Title: “Sustained Efforts in Research and Development by Great Wall Motor”

Huawei has invested a lot in cutting-edge scientific research, which may not yield short-term returns. As Ren Zhengfei said,

“Let the bullets fly a little longer.”

Today, many automobile manufacturers have achieved remarkable results in energy-saving and new energy technology. Those who are competitive have been doing it for a long time. Great Wall Motor has excelled in hybrid, pure electric, and hydrogen fuel technologies, and all of its products have hit the market with excellent sales and outcomes. They are the “bullets” that Great Wall Motor has been working on for a long time:

Pure electric: In the early years of the 21st century, they began to research models, and in 2008, they launched a pure electric concept car. In 2012, they started the battery project research.

Hybrid: They began to layout research and development in 2012 and officially started the development of the DHT system in 2018.

Hydrogen fuel cell: They started a research project in 2016, and in 2018, they established the first hydrogen energy technology center in China.

Great Wall Motor is known as the king of both SUV and pick-up trucks. Its research and development focus have always included energy-saving and new energy automotive technologies, such as traditional engines, transmissions, powertrains, and bodyworks.

In an era where the whole industry and society focus on reaching the carbon peak and carbon neutrality of the automotive industry, Great Wall Motor’s technological reserves have been transformed into products, becoming a tool to increase sales and profits.

Pure Electric Leading the Way

In 2021, Ora sold 135,000 units, a 140% year-on-year increase.

Ora started selling cars in 2018 and was the first to benefit from Great Wall Motor’s energy-saving and new energy automotive technologies.

In fact, at the 2008 Beijing Auto Show, Great Wall Motor showcased the Ora Pure Electric Concept Car and began to try to commercialize pure electric vehicle technology.

In the past decade, Great Wall Motor has established multiple technology research and development centers in North America, Europe, and Asia, bringing together smart electric vehicle development experts from over 40 countries to work on technology. It has invested over 1 billion yuan in battery technology, building testing labs for batteries, mechanism analysis, PACK, and BMS.

In terms of battery pack technology, Great Wall Motor has continuously improved and released Deyu battery technology. The name “Deyu battery” implies the heat management strategy of “unclogging rather than blocking,” which enables the battery pack to have a hard safety performance, not catching fire or exploding, even in high-temperature environments of up to 1000°C.

Regarding the other two components of the “Three Electric” system, namely, the motor and the electric control, Great Wall Motor has also achieved independent research and development, with a cost-effective advantage. The products can meet the power requirements of different types of vehicles, including A00 to D-class passenger vehicles, pickup trucks, and logistics vehicles.

The “bullets” have been flying for ten years, and the efforts have finally paid off remarkably.

Today, Great Wall Motor’s Ora brand is among the best in the industry in terms of pure electric vehicle sales, and its popular products are well-known.In the 2021 Guangzhou Auto Show, Great Wall Motors launched a pure electric high-end brand – Salon, and released its first high-performance mecha racing car – Mecha Dragon.

Salon brand also continues to be empowered by Great Wall Motors’ pure electric technology. The first model, Mecha Dragon, adopts Dayu battery technology.

With such technical support, Mecha Dragon not only has a strong safety performance that can withstand high temperatures up to 1037℃ without catching fire or exploding, but also boasts excellent performance such as 0-100 acceleration in 3.7 seconds, a CLTC range of 802 kilometers, global leading 800V/480kW efficient energy supplement technology and related APA wireless charging function, which raises the level of electric vehicle product performance to a new height.

It can be said that among the three energy-saving and new energy vehicle technology routes of pure electric, hybrid, and hydrogen energy at Great Wall Motors, the pure electric route is the earliest to bear fruit.

Hybrid technology scene

At the 2021 Guangzhou Auto Show, Great Wall Motors’ WEY brand launched the intelligent hybrid strategy.

On the same day, the Mocha DHT-PHEV was launched.

On January 14, 2022, the Latte DHT-PHEV was released for pre-sale.

WEY’s three models: Latte, Mocha, and Mageo, are all progressing step by step towards hybrid.

In 2021, WEY’s cumulative sales volume was 58,400 units for the whole year. Especially in December, driven by the lemon hybrid DHT product, WEY achieved a big surge in the new energy vehicle market, helping the total sales volume to reach 10,065 units, a month-on-month increase of 60%.

Great Wall Motors’ lemon hybrid DHT system was officially developed starting from 2018, but it was released for application in 2020, taking only 2 years.

Why so fast?

Huang Zhenyang, Chief Engineer of Great Wall Motors’ hybrid system, answered: “Because Great Wall has laid a very good foundation.”

The so-called foundation can be seen from the time – Great Wall Motors began to lay out hybrid vehicles in 2012.

Great Wall Motors’ founder, Wei Jianjun, hoped that one day China’s hybrid technology could catch up with and surpass the Japanese hybrid technology. That’s why in 2012, he decided to formally set up a research and development project for hybrid technology.

In these eight years, Great Wall Motors has relied entirely on independent and self-designed development to launch hybrid technology with complete independent intellectual property rights.

The lemon hybrid DHT technology developed on this solid foundation is remarkably powerful.

The characteristics of the lemon hybrid DHT technology can be summarized as “1-2-3”:

1. The highly integrated hybrid system automatically switches between various working modes such as pure electric, series, parallel, and energy recovery according to the working conditions;

2. There are two types of powertrain: HEV and PHEV, which can meet the power manufacturing needs of different vehicle models;

3. Three types of powertrains: 2WD HEV, 2WD PHEV, and 4WD PHEV.

Taking the DHT hybrid power system of Latte as an example, it is the industry’s first two-speed hybrid system, with an acceleration time from 0 to 60 km/h of only 3.9 seconds, an acceleration of 7.5 seconds per hundred kilometers, and a comprehensive fuel consumption per hundred kilometers of 4.9L. The comprehensive cruising range exceeds 1,000 kilometers, which completely helps users to get rid of range anxiety. The comprehensive cost of car ownership is close to that of pure electric vehicles, and it truly achieves “the same price for gasoline and electricity.”

When it comes to hybrid, it is necessary to compare with Toyota’s hybrid.

In the most traditional techniques – the engine and the gearbox, the Lemon hybrid DHT of Great Wall Motors is not inferior at all.

For example, the engine in the 1.5T Lemon hybrid DHT system has a maximum power of 115kW and can be matched with a 130kW DHT module, with a comprehensive system power of 180-240kW. It adopts the Miller cycle and is equipped with a VGT turbocharger. Its dynamic response capability is improved by 30%, and the low-speed torque level is improved by 16%. Due to the integrated exhaust manifold on the cylinder head, it can achieve rapid warming function and better adapt to the technical requirements of hybrid vehicles.

The outstanding performance of the engine in the 1.5T Lemon hybrid DHT system has won the “China Heart” Top 10 Engine award for 2021.

In addition, the role of the Lemon hybrid DHT module is similar to that of the gearbox in a fuel vehicle. Inside the DHT module, there are integrated reducers, clutches, shifting mechanisms, and dual motors, and it uses a double-gear design for the first time.

This innovation has enabled Great Wall Motor’s Lemon hybrid DHT to win the “World’s Top 10 Transmissions” award.

In addition, compared with Toyota’s hybrid, the Lemon hybrid DHT of Great Wall Motors has the following advantages.

First, compared with Toyota’s hybrid, the Lemon hybrid DHT of Great Wall Motors has an advantage in total system power, making it faster in acceleration.

Second, in the Lemon hybrid DHT plug-in hybrid system, the PHEV’s battery pack has a large capacity, so it has a long pure electric range, far surpassing Toyota’s plug-in hybrid.

The Lemon hybrid DHT transmission integrates a two-speed transmission, allowing the engine to operate in more efficient scenarios, which is more efficient…As Li Ruifeng, the CEO of WEY, said: “Different from the Japanese hybrid improvement mindset, the Lemon Intelligent Hybrid DHT technology truly achieves pioneering innovation and structural change, realizing efficient operation throughout the full speed range.”

According to Electric Vehicle Observer, the GWM Lemon Hybrid DHT system not only makes up for the shortcomings of Chinese brands in the engine and gearbox fields, but also uses China’s earliest pure electric technology to create a more suitable hybrid solution for the Chinese market. Its user experience is closer to pure electric, has energy consumption advantages, and can also provide abundant power.

In addition to the intelligent DHT hybrid system already applied in WEY’s “Three Cups of Coffee”, GWM has also developed the extreme performance hybrid system and the powerful off-road hybrid system.

The extreme performance hybrid system uses a 2.0T high-performance engine + 9HDCT front-wheel drive system and a high-performance rear-wheel pure electric drive bridge to fully utilize the maximum adhesion of all four wheels, providing an extreme driving experience.

The powerful off-road hybrid system uses a V6 3.0T engine, 9HAT gearbox, 4L/4H two intelligent four-wheel drive system, and a climbing ratio of 57.2:1, with a fuel economy rate of over 25%, providing users with powerful driving experience and off-road fun.

These three hybrid technologies for different scenarios can enable GWM’s various models, including SUVs, hardcore off-road vehicles, and pickups, to reduce fuel consumption without sacrificing power and meet the needs of different users.

Hydrogen: Layout for the future

In 2016, a German named Tobias Brunner came to Baoding.

Tobias Brunner was previously responsible for hydrogen fuel cell development at BMW. He joined GWM as a vice president, and his goal was also to develop hydrogen energy technology.

Since then, GWM has invested RMB 2 billion in hydrogen energy technology research and development, established global research and development centers in Baoding, Shanghai, Canada, Japan, and Germany, and formed a core team of 430 people.

In 2018, GWM also acquired the well-established fuel cell technology company, Sunrise Power, to further strengthen its research and development capabilities.

In March 2021, GWM held a global hydrogen energy strategy conference, unveiling the veil of GWM’s hydrogen energy strategy.

GWM’s hydrogen energy strategy is not only limited to hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, but also includes an integrated supply chain ecosystem covering “production-storage-transport-loading-application”. At the same time, it launched a set of vehicle-grade “hydrogen power system” full-scenario application solutions – the Hydro-Lemon technology.

In terms of research and development investment, GWM will invest another RMB 3 billion in hydrogen energy research and development to achieve a production capacity of tens of thousands of sets.At the upstream of the industrial chain, the new generation of CZERO solar photovoltaic technology by Great Wall Motors breaks the world record with a 20.01% photoelectric conversion efficiency, marking the official entry of large-scale CZERO photovoltaic component conversion efficiency into the “2.0 era”. As for large-scale energy storage application, the industry-leading hydrogen and electric energy storage system provides a solution for scalable renewable energy storage, laying a foundation for comprehensive utilization of mobile and fixed energy.

At the downstream of the industrial chain, Great Wall Motors has joined the four demonstration pilot city clusters in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Henan and Hebei, with a planned demonstration of over one thousand vehicles covering passenger cars, heavy trucks, logistics, public transportation, ships, rail transit and many other application scenarios, drawing a broader market blueprint.

These research and development efforts and investments will help Great Wall Motors achieve its three-step hydrogen strategy:

First stage, 2021-2025, opens the hydrogen era, focuses on hydrogen demonstrations.

Second stage, 2025-2035, develops hydrogen economy, and opens up hydrogen ecology.

Third stage, 2035 to 2050, builds a hydrogen society and contributes to carbon neutrality.

Eventually, Great Wall Motors will become an ecological operator for hydrogen production, storage, and comprehensive utilization.

Three Paths to Take the Lead

Facing increasing pressure on the environment and energy, pressure from consumers’ demand for energy-saving and new energy vehicle technology, cost reduction needs, and even decarbonization needs in industry management, all car companies have challenges to overcome.

For Great Wall Motors, since its products are mainly pickups and SUVs, with a rich variety of usage scenario, the energy-saving and emission-reduction solutions required cannot be limited to only one type. Thus, Great Wall Motors has invested heavily in pure electric, hybrid, and hydrogen fuel cell technologies to provide rich solutions.

In private car manufacturers, Great Wall is the only one that does so.

The effectiveness of this strategy is evident, with the three paths progressing and taking the lead:

In the key indicators of pure electric technology – safety, energy density, fast charging performance, and supply stability, Dahua battery technology, honeycomb high-nickel ternary battery, 800V/480kW high-efficiency battery supplementation technology, cobalt-free, and lithium iron phosphate batteries have all provided the most competitive solutions in the industry, and some of them are even industry pioneers.

In the key indicators of hybrid technology – efficiency, performance, and application scenarios, Great Wall hybrid efficiency is comparable to Toyota and has better performance and a more robust scene adaptability that can meet the demand of consumers’ diverse usage scenarios.

In the key elements of hydrogen energy – autonomous controllability, industrial application, and ecological support, Great Wall Motors has not only mastered the core technology but also pushed for the commercial application of hydrogen-powered vehicles with great effort, while also a wide range of layout in the upstream and downstream of hydrogen energy, and will become a full-ecological supplier of hydrogen energy in the future, with far-reaching prospects.Before this, the main development path of Great Wall Motors for energy-saving and new energy vehicles is broad and clear. These development efforts will also provide breakthrough power for Great Wall Motors to achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality after flying for a while.

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.