Since last year, more and more pure electric MPV models have emerged in our field of view. Not only because pure electric is the future trend, but also because under this trend, the excellent characteristics of MPVs can be further evolved on the pure electric platform.
For example, under the pure electric platform, the expansion of space, improvement of comfort and quietness, diversified appearance, and the improvement of power, which was rarely seen as a selling point for fuel-era MPVs, have all been supplemented. These are the advantages of pure electric.
However, even if a person has many advantages, sometimes one obvious disadvantage can outweigh them, not to mention a car. The prominent disadvantage among the advantages of a pure electric MPV is, in fact, pure electric.
We believe that 2023 will be the year of China’s new energy MPVs, with popular pure electric MPV models launched one after another. But in the market, the response has not been ideal. In the overall sales rankings, the base of fuel MPVs is huge. Even among manufacturers that simultaneously launch extended-range/hybrid and pure electric MPVs, they allocate more production capacity to models with engines. Why such lack of confidence?
Some clues can be seen from the actual use of car scenarios. For example, the recent Spring Festival holiday was a major challenge for the new energy MPV usage scenario. On the roads during the holiday, all issues that a pure electric MPV could face were present.
Firstly, congestion is inevitable during Spring Festival travel. The problem of high energy consumption per car will be extremely prominent. After finally driving hundreds of kilometers, it is discovered that a double blow of lining up for charging and slow charging speeds awaits. The sense of calmness and freedom gained from riding in an MPV is consumed by the waiting time for recharging.
Range and charging are undoubtedly the biggest challenges for pure electric travel, and how regular MPVs in remote travel scenarios face these two challenges is the subject this segment of the market will face in 2023.And only at the beginning of 2023, solutions were already proposed by some.
The “Center Point” of Hechuang’s Energy Supplement
The first to propose a solution was Hechuang. And Hechuang’s answer to energy supplement is the ultra-fast charging, but it’s more than just ultra-fast charging. With the launch of Hechuang’s first pure electric flagship MPV V09 and its supporting energy supplement system, Hechuang is setting up its own energy supplement ecosystem, not just a product or technology.
First of all, the center “point” of this ecosystem – Hechuang V09 has a basic range of over 750 km. Besides the nickel-cobalt-manganese ternary lithium battery cell with a high energy density of 257Wh/kg, the excellent drag coefficient is also a factor contributing to the outstanding range. Every 0.01 reduction in drag coefficient of an electric vehicle can contribute to the final range. Although Hechuang V09 is an MPV, the streamlined design of the front and back helps the airflow to better adhere to the body, ultimately achieving a drag coefficient equivalent to a sedan.
At the same time, the exclusive Hi-EMS intelligent energy management system enables Hechuang V09 to intelligently combine energy-saving control with actual working conditions. Under various driving conditions, it can maintain the most energy-efficient working mode. If energy saving is what we want, then we must be the best at it. The 800V high-voltage system, which is standard across the entire Hechuang V09 series, improves the overall efficiency of the vehicle by about 4% and reduces energy consumption by 7.8%. More advanced energy consumption management and more intelligent driving technology together lay the foundation for the Hechuang V09’s ultra-long range of 750km+.
In addition, the AI-Pedal intelligent accelerator pedal can predict the driver’s deceleration needs by sensing the traffic ahead and optimize the most energy efficient way of decelerating. It can reduce up to 82% of unnecessary braking and acceleration operations, extending the range and improving the smoothness of the driving experience.The Hechuang V09 is equipped with an energy manager which analyzes the energy consumption characteristics of each subsystem of the vehicle based on accumulated driving data, and establishes a dynamic energy consumption analysis model of the entire vehicle. By combining the average speed of the road, traffic congestion, travel time and driver operation with map information, it can more accurately estimate the energy consumption of the route and plan the most energy-efficient route and driving style.
The “Line” of Hechuang’s Energy Supplement
With a long range as the foundation, can the Hechuang V09 be charged quickly? The answer is not only yes, but it can be charged even faster. With an 800V high-voltage system, the basic version can reach a peak charging power of 158kW and can adapt to most fast charging piles on the market.
In addition, Hechuang also provides a solution for 4C super fast charging, where at a peak charging power of 380kW, it can achieve the fastest charging of 5 minutes, and increase the range by ≥ 200km with charging efficiency. The Hechuang V09 is equipped with XFC speed battery customized and developed by Juwan Tech, which has a charging time of 12 minutes from 0-80% SOC at room temperature, and a charging speed of 30% -80% in as fast as 7.5 minutes. This combination makes the Hechuang V09 have a speed of energy supplement comparable to that of a fuel vehicle.
Speed is undoubtedly important, but safety is even more important. The XFC speed battery uses >200Wh/kg high energy density speed core material, new conductive agent, and high-efficiency thermal management system. Even with long-term and normal use of 4C super fast charging, it can support the V09 to achieve speed charging throughout its life cycle. At the same time, the XFC battery has passed the 24-hour no-flame test, fully ensuring safety and durability during use.
Obviously, super fast charging is like an extension line, allowing the Hechuang V09 to reach further destinations more easily.
The “Face” of Hechuang’s Energy Supplement
If the long range of a vehicle is the center “point” and super fast charging is the “line” that allows the vehicle to run further, the “face” of this energy supplement system is the layout of Hechuang’s supercharge ecological network.To form this “terrain”, it is mainly reflected in the ultra-fast charging ecosystem jointly built by Hechuang Auto and Juwan Technology. Recently, Hechuang Auto and Juwan Technology announced that in addition to strategic cooperation on ultra-fast battery technology, the two sides will also take the geometric center of the Greater Bay Area as the strategic starting point, focus on laying out the “dumbbell” channel in North, East, South, and West China, create a new ecosystem of “XFC ultra-fast charging”, and lead the rapid development of the ultra-fast charging market. For the layout of ultra-fast charging stations, Hechuang Auto will explore diverse cooperation models, combine with the advantageous resources of third-party markets, jointly lay out ultra-fast charging station networks, and provide efficient and convenient charging services for Hechuang Auto’s users.
Since it is going to form a terrain, Hechuang Auto also gave detailed planning on the number of ultra-fast charging stations. By the end of 2023, Hechuang Auto plans to add 300 new charging stations in first and second-tier cities, and will lay out over 2,000 stations in the next three years, covering community charging and public ultra-fast charging. Multiple projects will be implemented within the year. As for the location layout of public ultra-fast charging, it will mainly focus on the core areas of high-speed highways and first and second-tier cities, covering high-end shopping malls, core communities, and high-speed service areas and other locations.
At the time of writing, Hechuang’s first ultra-fast charging station – Machong Ultra-Fast Charging Station has officially opened, and the construction speed is catching up with our writing speed.
The Machong Ultra-Fast Charging Station will use full liquid cooling technology, and both the host and the charging terminal are liquid-cooled to achieve a high protection standard of IP65. In terms of fast charging technology, the single-gun charging gun supports a maximum output of 600A, and can be fully charged in 5 minutes, increasing the cruising range of the vehicle by 300km, thereby solving users’ range anxiety.
In terms of intelligent charging technology, the six-way full flexible power division scheduling, the 480kW power pool outputs on demand, saving time and reducing energy consumption. In terms of user experience, the ultra-light and ultra-fine liquid-cooled charging gun with a diameter of 28mm is easy to handle. It also has an ultra-wide adaptation range, achieving a constant power output of DC300-1000V, covering current and future models.The Chinese Markdown text translated into English Markdown with HTML tags preserved:
This means that models like Hozon V09, which supports ultra-fast charging, can experience the convenience of quick charging almost everywhere. In the future, even congested travel scenes such as during the Spring Festival can achieve a replenishment experience similar to that of refueling gasoline cars.
Compared to what we currently see, most of the ultra-fast charging replenishment is only a showcase for trial sites and rarely expands to practical layouts on a larger scale. This defeats the purpose of building a network since car owners are still bound to a few nodes. By rapidly constructing an ultra-fast charging network layout through Hozon’s collaboration, it can allow both core city and long-distance car travel to achieve the same freedom and convenience.
Not just 0 anxiety, but a better way of traveling
Regarding the mode of travel, a fully-equipped smart driving system is a necessary configuration to make travel more comfortable. Hozon V09 has 24 top-level sensors, including an equivalent of 130-line laser radar, one 8MP front-view wide-angle camera, one 2MP rear-view camera, four 3MP ultra-clear fish-eye surround cameras, as well as five millimeter-wave radars and 12 AK2 ultrasonic radars. The arrangement of the camera + radar + laser radar unit allows multiple-mode sensors to redundantly interact with each other, forming overall smart driving protection.
Among them, the laser radar on the roof can detect up to 300m, and the angle resolution of the intelligent focusing vision range (ROI area) is 0.15 ° x0.17 °, which can accurately perceive pedestrian information beyond 100m and achieve precise detection for vehicles up to 250m. At the same time, based on the innovative ALS solid-state technology platform, the laser radar adopts a line light spot laser emission module, which has a No-Gap seamless scanning feature, and small objects will not be missed. Of course, L2+ functions such as high-speed NOA, LCC, and ACC have also been comprehensively optimized. Long-distance and high-precision detection capabilities provide more comprehensive safety protection for high-end auxiliary driving functions beyond L2 and make travel more comfortable.
In addition, after the infrastructure for replenishment layout and excellent smart driving systems have been established and equipped, it is worth exploring the homework done by Hozon in the “cloud” realm. In addition to alleviating travel anxiety through the construction of replenishment infrastructure, Hozon has built a network-to-cloud integrated service architecture to bring users a new way of traveling.
On the bike side, Hechuang V09 can achieve continuous improvement of power supplement experience through scenario analysis and vehicle OTA optimization of energy consumption and charging performance.
Through data analysis and learning, not only can the above solutions generate models in the cloud, but also expand the vehicle’s perception ability through the extension of vehicle data acquisition touchpoints, abstract digital twin models, and continuously evolve the reliability, configurability, and intelligence of vehicle services in the cloud; At the same time, the Hechuang V09 is also equipped with a remote intelligent diagnosis system, which can identify the running condition of various systems in the vehicle in advance, provide proactive services, and reduce the risk of car breakdowns; and provide vehicle health status, vehicle condition inquiries, driving behavior statistics, service suggestions, value-added services.
Therefore, in addition to power supplement and intelligent driving, the Internet and cloud-based service architecture has connected the car with people, intelligent terminals, and the environment, making Hechuang’s power supplement system more comprehensive and three-dimensional.
Through the construction of a super-fast charging system, Hechuang V09 has the best power supplement experience among current pure electric MPVs, and lets pure electric MPVs have the power supplement efficiency comparable to fuel MPVs, which not only means that the journey is easy, but the car owner can also have the convenience and excellent experience unique to pure electric MPVs during the journey, such as 6kW external discharge, stronger intelligent experience, and quieter driving experience, etc.
The establishment of this power supplement system also allows Hechuang to have a complete ecological layout from the car to the charging station and then to the charging network. Only after this step is completed, the pure electric MPV truly becomes the best home and commercial travel tool on the road.
At the same time, the sound intelligent driving system and integrated internet and cloud-based service architecture also allow users to feel that when you buy a pure electric MPV, you are finally not just buying a car. It is precisely because of this that Hechuang V09 is worth considering by all who pay attention.
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.