The Rose in the Wilderness, a Bit Chilly
Last month’s Chengdu Auto Show, which was delayed due to the pandemic, overcame numerous difficulties and opened successfully. The production version of the ES33 unveiled at the SAIC R booth has a high degree of fidelity to the original concept car in terms of overall design, and is more realistic in terms of details.
From the above comparison, it can be seen that there is not much difference in the overall contour of the production car and the concept car, especially the side lines of the car body have hardly changed. The cool triangular combination daytime running lights have been replaced by vertically arranged LED light sources, but the production version’s bumper has a popular air curtain design on both sides, which can better reduce the turbulence around the front wheels.
For example, the electronic rearview mirror, which the current regulations do not support, and the openings on the wings and hood that can cause cleaning problems, have been adjusted in the design of the production version.
In the design of the production version, the size of the headlamp is slightly larger and flush with the body, and the lines of the hood have also made a compromise with reality. After such treatment, it loses some of the sharpness of the concept version. However, this small disappointment is immediately dispelled when it reaches the tail end.
The through-type taillights are a standard feature of many of the latest models, especially electric cars. However, the gameplay of connecting the left and right taillights with just one light strip seems a bit outdated. To deal with this aesthetic predicament, the designers of the ES 33 have come up with a creative answer.
Firstly, the through-type light strip has a three-dimensional structure, which projects outward from the body as a whole. This way, when the viewing angle changes, the visual experience of the light strip becomes more impactful due to the change in light relative to the car body. In addition, there are fiberoptic-like luminescent objects within the overall taillight design, which echo the R logo in a symbolic way.
Data on the car body, performance, and specific configuration were not announced at the Chengdu Auto Show, but the potential of this car in the field of intelligent driving is still worth reviewing.
PP-CEM, a Bit Strong
Big Names on Stage
# Review of the R-TECH Launch Event
Looking back to the R-TECH launch event held in Shenzhen on March 18th this year, attendees would have noted that the ES 33 on stage was still a concept model. However, its endorsement was truly compelling!
None other than Huang Zhang, R-TECH’s founder, announced that the ES 33 will be equipped with Nvidia’s self-driving chip, Orin.
Dr. Holger Klein, a board member of ZF Group, appeared on the screen showcasing their own 4D radar.
Meanwhile, the CEO and founder of Luminar, Austin Russel, a prodigious youth born in 1995, announced that the ES 33 will be the first Chinese automobile with their own state-of-the-art “Iris” semi-solid-state LIDAR, capable of employing the company’s 300 line and 1,550 nm wavelength that sets it apart from rivaling products on the market.
These hardware components, coupled with the independently-engineered R-TECH platform, form an intelligent driving perception system named PP-CEM, following a total investment of 20 billion yuan by R-TECH.
For those who are curious about what this acronym is, let me explain:
Pixel Point Cloud-Comprehensive Environment Model
It roughly means a full-scene environment model of pixel point clouds. The six-sense organs are:
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Luminar’s LIDAR
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Visual cameras
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High-precision maps
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ZF’s 4D radar imaging
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5G-V2X
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Ultrasonic radar
Apart from the aforementioned hardware, R-TECH’s computing platform is powered by a single Nvidia Orin chipset capable of reaching 254 trillion operations per second (TOPS). The port is designed to fit between 2 to 4 Orin chipsets, securing the most advanced and available product on the market to empower itself.
Luminar Iris
So, what makes this prodigious 95’s LIDAR so outstanding?
Well, its performance is undisputed when it operates with a 120-degree by 26-degree field of view and detects within 250 meters at 10 percent reflectivity. By comparison, its rivaling peers that promise to enter the mass production or are currently in the manufacturing process do not compare to the Iris, undoubtedly putting it in a leading position.
Moreover, it is flat:
It should be noted that many competing products tend to be bulky in appearance.Translate the following Markdown text in Chinese to English Markdown text in a professional way, preserving the HTML tags within the Markdown, outputting only the corrected and improved parts, without writing explanations:
The ultra-high resolution and detection distance mean that this lidar can capture images like this:
The range finding and native 3D scanning ability of lidar are very good complements to camera visual perception. And you should know that, whether it is day or night, with backlight or against it, it will not affect this image. However, when it rains heavily, snows heavily or during sandstorms, the lidar will be almost ineffective due to the large amount of noise in the image.
4D millimeter-wave radar
Therefore, even with lidar, millimeter-wave radar with stronger all-weather capabilities is still necessary. Although traditional millimeter-wave radar has the strongest all-weather capability, it has serious problems such as low horizontal angular resolution, difficulty in detecting crossing targets and stationary targets, and lacks perception in the height dimension.
The main feature of 4D imaging radar is its high angular resolution. When a radar with this ability appears, the reflection points of cars and pedestrians will no longer be just a blob, but a clearer contour.
And the 4D radar of ZF has 192 channels, 16 times that of traditional radar. It can not only achieve a detection range of 350 meters. In the past, the radar could only receive 1-2 points for pedestrians, but 4D radar can receive more than 10 points, which can preliminary judge the movement of human limbs and then predict the direction of movement.
This lineup is pretty comprehensive
The ES33 will be a perfect and highly anticipated addition to R Motors’ product line. Currently, R Motors consists of two models, the ER6 and Marvel R, with prices ranging from around 150,000 to 260,000 yuan.
Practical ER6
As a front-wheel-drive car, there is nothing particularly eye-catching about the mechanical structure of the ER6. Its spatial layout is not particularly outstanding either, especially the limited up and down space of the front foot, which reduces the freedom of the driving posture. But it has a killer feature: a range of 620 km.
Moreover, the corresponding retail price of this range is 162,800 yuan, which is really cost-effective for the group of people who only drive for commuting and shopping. Although the shared architecture within the group is not advanced, the ER6 is a real value for its range, also known as “range value ratio”, which makes this car, which is not outstanding in other aspects, still attractive.
Highlighting the Marvel R
As one of the cheapest models with a range of over 600 km, the Marvel R also has the confidence to dominate the list. Because it is one of the fastest accelerating vehicles under 300,000 yuan.
The four-wheel-drive version of the fastest accelerating Marvel R model is priced at 259,800 yuan. If you think of this car as a regular oil-to-electric conversion, then maybe you haven’t done your homework enough.
First of all, its powertrain is powerful and unique. Moreover, it is currently the cheapest three-motor model on the market. The double motor on the rear axle is not a conventional layout of one left and one right for driving separately, but a large and small motor fused by a unified transmission mechanism for their power. 222 kW of power and 665 Nm of torque can bring 4.8 seconds of exceptional performance.
In addition to acceleration, the unique dual-motor layout also has a benefit of saving money. When there is no strong power request, the double motors on the rear axle can disconnect one motor to improve energy efficiency. Moreover, this means that two sets of the same reduction mechanisms are not required, which is more cost-effective. This is also one of the core reasons why R cars can give you a 4.8-second acceleration product for less than 260,000 yuan.
The two-wheel-drive version of the Marvel R, priced at 219,800 yuan and 239,800 yuan respectively, omits the front motor but still retains the double motor system on the rear axle. Therefore, even if it is not a top configuration, the Marvel R still has enough sincerity compared to common oil-electric models. Although the front axle adopts the common MacPherson suspension support of the same level, the sincerity of the chassis can still be seen from the rear axle’s large aluminum lower arm and the same trapezoidal link rear suspension structure as German luxury cars. And SAIC has found Porsche Engineering to do the calibration for the handling of such a chassis, which is sincere.
Lastly, it is worth emphasizing that the Marvel R, which uses the Mobileye Q4H intelligent driving chip, performs very well in the automatic parking project tested by Garage 42.### The Role of ES 33 is Very Clear
In this product line, ES 33 clearly has a more high-end positioning, especially in terms of intelligent driving and intelligent cabin experience, which has an elevated effect on the brand image.
Similarly, the born “nobility” of ES 33 has also subverted the previous brand recognition on the mechanical level. The front brake caliper located behind the axle is the installation method adopted by most high-end models, because it is obviously more reasonable than the rear axle caliper, which has two reasons.
- The rear axle caliper means that the steering tie rod is in front of the axle. When the vehicle is turning, the suspension bushing of the outer wheel is compressed inward under the action of lateral force, causing the outer wheel to have a tendency to turn outwards. When the steering tie rod is rearward, the more the force is applied, the greater the tendency for the angle of turn to become larger, that is to say, it is easy to produce excessive steering and insufficient stability.
- When the caliper is behind the axle, it can offset part of the vertical force caused by gravity on the wheel hub bearing and reduce the stress on the wheel hub bearing.
The Amazing Collaboration between Lego and Jay Chou
R Automotive will collaborate with Shenzhen Satellite TV and Lego Certified Professional to create a 1:1 scale ES 33 model using Lego bricks, which will be the first full-sized Lego car model that can move in China. This kind of cross-border cooperation may not be new, but the meaning behind it is profound. Under the empowerment of SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture), which is a decoupling approach between software and hardware, allowing the car’s functionalities to communicate independently, ES 33 can achieve full-domain integration of the cloud, mobile, car and smart hardware terminals. It can evolve into a modular intelligent space that links everything and continuously evolves, bringing the concept of AIoT into the car and aiming to achieve the grand goal of “data determines experience, software defines the car.” The hardware and software of ES 33’s body are like Lego modules, empowering users to customize and increase freedom, meeting the diverse needs of users.
When Jay Chou failed to appear at R Automotive’s booth during the Shanghai Auto Show, I was a little disappointed that the virtual Jay Chou, who appeared through a network connection, wasn’t enough to elicit a “Not bad, R” from me. However, not only did R Automotive release the mass production version of ES 33 at the auto show, it also released “Xiao Zhou Tong Xue”, which is the “mass production” version of Jay Chou.
Although having a virtual celebrity enter an app seems to be cool, it actually aligns with the development trend of social networks in the post-epidemic era, and it has become one of the necessary means for car companies to obtain user traffic and data. Xiao Zhou Tong Xue, as a virtual image, is deeply anchored to Jay Chou in the real world. It is obviously impossible for Jay Chou to appear and participate deeply in every dissemination node of R Automotive, but as an IP of R Automotive, Xiao Zhou Tong Xue can serve as both a bonus for the brand and a productivity tool for R Automotive’s app community operations.
R Automotive’s offline store architecture is composed of three functions: R STORE experience center, R DELIVERY CENTER delivery center, and R STATION service center. Among them, there are already 137 R STORE experience centers nationwide. Within this year, the number of R STORE locations in China is expected to exceed 200.In terms of maintenance, R Automobile has launched the “One-Stop” service, which allows users to enjoy convenient and efficient maintenance services without leaving their homes. In terms of charging network, R Automobile has set up 100 brand charging stations and helped users access 380,000 third-party charging piles.
The self-owned brand background of traditional car companies, which are gradually transitioning towards 2C operations and services, has made this market increasingly interesting. R Automobile will make a splash starting from the ES 33 through user co-creation in technology, design, products, and services.
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.