There are many "spare tires" in the transformation from incremental programs to hybrid independent brands.

"[hot] tomorrow! The grand annual meeting of the metal industry will begin! Come and watch the business cards of the guests.

SMM News: the spring tide of new energy is coming fiercely, while vigorously developing electrification, independent brands are also exploring more possibilities.

On November 25th, Lantu's first medium-and large-scale high-end intelligent electric SUV officially went offline. In addition to providing a pure electric version, this model also added a new power mode of extended-range electric. Lu Fang, CEO and CTO of Lantu Automobile, said: "the reason why Lantu wants to generate power in both pure electric and extended range electric fields at the same time is a comprehensive consideration of the actual car use of Chinese consumers and the future development trend of the industry." He believes that there is more room for the development of pure electric vehicles in the future, and there are more places to play, and added electric vehicles are the best transition plan for the next 5-10 years.

With the addition of programs as a buffer, the road of Lantu's transformation is smoother.

Lantu chose both pure electric and incremental technology, mainly to solve the mileage anxiety caused by electric vehicles.

Lantu's first medium-and large-scale high-end intelligent electric SUV is officially offline Photo Source: Lantu official account

In terms of working principle, the add-on electric vehicle only relies on the motor to drive the wheels, and the range extender is not directly driven, but is only used to generate electricity. When the battery power is insufficient, the vehicle can continue to drive by inputting a certain amount of external energy to the vehicle through the range expander; the range booster can be a fuel engine, or a natural gas, alcohol fuel or hydrogen fuel engine. The power generated by the extender can not only be transmitted to the battery for storage, but also provided to the motor to drive the wheel.

Compared with the pure electric vehicle, the battery capacity required by the add program is small, the cost is low, and the phenomenon of lack of power and breaking down will not occur; the battery charging power is small, so it is not necessary to build large-scale charging facilities (small power charging piles can be set up when needed). The added program not only has the advantages of pure electric vehicles without mileage worries, but also solves the inherent problems of charging difficulties, poor safety and high cost of pure trams. It is one of the effective technical solutions for automobile enterprises to transition to pure trams.

Lantu's add-on electric car carries a 1.5T four-cylinder engine and matches an efficient permanent magnet Synchronize generator with rated power 60kW. "the four-cylinder extender is relatively easy to be recognized by consumers," Lu Fang analyzed. "compared with the same class extended range model, Lantu's extended range electric car can still maintain good power output when the electricity is low. Even after many cycles of sharp increase and sharp reduction, the electric drive system is not over-temperature, no limit to twist, and the operation is stable. "

According to Lantu, both extended-range electric and pure electric drive modes will be built on ESSA intelligent electric architecture, which will be combined into different types of cars through architectural modules, including cars, SUV and so on. ESSA intelligent electric architecture can achieve rapid mass production of multiple models.

Add-on electric vehicles will pave the way in the process of Lantu's overall electrification transformation. Prior to this, ideal ONE, a staunch proponent of Zengji pure electric technology, delivered 8660 vehicles in the third quarter, an increase of 31.1% over the second quarter, a record quarterly delivery. The good market performance of the ideal car provides confidence for Lantu to develop incremental electric technology. Before the full electrification transformation, the add-on electric car with no mileage and charging anxiety is expected to make Lantu more popular with consumers.

Various routes are promoted, and independent brands have both "fish" and "bear's paw".

In the context of comprehensive new energy, like Lantu, there are not only a few independent brand car companies that focus on the future, but also take into account the current independent brand car enterprises.

In late November, Geely announced that it would work with Daimler on an efficient powertrain for next-generation hybrid technology. Prior to this, GAC also bought Toyota's THS hybrid system, and the integration of Toyota's hybrid technology with GAC's own hybrid technology will help GAC's own brand to develop in this field. In September, SAIC Chase and Great Wall promoted hydrogen energy strategic planning one after another, and SAIC Chase launched its first fuel cell MPV-, SAIC Chase EUNIQ7, Great Wall, and announced that its first fuel cell model would be mass produced in 2021.

Although the pure electric market is developing rapidly, the bottleneck of mileage and the lack of infrastructure are still unsolved. At present, the power battery has reached the bottleneck of mileage, and the range of most models is about 500 km. It is technically difficult to break through 700 km.

On the other hand, China's charging infrastructure is not coordinated with the development of electric vehicles. The Guide to the Development of Electric vehicle charging Infrastructure (2015-2020) points out that by 2020, China will add more than 12000 centralized charging stations and more than 4.8 million decentralized charging piles, including 500000 public charging piles and 4.3 million private charging piles. to meet the charging needs of 5 million electric vehicles across the country. Public charging piles have met the planning requirements ahead of time, but the number of private charging piles is still far from enough. According to the plan, the vehicle-to-pile ratio is about 1 to 1, but at present the ratio is 3.5 to 1, which is difficult to meet the needs of consumers.

Thanks to excellent mileage and fuel economy, hybrid models and add-on models have become an excellent choice for car companies in the transition from fuel vehicle market to pure electric vehicle market. Similar to Lu Fang's speech, Geely has also said that hybrid technology is the first choice to meet national emission requirements and cost-effectiveness in the short term.

Li Jun, director of the China Society of Automotive Engineering, stressed that the low-carbon automotive industry has shown a situation of parallel development of many technological routes. In order to realize the low-carbon of energy-saving vehicles, the whole vehicle factory must establish a new technical route of hybrid engines and redevelop hybrid engines and the next generation of high-efficiency electromechanical coupling transmissions, which is the core competitiveness of low-carbon products. With great market development potential and opportunities, the independent innovation of the next generation electromechanical coupling transmission is the second milestone that China's passenger car power technology must cross.

If hybrid technology will protect the independent brand in the process of completing the overall electrification transformation, the development of hydrogen fuel cell products will focus on the long term and seize the opportunity of the new energy market.

Hydrogen fuel has the advantages of "zero pollution", extraordinary mileage, convenient hydrogenation and so on. In the long run, hydrogen fuel is one of the ultimate solutions for new energy vehicles. Ren Wanfu, an analyst, believes that the application of hydrogen energy technology in automobiles is now mature, but it is still difficult to popularize and apply it because of the high R & D cost and use cost, and the imperfect infrastructure. But in the long run, hydrogen fuel cell solutions are more attractive than existing ones.

On November 2, the General Office of the State Council formally issued the New Energy vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021-2035), pointing out that it is necessary to deepen the R & D layout of "three vertical and three horizontal". Among them, the "three vertical" are pure electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid (including incremental) vehicles and fuel cell vehicles. The strategy of advancing together with a variety of technological routes has been supported and affirmed by the policy.

Market demand first, policy support later, relying on a variety of technological routes to promote the strategy at the same time, independent brands are expected to gain more market share in the process of new energy transformation.