumption of hard-core off-road SUVs is also worthy of attention by manufacturers. Especially for many users who want to use a hard-core off-road SUV for daily commuting, reducing fuel consumption can not only greatly reduce the daily maintenance cost, but also make its own contribution to energy conservation and emission reduction.
In this case, a hybrid may be the best solution for an off-road SUV. The biggest purpose of introducing pure electric SUVs is to solve the problem of high fuel consumption of hard-core off-road SUVs. Therefore, as an alternative, the introduction of hybrid technology can also significantly reduce the fuel consumption of off-road SUVs.
For example, the Tank 400Hi4-T is equipped with a battery with a capacity of 37.11 kWh, which provides an all-electric range of 105 km, while the fuel consumption is controlled at 8.8 L/100 km. The fuel consumption of the fuel version of the tank 400 is 13-14L. In this way, for users who usually want to be able to drive a hard-core off-road SUV to support their daily commuting, they can use pure electric range to travel and achieve zero emissions.
In addition, hybrid models don't have any of the range anxiety of electric vehicles compared to pure electric vehicles. If you travel off-road by car, you only need to carry a few barrels of gasoline in the trunk, so when you run out of fuel, you can still rely on your own refueling to solve the problem.
In the case that the three-electric technology has not achieved fundamental development, the pure electric hard-core off-road SUV is more of a "false proposition". Pure electric vehicles are still mainly used for daily commuting in the city; For off-road conditions, car companies should still return to internal combustion engine models, or hybrid models based on internal combustion engine technology. Like hard-core off-road SUVs, pickup trucks that assume more of the functions of tool cars are more suitable for traditional internal combustion engines or hybrid technologies.