In the past year, the new energy market has gained increasing attention, with many new players in the auto industry as well as traditional car manufacturers in transition introducing outstanding electric products. In April 2019, BAIC Group held a press conference to debut its high-end new energy brand, ARCFOX, and announced the information of its first mass-produced car.
Under related news, I have seen comments referring to “PPT-made cars” and “fraudulent subsidies” more than once. However, as mentioned during the release event by BAIC and Magna in Zhenjiang, the first mass-produced car of ARCFOX, the Alpha T, was officially produced in 2020. Despite this, it seems that people’s attitude towards the ARCFOXxia model has not changed.
I have experienced this car last year. If I were to say on Weibo that the product performance of Alpha T is very low and has no competitive edge, those who disapprove of the ARCFOXxia brand would probably give me a thumbs up.
But that would be untrue. If you want to know why I said in the lead that it was the most memorable car I experienced in the past six months, you might as well read on.
A memory sparked by dismantling the car
On February 3, NetEase conducted a live broadcast dissecting and analyzing the Alpha T from ARCFOXxia and the ES6 from NIO. The ES6, known for its high quality, unsurprisingly received praise from the technicians on site during the dismantling. Unlike the ES6, Alpha T had little reputation in this regard.
However, the on-site technicians still gave Alpha T’s body and integration a good evaluation during the live broadcast. Parts that demonstrate manufacturing quality, such as the one-piece stamped door on the ES6, also appear on the Alpha T. After more than an hour of dismantling and analysis, this relatively unknown car also showed its own highlights.
A colleague who was not familiar with Alpha T was somewhat surprised by the dismantling results. He bluntly said that before dismantling, he thought Alpha T was a car with little technical content. I understand his feelings because before I actually experienced Alpha T last year, I had the same impression. And this memory remains vivid more than two months later.
An experience without expectation
When I learned that I had the opportunity to experience Alpha T, I actually didn’t have much expectation. Even influenced by the online reputation, I had the idea of “What good can come of BAIC’s new energy car?”
Regarding the vehicle information, what impressed me was that ARCFOXxia Alpha T used batteries from South Korea’s SKI, with a range of 653 km based on NEDC and the long-lasting version having a capacity of 93.6 kWh. Another feature that ARCFOXxia constantly advertises is that it is produced by Magna, a well-established luxury car’s contract manufacturer.But after reading all of these, I still felt calm. “Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea, Each Showing His or Her Special Skill” is the current trend in presentation slides. Everyone seems to be trying to show how amazing they are, but in reality, it’s not that impressive. Furthermore, I have seen enough advertising using well-known suppliers to promote products, but after experiencing them, I have been disappointed many times. After mentally preparing myself, I test drove the car myself.
First, let’s experience the extreme abilities
The test drive that day included two parts: a track experience at the Jin Card Arena and a highway experience. However, I have to say that I was not very interested in driving an SUV around the Jin Card Arena. I thought that if I wanted to buy a car with good handling, choosing an SUV would not be suitable. But when I watched other people test drive it, I found that the Alfa T didn’t seem that bad.
The Alfa T top version drove around the track that day, and all the experienced drivers who stepped on the accelerator were not afraid to gas it. However, the front wheels of this electric car with a 0-100 acceleration time of 4.6 seconds did not slip too much, while most of the front-wheel-drive electric cars I had driven before with an 0-100 acceleration time of about 8 seconds would spin their tires when stepping on the accelerator.
In addition, although the Alfa T’s posture around the track at Jin Card Arena was not as crisp as that of a sports car, there was no situation where the rear wheels would lift off the ground or slip like some SUVs when turning around obstacles and braking.
When I stepped on the accelerator and left the start point, there were three veteran drivers, including a coach, in the car. The car lifted its head slightly but not exaggeratedly, and the acceleration process was not particularly violent. The feeling of acceleration was slightly weaker than that of the Polestar 2, which had a measured 0-100 time of 4.5 seconds. The braking force before the sharp bend in front of me was as expected.
However, when I drove into a sharp bend that required an almost 120-degree turn at a speed of 40 km/h with the habits of driving a Model 3, the front wheels of the Alfa T made a loud, shrill scream, and the following push made me realize that it had reached its limit. But after I adjusted the throttle, the car regained its stability, and I didn’t challenge it again for the subsequent lane change and obstacle avoidance.
After completing a lap and experiencing another lap as a passenger, my feeling was that Alfa T’s mechanical limits were somewhat satisfactory. Although it was not very enjoyable to drive, its overall balance and stability were good. Moreover, two cars on the track had been driven under such extreme driving conditions for a whole morning, and their performance had already exceeded my inherent understanding of “BAIC”.
Waking up and finding myself on the highway
Because I had not rested well during that time and had to get up early, I was already drowsy in the passenger seat not long after driving on the highway. I’m not sure when I fell asleep, but when I woke up, I was already on the highway. I didn’t even notice the noisy trucks passing by until my phone vibrated. The first thing I felt after waking up was the NVH performance.The chassis performance of the Alfa T during high-speed driving once again surprised me. The feeling of asphalt particles on the road surface was basically filtered out during the driving process. The quiet and smooth driving only resulted in two crisp and resilient tire noises when the vehicle passed over road joints.
“It’s hard to imagine that I would evaluate the Alfa T in this way, but in terms of ride comfort, it really feels premium.” This feeling was amplified when I took over the driver’s seat.
Firstly, the driving view was excellent due to the low front deck brought by the pure electric platform, making it feels similar to Tesla’s models. Then there was the Alfa T’s heads-up display (HUD), which was appropriately bright and sized and could display the status of assisted driving.
Speaking of assisted driving, the Alfa T’s adaptive cruise control (ACC) experience was good, and its lane keeping was on par. Unless someone cut into the car too closely, it would not exit the lane, and it even had a UI display for assisted driving.
Regarding the driving feel, I do not know if you have seen this statement online: “Electric vehicles have no throttle delay, and their acceleration is very linear.” For this type of statement, I can only say that the person who made it is either a keyboard warrior or has driven very few cars.
The truth is that even for electric vehicles, the throttle response is not necessarily low-latency and linear, and the number of models that can achieve both is still very low, just like in the gasoline car era. Apart from the Model 3, no other electric vehicle I have driven possesses a throttle feedback that can make me feel “zero delay.” As for linearity, both ES6 and Han EV are typical negative examples, and they are extremely testy on pedal control.
The Alfa T is excellent in this aspect. Although it is not as instant as the Model 3, its response is already more linear and low-latency than most manufacturers’ vehicles. With well-tuned energy recovery, it can maintain speed without leaving the accelerator pedal during high-speed driving.
What surprised me was that the Alfa T also had a stop mode for the throttle. In this mode, if the pedal is not stepped on, the vehicle will decelerate to 0. Compared to the XPeng P7 and Polestar 2, which also had a stop mode, the Alfa T’s stop was very smooth, without any head-nodding feeling, and would automatically pull the handbrake. The braking performance was also excellent, with a linear brake force and appropriate pedal feedback.
In addition, the Alfa T’s follow-up response and lean angle during high-speed turns were lower than expected, making it feel like a lightweight and well-engineered car.During my nearly 100-kilometer experience, what impressed me the most about the Alpha T was its chassis performance. Regardless of small bumps or undulating road surfaces, the Alpha T’s handling was very appropriate. On one hand, the suspension had a clear buffering effect, and on the other hand, there was almost no aftershock, achieving a high level of balance between vehicle dynamics and passenger comfort.
My final impression can be summarized in one sentence: The Alpha T is the best-driving pure electric SUV of a domestic brand that I have driven.
This experience far exceeded my expectations of this vehicle before I test drove it. In amazement, I also understand that the level of driving experience like this should be attributed to the vehicle’s advanced manufacturing and materials technology.
Uncovered Details from Disassembly
This unexpected experience aroused my curiosity about the Alpha T, and I looked for more detailed information about this vehicle. During my research, I also discovered many unknown highlights of this vehicle.
For example, in the previous disassembly of the ES6, it was mentioned that the ES6 has an all-aluminum body while the Alpha T has a steel and aluminum hybrid body. However, what you may not know is that the Alpha T’s steel and aluminum hybrid body is designed with steel on top and aluminum on the bottom, with an aluminum alloy usage ratio of 51.3% and an aluminum alloy usage ratio of 78.9% in the lower part of the body. The structure of the Alpha T, such as the subframe, uses all-aluminum alloy.
On the other hand, the Alpha T also uses 1500Mpa hot-formed steel, accounting for 7.86%, in key stress and collision structures to ensure the structural strength of the vehicle’s lateral direction. In the width direction of the body, the Alpha T uses 36% extruded aluminum alloy to ensure its structural strength.
If you have been following industry news recently, you may have heard that Tesla used an integrated cast rear body for the Model Y, but you may not know that the Alpha T’s rear body also uses high-pressure cast aluminum structures. Although this structure on the Alpha T is smaller than that on the Model Y, it is still a large casting in the industry.
With the support of the aforementioned structure, the torsional rigidity of the Alpha T steel-aluminum hybrid body reaches 41.8 kN·m/deg, which increases to 55 kN·m/deg when the battery pack is added. By comparison, the torsional rigidity of Tesla’s Model Y is less than 30 kN·m/deg, while that of the all-aluminum body of the NIO ES6 is 44.9 kN·m/deg.
However, the torsional rigidity of over 50 kN·m/deg is just one aspect of the Alpha T body structure. With a steel-aluminum hybrid body, the dual-motor Alpha T has a curb weight of 2270 kg, while the 70-degree electric version ES6 with a wider and higher all-aluminum body has a curb weight of 2290 kg.
Furthermore, in my further research, I also found that Magna not only served as a contract manufacturer in the Alpha T project, but also designed the body structure and manufactured the vehicle according to their manufacturing process requirements.
Looking at the final parameters of the body structure, it is fair to say that experience counts. As an SUV, the mechanical qualities and overall sense of the Alpha T’s performance during driving are to some extent due to this combination of rigidity and lightweight body structure.
In addition, the Alpha T is equipped with a large battery pack of 93.6 kWh.
During the disassembly process, on-site personnel mentioned that this is a ternary lithium battery provided by Korean company SKI. I found from subsequent information that this is a soft-pack 811 formula battery with an energy density of 194 Wh/kg.
SKI uses a wet-process separator with more uniform pores and a double ceramic layer for the separator to reduce the internal resistance of the battery.
In addition, the battery pack of the Alpha T adopts a design that separates the battery cells from the cooling water channel, and the structural components of the battery pack adopt extruded aluminum profiles, greatly reducing the weight of the battery system.
With this high-energy-density 93.6 kWh battery pack, the NEDC range of the single-motor version of the Alpha T is 653 km, which is currently the highest among domestically produced pure electric SUVs.Apart from the large battery configuration, the 160 kW permanent magnet synchronous motor of the Alpha T brings a drivetrain efficiency of 93.5% at the output end of the gearbox. Considering the problem of low-temperature range attenuation, the Alpha T also features a heat pump air conditioner that has a winter thermal cycle efficiency COP＞2. The winter air conditioning power consumption is reduced by 50%.
To improve energy efficiency, even the lubricating oil consumption of the motor gearbox has been carefully considered by the Alpha T, which was finally fixed at 1.2L, bringing about a 1% increase in range.
Even the headlamps, which were not mentioned in the disassembly, the Alpha T adopts geometric matrix LED headlamps similar to those of Mercedes-Benz, which can dynamically extinguish the lamps directed toward the vehicle area in high-beam mode.
As for tire configuration, the Alpha T uses the Michelin PS4 series, which is more high-end than those used by most passenger cars.
“All of these are real materials and technological expressions.”
Reflection
Alpha T is the car that impressed me the most in the past six months. It is a car that I had no expectations for during the initial research stage, but was brutally surprised by after experiencing the actual car.
“It surpassed all the SUVs of new forces in terms of driving experience.” If we were to make a ranking, I might put it between the Mercedes EQC and the Tesla Model Y. Moreover, in addition to its excellent mechanical quality, the product power of this car in terms of power and range is also exceptional.
However, many netizens still do not appreciate it and criticize it without any understanding or experience of the Alpha T. They simply do not care about what kind of car the Alpha T is.
Because Lynk & Co is a new brand under BAIC, they do not believe in the potential of the Alpha T. Moreover, the power of groupthink is not to be underestimated, and even people like me who have deep understanding of the Alpha T may be influenced.
“Alpha T is an underestimated car, this is a fact. But Alpha T is not a perfect car.”
The interior of the Alpha T features 3 screens for interaction, including a 4K resolution center console screen, but the UI on the screen with excellent display performance is still in the style of traditional automakers.
The irregularly shaped ambient lights and door panel decorations also make the interior atmosphere less consistent. And the high recognition but not immediately likable appearance of the Alpha T.
As a car with a price range of 240,000 to 320,000 yuan, the Alpha T has impeccable materials and quality, but there is still room for improvement in its design.
In terms of core product strength, the Alpha T is worth its price, but as a traditional self-branded automaker that competes with Tesla and other new energy powerhouses such as BYD in the new energy market, there is no doubt that it faces immense competitive pressure, especially since these competitors have very high brand exposure and extensive brand slogans.
In terms of materials, manufacturing standards, and driving experience, the Alpha T is a great car, and in some aspects even perform beyond its class. However, I think what the ARCFOX brand needs to do now is how to make a car that is more appealing to consumers based on this foundation.
This is a harsh and realistic truth.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.