Introduction:
Introduction: UPower provides a short and quick development cycle. It integrates the supply chain and provides cost-effective complete chassis by leveraging economies of scale. UPower redefines the top-level logic, technical form, and supply chain of automobile R&D, which is perhaps the complete closed-loop of UPower.
UPower, Chinese name “悠跑”, is a star start-up with its own traffic. At the beginning of the entrepreneurship, it was blessed by BOSCH, a leader in the industry.
On January 11, 2022, UPower made its debut at the first “UP DAY Experience Day” by declaring, “This is not a technological change, but a change of experience, a change of business…”
UPower’s Know-how:
UPower intends to create a new era of car-making freedom. The foundation of this new business era is UP’s super chassis and UP SPACE’s super cabin.
The UPower super chassis has the ability to integrate traditional white body components and can arrange components such as three electric systems, suspension, braking, steering, battery, electric drive system, and suspension in a “skateboard”-like chassis. It not only integrates the hardware design but also the sensor, computing platform, and various services’ intelligent software and hardware, making it an independent “skateboard structure” that can achieve independent driving and continuous software and hardware iterations.
Line-controlled Chassis:
Electrification and intelligence are the soul of new car-making, and UPower, standing on the shoulders of the times, has started its product layout with a line-controlled chassis. The UP super chassis platform can meet the chassis line control function requirements of future L4 and above autonomous driving models.
UPower’s super chassis adopts full-line control technology for steering and braking, making the car a smart electronic consumer product. The mechanically enabled line-controlled system will truly achieve software-defined driving style self-editing. This system is completely different from the Sporty mode, ECO mode, and other modes that most cars currently offer. Power, suspension, braking, and steering can all be adjusted by software. OEMs can easily digitize and visualize driving styles. Perhaps in the future, geeky users can DIY driving modes through relevant supercar driving mode apps to experience various supercar driving styles.## Plug-and-Play Networked Electronic Architecture
Based on hardware standardization, the UP Super Chassis further standardized the hardware interface in the VIU area to achieve software platformization, thus realizing decoupling of software and hardware, enabling asynchronous development, interconnected intelligence in the entire vehicle domain, and ultimately providing users with personalized experience.
The HPVC chip in the UP Super Chassis supports heterogeneous high-computing platforms, enabling flexible expansion of HPVC computing power. The highest computing power can be expanded to more than 1000 TOPS, and it can further support six redundancies including braking and power to meet the needs of L4 and above self-driving in the future.
CTC Battery Technology & High-integration Thermal Management System
The UP Super Chassis adopts the CTC (Cell to Chassis) technology, which integrates the battery cells directly into the chassis framework to achieve a highly integrated and modular design. The unit vehicle battery capacity density is increased, and the space utilization rate of the battery compartment can be increased by 10%. Compared with vehicles of the same length, the cruising range can also be increased by 10%, and the longest range can reach 1000 kilometers. At the same time, by eliminating the casing and structural parts of the battery pack, the weight of the entire vehicle can be effectively reduced.
U-Pod strengthens the winter range of electric vehicles by optimizing the battery’s thermal management system. By improving the efficiency of the thermal management system, UP Super Chassis allows the energy of the air conditioning heating and cooling to be more concentrated, thus reducing the entire vehicle’s electricity consumption. This improves the energy efficiency of UP Super Chassis by twice, and energy consumption for heating can be reduced by over 70% during the winter.
Super “Flat” (UP SPACE Super Cabin)# Super Chassis Brings More Flexibility to Vehicle Design
The ultimate goal of the super chassis, or skateboard chassis, is to decouple the upper and lower body of vehicles. Compared with the traditional steering, braking, and suspension systems that constrain the body, the new line-control chassis provides more flexibility in arranging the space inside the vehicle. The pluggable networked electronic architecture is critical for the development of separate upper and lower bodies, allowing more flexible development of the upper body through standardized hardware interfaces. The modular and integrated heat management system also offers more freedom in arranging the upper body compartment and more space in the front compartment. By overturning the traditional firewall design of the cabin, the upper body becomes a blank slate, free for downstream creativity and imagination.
The super-flat upper body and carrying-type upper and lower bodies are also the core know-how of UP.
Carrying-Type Upper and Lower Bodies
When it comes to the separation of upper and lower bodies, the difference between carrying-type and non-carrying-type bodies must be addressed. From a safety perspective, not only small and mini cars but also large buses usually require carrying-type bodies. One of the know-hows of the UP super chassis is the ability to “separate and decouple while carrying together.” Unlike the traditional non-carrying-type body, which connects the upper and lower bodies with eight rubber blocks, the UP super chassis and upper body are connected together by a rigid structure to achieve “shared stress and carrying.” At present, UP has applied for 46 patents in this field.
Variety is the spice of life. Based on the same UP super chassis, UP has designed five types of upper bodies with vastly different styles, including sedans, MPVs, SUVs, pickup trucks, and vans, covering various heights of passenger and commercial vehicles, from low roofs to high roofs.
Check out the visuals:
# UP SPACE 01
The lack of traditional firewall and front cabin allows the front of the car to be lowered, resulting in a car with a sleek, streamlined design that is elegant and dynamic. The huge glass skylight extends from the short front cabin cover all the way to the rear of the car, giving it a perfect curve and providing ample headroom and legroom for the second row.
UP SPACE 02 Super MPV
The UP SPACE 02 Super MPV is positioned as a truly versatile urban mobility space. In terms of design language, the 02 Super MPV adopts a simple, smooth design language, combined with irregular window lines and sharp contours on the front and rear bumpers, showcasing its unique technological attributes and futuristic appeal. The expanded front and rear wheel arches, paired with 21-inch wheels, give the car a sporty and premium look. In addition, the front and rear are equipped with pixel lights, which can be programmed to display expressions, making the whole car look more lively.
The overall length of the UP SPACE 02 Super MPV is similar to that of the Golf, but the interior space layout achieves three rows of passenger seats. Due to the use of a skateboard chassis, the 02 Super MPV does not have a traditional front cabin and, coupled with the double-opening door design without a B-pillar, it can achieve various seating combinations such as five, six, and second and third row static sitting.
Opportunity for the New Car 2.0
The closed loop of YOUPA’s business logic inevitably involves answering how to marketize, and in terms of not repeating wheel production and the difficulty of transformation for traditional automakers, third-party, professional skateboard chassis companies without historical baggage are indeed politically correct in the big wave of electrification and intelligence. However, as YOUPA’s Li Peng explained, in the era of new car manufacturing, the chassis is not unimportant, but still as important as before (just that he thinks that now may be a window for skateboard chassis). The chassis is still the soul of the OEM. Similar to SAIC’s high-profile announcement that it will never give up its soul, traditional and large-scale OEMs are likely to continue their previous patterns, even if they are slower, to solve their own chassis problems.
So how can YOUPA’s business logic be closed? From YOUPA’s release, we can glimpse a glimpse: YOUPA’s market should focus on personalization and new car manufacturing scenarios.“`
Personalized and Standardized Market Prospects
As a time of individuality and self-expression for post-2000s and post-2010s generations, many people believe that the current car market will inevitably enter an era of personalization. Now, intelligent cars are often compared with smartphones and smart terminals, and many people think that cars will be the next big thing in smart technology after smartphones and smart terminals. So, in the era where everyone has a smartphone, what is the penetration rate of personalized features of smartphones? How can the personalized penetration of intelligent cars surpass that of smartphones? How high can the level of personalization of intelligent cars be? For quite some time, this will probably be a very painful question.
System Suppliers for Scene-based Car Makers
Yoprun has basically defined its customer base: new car manufacturing and scene-based car manufacturing, with the potential implication that traditional carmakers are less likely to have cooperation opportunities. In the exploration period of new technologies, in the era of new car manufacturing and in the new era of electric smart cars, when the elephant is slow to turn around, providing chassis system solutions for new entrants and small-scale car manufacturers with short-term technical capabilities seems to have a very large market space, growth potential, and great logical feasibility.
And this may be the reason why the behemoth BOSCH is betting on Yoprun.
Conclusion
Yoprun provides a quick development cycle, integrates the supply chain and provides a complete chassis with high cost-effectiveness through economies of scale. Yoprun redefines the top-level logic, technical form and supply chain of car research and development. This may be Yoprun’s complete closed loop.
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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.