Translation in English
Author: Turbocharged Little Fatty
Recently, I wrote an article titled “Don’t Rush to Pay for LiDAR.” Now, Salon’s first model, the “Mechanical Dragon,” is coming to us with four LiDARs….
Without further ado, let’s watch the video first:
Cast: Wang Xuan, Video Editing: Yin Rui
Starting with Salon
Salon is a high-end new energy brand under Great Wall Motors. This time, they brought their first model, the “Mechanical Dragon,” to the Guangzhou Auto Show.
Nowadays, it seems to have become a necessary step for most domestic brands to create a high-end new energy sub-brand. In July last year, Wei Jianjun wrote an internal letter to Great Wall Motors, mentioning the following:
The window of opportunity for Chinese brands to develop has closed. Under the siege of foreign brands and new forces in the automobile industry, it is not easy for us to pass through the winter smoothly.
But later, the emergence of “new powers” such as Dongfeng Aeolus and SAIC IM marked the official start of the market competition between traditional domestic brands and new forces, which seemed to indicate that “there is still a cake to be divided.” However, before Salon, Great Wall’s new energy sub-brand had only one brand, ORA, whose vehicle design met the aesthetic standards of young consumers, but was difficult to be sufficiently high-end for the entire brand.
Facing the market cake that has not yet been fully divided, it is clear that Great Wall Motors has chosen to bet with Salon. And that’s why Salon is here.
Salon’s brand logo is “two hands clasped together,” but the first thing that comes to my mind is actually Nokia…..
Regarding the brand concept, Salon Zhixing CEO Wen Fei mentioned at the press conference:# Salon: Driving the Progress of Human Civilization
The term “salon” represents the reception rooms of 17th century Europe, the squares of the 18th century, the red boat in the 20th century, and Silicon Valley and Zhongguancun in the 21st century. Each generation of salons is a powerful driving force for changing the world and promoting the progress of human civilization. Today’s world needs a firm and powerful handshake more than ever before.
So, what kind of products will Salon brand bring to promote Great Wall Motor’s new energy products?
“One Car” Difficult to Meet Everyone’s Needs
Although the specific model data of the Mech Dragon has not yet been announced, from the known information, the Mech Dragon is positioned as a “medium-large high-performance pure electric sport coupe”.
But why did I use such a small title as the beginning?
It’s simple. Nowadays, different people have different opinions on the appearance design of future intelligent electric vehicles, including both simple sci-fi and tough cyberpunk styles. Obviously, the first model of Salon, the “Mech Dragon”, belongs to the latter.
The appearance design of the Mech Dragon is extremely individualistic, and in the era when traditional cars have not yet faded away, it is not a “popular car” that everyone can accept.
At least from my perspective, I prefer a more rounded and concise design. But one undeniable fact is that the Mech Dragon will definitely attract a lot of attention on the road.
Proud Intelligent Driving Hardware Layout
As for the exterior design and so on, let’s move on, after all, “different strokes for different folks”. The point I care about the most is the Mech Dragon’s intelligent driving.
Even before the Guangzhou Auto Show officially opened, Salon had released several “proud” teaser posters.
“Just don’t talk if you have less than 4,” makes the already heated intelligent driving “even hotter”.The Mechdragon is equipped with 4 laser radars, 7 8-million-pixel ultra-high-definition cameras, 4 panoramic cameras, 5 millimeter-wave radars, 12 ultrasonic radars, and 1 independent high-precision positioning unit, totaling 38 perception hardware devices.
At the end of last year, Huawei released the 96-line medium and long-range laser radar, which is what the Mechdragon is equipped with. Four laser radars are arranged at the front, rear, and both sides of the mech, forming a 360-degree perception. The Huawei 96-line medium and long-range laser radar has a farthest detection distance of 150 meters, a viewing angle of 120°* 25°, and comes with intelligent cleaning and automatic heating.
The Mechdragon is also equipped with the dual-plate Huawei MDC intelligent driving computing platform. It adopts the Da Vinci architecture, with an NPU computing power of up to 400TOPS and a CPU computing power of up to 440K DMIPS. If it is a dual-plate computing power, the Mechdragon should be equipped with the Huawei MDC 610, with a single-board computing power of 200+ TOPS, mainly for L4 intelligent driving scenarios in passenger cars.
Based on perception hardware and computing units, the Captain-Pilot intelligent driving system on the Mechdragon covers intelligent driving scenarios for “highways + cities + parking + interconnection.” It includes many functions. You can see the following picture:
However, Salon also mentioned:
The urban function will be gradually opened according to relevant regulations, and the interconnection function will be opened according to the infrastructure and policy regulations.
Let’s take a look at the basic parts of the electric vehicle.
The Mechdragon adopts a front and rear dual-motor layout, with a maximum system power of 400 kW (about 540 horsepower), a peak torque of 750 N·m, and a zero-to-60mph acceleration capability of 3.7 seconds.
# Car Specifications
The car is equipped with a Great Wall Motor’s Da Yu battery, with a battery capacity of 115kWh, and under the CLTC standard, it has a range of 802 kilometers. Although not specifically mentioned, during the release conference, there was a small line of text in the presentation indicating that the limited edition model has a CLTC range of 610 kilometers.
In addition to the range, the Jaeger Dragon also supports 800V/480 kW ultra-fast charging. With a peak current of 600A and under CLTC conditions, the car can replenish 401km in 10 minutes and 545km in 15 minutes. Besides the 800V ultra-fast charging, the car also comes with an APA wireless charging technology with a charging power of 11kW.
The widespread adoption of 800V ultra-fast charging and when it will happen is uncertain. Although brands like Porsche and GAC Aion have previously released 800V ultra-fast charging technology, its visibility remains relatively low. After all, the popularity of 800V ultra-fast charging places high demands on the construction cost of charging stations and the grid capacity.
Car Performance
As an “intelligent electric vehicle,” we can split it into three aspects: intelligence, electric, and vehicle. We’ve discussed the electric and some of the intelligent aspects, so let’s talk about the car’s hard power indicators.
The Jaeger Dragon comes equipped with Brembo four-piston calipers and large-sized brake disks, with a braking distance of 33 meters at a speed of 100 km/h to 0 km/h. It also has Bosch IBC+RBC dual-redundant brake systems. As a high-performance electric sports car, the Jaeger Dragon is outfitted with a five-link independent rear suspension, CDC active shock-absorber, and a front-to-rear axle load ratio of nearly 50:50. The car is also equipped with 4+X driving modes.
In terms of driving experience, I’m quite looking forward to it. As an electric car belonging to the “silent era,” the Jaeger Dragon also comes with Harman’s second-generation in-car sound simulation technology (iESS), and electronic sound waves that are compatible with different modes.
We’ve already talked about intelligent driving, let’s now talk about the intelligent cockpit.
The Mecha Dragon is equipped with the mainstream SoC “Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155” in the cockpit, with a DMS camera and an OMS camera installed in the car. It has four-tone zone interaction capability and employs a seven-screen interactive layout.
These seven screens include:
A 10.25-inch LCD instrument panel;
A 27-inch 4K center control integrated screen;
A 25-inch W-HUD;
Two 1.6-inch touch bar screens (square control);
Two rear capacitive touch panels.
Based on the current HMI layout of the car’s infotainment system in the official picture, I have several speculations:
The “driving information + ADAS visualization” on the leftmost side of the three screens in the center console is fixed, just like the Tesla Model 3, displaying driving information such as gear position, speed, as well as ADAS visualization interface on the center console screen.
The middle screen is similar to the center console screen we now know, where ecological applications, vehicle control functions, and vehicle settings are all operated on this screen. Although it has set a Dock bar on the left side close to the driver, touching operation will still be somewhat affected because there is a “driving information screen” in the middle.
The Mecha Dragon has designed a rotary knob with fingerprint recognition in the center console island, which is not a gear shift knob but a driving mode switch.
After zooming in on the official picture, it can be seen that the Mecha Dragon uses a gearshift-by-wire design.
The rightmost part is the entertainment screen for the co-pilot. The official picture shows navigation information, but you can also find a side menu on the right. When it is pulled open, it should display all the applications available for the entertainment system.
As for the displays on the instrument panel, users can switch to small games, driver assistance mode, music, phone calls, and several hidden functions. However, it did not show a layout related to the driving information, which confirmed the speculation that the central control’s “driving information screen” is fixed.
Conclusion
The Mechanical Dragon offers 101 limited edition vehicles for pre-order priced at CNY 4.88 million.
Prior to this, Huawei hoped to limit the cost of a single 96-line lidar to within $200. If this is true, the cost of the four lidars on the Mechanical Dragon is only around CNY 5,000. This is even lower than the cost of the two lidars used in the Xpeng P5.
The Salon brand’s positioning is high-end new energy, with a price range of CNY 400,000 to 800,000, so the first model, the Mechanical Dragon, may be the lowest priced model in the Salon brand.
From all the data we’ve seen, the Mechanical Dragon is a great car. However, these data points lead me to ask more questions:
When will we be able to use L4?
When will 800 V fast charging become popular? Otherwise, how long does it take for the 115 kWh large capacity battery pack to be charged using home charging and fast charging?
Technology, policy, and infrastructure do complement and develop each other. Nowadays, we see more and more new technologies emerging, but policies and infrastructure are still developing steadily. In the end, it all falls on the consumers.
This reminds me of the time several years ago when new energy vehicles suddenly “emerged,” and I drove an electric car around Beijing looking for charging stations.
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.