Review of the New Energy Track in 2022: The Key Role of MPVs

Looking back at the new energy track of 2022, one keyword cannot be ignored: “MPV”.

It is worth mentioning that throughout the year, there were many new energy MPVs launched, including the SAIC Roewe iMAX8 electric version, the Voyah Dreamer, the SAIC Maxus MIFA 9, TESEE D9, JIKR 009, GAC Trumpchi M8 PHEV, and Hongqi HQ9.

• Roewe iMAX8 (¥188,800-¥253,800)
• Voyah Dreamer (¥369,900-¥689,900)
• SAIC Maxus MIFA 9 (¥279,900-¥419,900)
• TESEE D9 (¥329,800-¥459,800)
• JIKR 009 (¥499,000-¥588,000)
• GAC Trumpchi M8 PHEV (¥275,000-¥345,000)
• Hongqi HQ9 (¥358,800-¥538,800)

In the relatively small market of MPVs, the frequent launch of new energy cars this year is “unprecedented”.

From price and configuration, these models are generally priced above ¥300,000. The release of these mid to high-end MPVs is aimed to fill the gap of the MPV market, which lacks such products.

It can be said that the mid to high-end new energy MPV market is enjoying its best time.

At the 2022 Guangzhou Auto Show, the MPV market welcomed another heavy-duty model – the Horizon V09 made its global debut.

Equipped with laser radar, 800V high-voltage system, 4C super fast charging, dual high-pass Snapdragon 8155 chip, endurance over 750 kilometers… The release of the Horizon V09 has brought the electrification and intelligence of high-end new energy MPVs to a new level.

The Horizon V09, a Powerful MPV “Rookie”

The Horizon V09 is based on the Horizon Concept-M concept car and is positioned as a medium and large-sized pure electric MPV.

This is the fourth model of Horizon, after the Horizon 007 SUV, Horizon Z03, and the recently launched A06 sports car.As a mid-sized MPV, Hechuang V09 has almost all the features of a popular MPV model–larger space, better driving comfort, and electric sliding door design for easier boarding.

Although Hechuang has not revealed the specific body size information at this year’s Guangzhou Auto Show, from the site, Hechuang V09’s width is close to 2 meters, which is basically at the same level as the new power MPV models such as DENZA D9.

Compared with models such as Toyota Senna and Buick GL8, Hechuang V09 has advantages in terms of space: vertical space of 1288mm and cabin front and rear space of 2834mm, which achieve the maximization of space utilization, and also the best seat cabin space in the same level.

In terms of endurance, Hechuang V09 has a comprehensive endurance mileage of over 750 kilometers.

In comparison, DENZA D9’s CLTC pure electric endurance mileage is 600-620km, and the CLTC pure electric endurance mileage of the Zeekr 009 is 702-822km. It is expected that Hechuang V09’s endurance performance will be better than DENZA D9 and reach the level of Zeekr 009.

Unlike other domestic new power pure electric MPV models that focus on high-end, Hechuang V09 has an obvious advantage that it is built based on Hechuang’s self-developed H-GEA pure electric architecture, and comes equipped with an 800V high-voltage system as standard, which is also one of the few high-end pure electric MPV models on the market with an 800V high-voltage system.

The advantage of the 800V high-voltage system is not only faster charging and more convenient energy supplementation, but also the high-voltage electric drive power and high-voltage accessories of silicon carbide can further improve the energy consumption performance of the whole vehicle, thereby improving the accuracy and stability of the vehicle’s endurance.

Hechuang V09 is also equipped with a 380 kW power 4C super fast charge, which can charge 200 kilometers in as fast as 5 minutes. This also means that as long as the “4C Super Fast Charge” charging station construction can keep up, Hechuang V09 has the advantage of quickly replenishing energy, and has the ability to expand the use scenario of pure electric MPV by running long distances.

In terms of intelligence, Horki V09 is equipped with the H-VIP 3.0 intelligent driving system, with a high-performance AI chip and a domain controller for driving and parking integration, which can achieve high-level assisted driving.

It is reported that there are 24 sensors around the Horki V09, including:

- 1 130-line Lidar from RoboSense
- 1 8 million pixel camera
- 1 2 million pixel rear-view camera
- 4 3 million pixel ultra-clear fisheye surround-view cameras
- 5 millimeter-wave radars
- 12 ultrasonic radars

Inside the car, the Horki V09 will be equipped with a smart cabin solution with dual Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 chips, with two high-performance chips controlling the front and rear entertainment systems, and achieving four-screen linkage and cross-terminal interaction.

Although the interior has not been opened yet, from this configuration, the Horki V09 smart cabin is likely to adopt a multi-screen solution.

The overall market structure of Chinese MPVs has been dumbbell-shaped:

- In the low-end market, MPVs priced at about 100,000 yuan such as the Wuling Hongguang and Baojun 730 are positioned as commercial vehicles;
- In the middle and high-end markets, MPVs represented by the Buick GL8 and Honda Odyssey, priced above 250,000 yuan, serve both business reception and family travel.

However, data show that with the upgrading of consumption and the relaxation of China's birth policy, the demand for mid-to-high-end MPVs with higher comfort and the ability to accommodate the whole family is gradually expanding, and the low-end MPV market represented by Wuling is shrinking:

- In 2016, China's MPV market reached a peak sales of 2.49 million units, of which Wuling Hongguang sold 655,000 units and Buick GL8 sold 79,000 units.
- In 2021, China's MPV market sold 1.055 million units, of which Wuling Hongguang sales sharply decreased to 252,000 units while Buick GL8 increased to 161,000 units.

It is reported that the Horki V09 will start delivering in the second half of 2023. With the official debut of the Horki V09, the competition in China's high-end MPV market in 2023 will become increasingly fierce.

Most of the pure electric MPVs launched in 2022 have not yet used the 800V high-voltage system or lidar. From the hardware specifications such as the intelligence level, cruising range, and body size of the Horki V09, the Horki V09 has broken this situation and also pushed the hardware arms race of MPVs to a new height.

The World’s First MPV Equipped with LiDAR

Currently, there are no MPVs on the production line that have outstanding autonomous driving capabilities. Large-vehicles with intelligent safety features have been lacking.

The GAC MIFA 9 is equipped with two Horizon Journey 3 chips, including the Polar Star 009, powered by Mobileye’s EyeQ5H chip. These models use a combination of visual and millimeter-wave radar and do not have a LiDAR installed.

In this regard, Hechuang has created a “sub-segment” of the market by installing LiDAR on an MPV model. The Hechuang V09 carries an equivalent 130-line LiDAR from Sense Time which has the following main performance indicators:

• The farthest detection distance: 300 meters; 180 meters at 10% reflection rate
• Field of view: 120° (H) x 25° (V)
• ROI Area (Intelligent Focusing Vision) Angle resolution: 0.15° x 0.17°

Reportedly, the Sense Time LiDAR is installed on the roof of the Hechuang V09 model with a higher and wider detection view. This enables the LiDAR to better cope with the close-range blind spots generated by the large size of the MPV body, thereby improving the safety of the vehicle. Furthermore, the installation of the LiDAR at a higher altitude enables the detection of obstacles in advance, increases the warning time, and improves the comfort of braking.

According to Sense Time, this LiDAR can accurately detect pedestrian information at a distance of 100 meters and vehicle information up to 250 meters.

Car News China believes that the Sense Time LiDAR product has three advantages that set it apart from other products on the market:

Unlike other LiDAR products available, Sense Time has utilized an independently researched and developed ALS platform. This allows for performance equivalent to that of a 130-line system while maintaining a simple and compact optomechanical architecture, which can quickly enter the vehicle trial production stage in the engineering domain, accelerate large-scale production, and ensure product volume production quality and supply chain safety.

Thanks to its independent time-of-flight algorithm and chip design, Sense Time’s product can further enhance the system’s integration and reduce dependence on high-end signal processing chips, thereby significantly reducing hardware costs.

Finally, the product uses a combination of linear photon beam scanning and arrayed transmitting and receiving chips with no gaps in scanning. This scheme is adopted in the laser beam scanning unit of the product to reduce the complexity of the entire system, improve production efficiency during large-scale production, and lower whole-device hardware costs.“`

Deploying an array emitter that modulates into a line beam, and then combining it with a receiver array accomplishes a significant simplification of the most complex dimming process for mass production, using laser radar.

LIDAR uses a line beam laser emitter module based on the exploration of ALS solid-state technology platform, characterized by seamless scanning with no small object detection left out.

“Line beam solution is absolutely the optimal solution for the front detection LIDAR under boundary conditions such as high cost performance, cost control, and vehicle regulations,” said Wang Shiwei, CEO of RoboSense at the media communication meeting.

Third is “hardware-level image fusion.”

The core principle of this technology is to integrate CMOS sensors at the emission and reception levels of laser radar, and output multi-dimensional fusion data directly for the automatic driving assistance system through synchronized high-precision clock signals.

RoboSense hopes to achieve front fusion of laser point cloud and image data at the hardware end, realizing high-precision time synchronization and spatial alignment, namely, the corresponding front fusion mode.

According to Wang Shiwei, the benefit of this approach is to significantly reduce hardware and calibration costs, while improving the efficiency of perception algorithm fusion.

According to Autohome, RoboSense will finalize two other mass-produced car models in the first half of 2023, in addition to He Chuang, and enter SOP status in mid-2023.

Wang Shiwei said that RoboSense is expanding its team and attracting senior engineers from the automotive industry to accelerate the mass production and delivery of LIDAR. With new vehicle regulations promoting LIDAR products to more models, 2023 will be a key time point for RoboSense’s explosive growth.

Adding LIDAR to Build a More Stereoscopic Smart Driving System

Although perception systems for autonomous driving are typically divided into two schools: vision perception and fusion perception, fusion perception solutions have won most of the automakers’ favor so far.

However, in the fusion perception solution, LIDAR is a critical component.

“`Many industry insiders believe that lidars can effectively improve the precision of perception for autonomous driving systems and thus enhance system safety.

In Hozon’s view, lidars are responsible for the long-range perception of up to 200 meters, and cameras and millimeter-wave radars are used for short and medium-range coproduction, which can help build a more three-dimensional intelligent driving system.

“We’ve made lidars an important option when importing MPVs this time,” said Yang Ying, director and co-president of Hozon Automotive, to Autohome on December 30. Lidars can perceive farther ahead, making up for some of the hardware deficiencies of the current L2+ intelligent driving system, such as identifying static objects and small objects, where lidars play an irreplaceable role. After fusing lidars with cameras and short-range radars, the active safety of the vehicle has been greatly improved.”

With the help of lidars, the detection distance for various targets is stronger and more precise, and the overall forward perception ability of the autonomous driving system has been improved.

It can be said that the fusion of perception effectively improves the perception redundancy, among which the importance of lidars cannot be ignored:

Firstly, real-time 3D modeling.

Unlike the 2D image data output by cameras, lidars can directly form 3D image models through scanning the surrounding environment.

High-performance lidars can generate millions of point clouds per second in the lateral 120-degree visual field range. Although there is a gap in resolution compared to shooting images, it is enough to support AI deep learning and semantic segmentation functions.

Secondly, all-weather.

As it actively emits lasers, lidars have the characteristics of all-weather, especially in low-light and tunnel environments.

Thirdly, medium and long-range detection.

The detection distance of the mainstream forward long-range lidars currently can reach the range of 150-250 meters (@10% reflectivity).

Long-range detection can enable autonomous driving systems to detect obstacles in front in a more timely manner and make early decisions, ensuring driving safety.

For example, in a highway scenario, calculated at a speed of 120 kilometers/hour, theoretically, every 100 meters of detection distance can provide the system with about 3 seconds of reaction time (without considering braking distance).

From a longer-term perspective, the core of LiDAR is not to replace millimeter-wave radar or cameras, but to iterate itself.

Wang Shiwei believes that how to solve the contradiction of LiDAR application in vehicles, improve the user’s driving experience and vehicle safety, better integrate different sensors into an integrated deep fusion perception system, and let users feel the core value of LiDAR after paying the money are the problems that the next-generation of LiDAR needs to solve.

At the same time, he also mentioned that “On the cost-reduction level, how to reduce the price of LiDAR from thousands of yuan to two or three thousand yuan or even lower, is the more important mission and challenge of LiDAR.”

According to statistics from Autohome, there are currently 6 LiDAR companies in China that have announced the acquisition of designated passenger car manufacturers, including Velodyne LiDAR, Hesai Technology, TudaTong, Huawei, Livox, and SenseTime, among which Velodyne LiDAR, Hesai Technology, and SenseTime are representatives of local start-ups.

Some industry insiders have expressed that there have been almost no new LiDAR companies emerging in the industry since September 2021. It can be said that the first window period of LiDAR has closed, and the LiDAR companies that have acquired designated passenger car manufacturers are basically competitors in this round of competition.

With the start of delivery of the Hozon Auto V09 in 2023, the Hozon Auto V09 will become the world’s first production MPV model equipped with LiDAR.

After the Hozon Auto V09, we can also see an obvious trend, that is, intelligence will also become a new battleground for MPV models to compete.

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.