Author: Michelin
One thing that is definitely not lacking in this era is a new car brand. Among the many new brands that emerged last year, “Avatar” is undoubtedly a special one.
Different from the fledgling new cross-border car makers and the combination of independent brand and the Internet, Avatar is like a “familiar stranger”. Behind it stands three old friends, Chang’an Automobile, CATL and Huawei, who have pooled the “most promising talents” in the automotive field.
A few months ago, when Avatar unveiled its first model, the Avatar 11, people speculated more about how this collaboration model is different from ordinary suppliers. What kind of chemical reaction will occur between the experience of the automotive industry and the experiences of ITC giants and energy giants? What kind of car will be created?
On March 13, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced the new cars applying for the 354th batch of the “Road Motor Vehicle Production Enterprise and Product Announcement”, and the “Avatar 11” was among them. The speculation was finally revealed slowly.
Empowered by three giants, Avatar takes a bite of the hardest bone?
At the brand launch conference four months ago, Avatar showcased its first model, the Avatar 11. With “future sense” as its core design concept, this model is bold and confident in its overall design, with a clear visual impact. Four months later, judging by the photos provided by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, this production version of the car is almost 100% true to the concept design, retaining the sharp lines of the body and the striking F-shaped headlights.
Looking at the specific parameters, the body of the Avatar 11 is 4880mm long, 1970mm wide, 1601mm high, and has a wheelbase of 2975mm, which is a standard mid-to-large size SUV. Compared with the currently available Model Y and NIO ES6, the length and wheelbase of the Avatar 11 are slightly longer, but the overall height of the car body is lower, and the overall shape is more “flat”, with the coupé design enhancing this visual effect.Avita’s first model is aimed at the most competitive segment in the current market – mid-to-large SUVs. In order to make a breakthrough in this “king of kings” segment, the “three giants” behind Avita have pulled out all the stops, with the core being the CHN platform developed jointly by the three parties.
According to the announcement, the Avita 11 is equipped with a dual motor combination provided by Huawei, with a front motor of 195 kW and a rear motor of 230 kW, producing a maximum power of 425 kW. This combination enables it to achieve a 0-100 km/h acceleration in under 4 seconds.
In terms of batteries, with the support of CATL, the second largest shareholder, the Avita 11 is equipped with a 90.38 kWh lithium-ion battery pack, with a maximum range of 600 km. At the same time, it has pioneered the use of CATL’s next-generation CTP non-module technology, directly using battery cells to form the battery pack, reducing the space and material required for module assembly, increasing the energy density of the battery pack, and freeing up the space required for power battery layout.
This is why the Avita 11 has a low body height and a hatchback design, yet still ensures ample headroom in the rear seats. According to the previous brand launch event, Avita also plans to achieve a range of over 700 km.
In addition to the power battery, the Avita 11 is equipped with a 750V high-voltage system, with a maximum charging power of 240kW, and a 30% to 80% charging time of only 15 minutes. The high-voltage pure electric platform has made a leap in the efficiency, range and fast-charging speed of electric vehicles. The only factor that may affect the experience is the current lack of a perfect high-voltage ultra-fast charging network, which limits the level of fast charging.
However, 2022 is destined to be the year when the high-voltage platform explodes. LanTu, XPeng, Ideal, and other brands that have already begun to warm up the high-voltage platform will release products one after another, and Avita is also among the first batch of brands to implement the high-voltage platform. As high-voltage pure electric platform products land, the speed of laying out high-voltage ultra-fast charging infrastructure will also accelerate. For Changan, which currently has no plans to launch a self-operated charging system, using Avita to quickly expand the high-voltage ultra-fast charging network might be a fast and viable solution. Or maybe Avita has another option?# CTP battery, 600km range, Avita 11’s power battery configuration reminds people of EVOGO, a battery swapping brand launched by CATL two months ago. EVOGO realizes cross-brand swapping by adopting CTP technology “chocolate swapping block,” with each block providing about 200km of range. Each car can install up to 3 chocolate batteries, exactly providing a 600km range.
For Avita, who has a deep connection with CATL, joining CATL’s battery swapping system and enjoying the swapping service may be another good choice.
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Another suspense for Avita is Huawei. As a “flower blooming in multiple fields” in the automotive industry, what differences will Huawei bring to Avita？
In the previous brand conference, Avita announced that the CHN platform will be equipped with Huawei’s intelligent cockpit platform CDC, autonomous driving domain controller ADC, and some three-electric components. This means that in addition to the front and rear dual motors mentioned earlier, the intelligent cockpit and autonomous driving software and hardware solutions of Avita 11 are also provided by Huawei. Compared with the previous cooperation with BEIJINGEU AUTOMOTIVE GROUP, JIXIUFENG and SIELCY(MORRIS GARAGES), this collaboration will be more in-depth.
According to the information provided by MIIT, Avita 11 is equipped with 3 LiDARs, 6 millimeter-wave radars, 12 ultrasonic sensors, 13 cameras, and has a calculation power of 400Tops, which can achieve high-level intelligent driving under all scenarios, such as high-speed and complex urban road conditions. Compared with BEIJINGEU AUTOMOTIVE GROUP’s ArcFox “α-S HI,” cooperated with Huawei last year, the two cars have the same number of sensors, but Avita 11’s calculation power is higher than ArcFox’s 352Tops, providing more calculation redundancy.
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Before the Shanghai Auto Show last year, Huawei showed off a high-level intelligent driving solution, which attracted a lot of attention. It can be imagined that on the same computing platform and sensor configuration basis, after a year of algorithm iteration and more adequate computing power, Avita 11’s performance in intelligent driving is still worth looking forward to.
However, the cost of such high-intelligence software and hardware configuration can also be imagined.
In conclusion
As the first model empowered by the “three giants,” Avita 11’s first shot has been fired, which also shows us the opening of a new cooperation mode in the era of intelligent electric cars.Based solely on the information disclosed, we cannot infer additional details. However, judging from the various parameter indicators, it can be said that the Avita 11 spared no effort in terms of configuration. Changan, Huawei, and CATL have poured their top-notch technologies into this car. As to what kind of sparks they will generate and whether they will achieve the effect of 1+1+1>3, we’ll have to wait and see.
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.