After the Tank 300, brands such as Jietu also said they would follow up on hardcore off-road SUVs.
According to this posture, in the next few years, the traditional hardcore off-road vehicle market will usher in a round of market outbreak.
Traditional hardcore off-road vehicles are also likely to become a key category for Chinese brands to achieve brand upwards.
So, for brands dominated by load-bearing body structure, what is the difficulty in developing a non-load-bearing body structure of off-road vehicles?
Not advanced non-loaded
To understand this systemic problem involving the production mode of automobile enterprises, research and development costs, etc., we must first figure out what the non-carrier body is?
The non-bearing body structure is the most primitive structure of the car body, and since the era of the birth of the car, this structure has been the main configuration of the car body.
To put it simply, the non-load-bearing body structure is to integrate the two major systems of the vehicle's power system and walking system on a frame, and then use the frame as the base of the vehicle assembly and connect with the body.
In the non-load-bearing body structure, the hierarchy of the body and the power system and the walking system is consistent.
Prior to the 1980s, non-loader body structures were standard on almost all models. Therefore, in the automotive industry more than forty years ago, this configuration was not very advanced.
On the contrary, the bearing body structure, after it began to emerge in the 1960s, became synonymous with high-end in the market at that time.
The configuration of the bearing body structure is a low-cost body structure that grows up with the front-facing layout.
Since the 1960s, family cars have been mass-produced at low costs by means of front-wheel drive with transverse engines.
Because of the power arrangement of the transverse front drive, the transmission parts such as the drive shaft and the rear axle are eliminated, so that the vehicle space occupied by the power system can be greatly reduced.
As a result, the level of the body in the whole vehicle configuration began to rise to a higher dimension than the power system and the walking system, becoming the base of the vehicle equipment.
Because the production cost is lower, the use of space is more efficient. Since the 1970s, the load-bearing body and front-drive structure have quickly become the mainstream of automobile body structure.
The structure of the non-load-bearing body has also quickly withdrawn from the mainstream passenger car history stage.
However, because of its advantages in torsional rigidity, high load carrying capacity and other characteristics, non-load-bearing body structure is still retained in off-road vehicles, pickup trucks and other models.
Truth be told, the non-load-bearing body structure is really not advanced.
First, you are expensive in the industrial chain
As mentioned earlier, non-load-bearing body structures began to change from mainstream to non-mainstream after the 1980s.
This also means that the industrial chain of large-scale production of non-bearing body structures is gone.
Industrial production is like this, once there is no industrial chain of large-scale production, then the cost of production will increase rapidly.
For enterprises that produce in the mode of bearing body structure, the transformation of the production of off-road vehicles with non-bearing body configurations will inevitably involve further improvement of the production line - it must add an additional production line to produce the chassis.
This is actually why, in the domestic independent brands, Great Wall Motors first launched the tank 300.
——Over the years, Great Wall Motors has developed and produced in the field of pickup trucks, which has enabled it to have the ability to launch non-load-bearing body structures on a large scale and at low cost.
After the tank 300 is listed, it can lower the entry threshold of off-road vehicles at a lower price, relying on the accumulation of the industrial chain of the Great Wall pickup truck for many years.
Therefore, for the non-bearing body of off-road vehicles, some commercial vehicle brands to transform product research and development, the efficiency will be higher, the cost will be lower.
Of course, the problem with this is that the definition of the product will be far from the demand for passenger cars.
In general, the non-load-bearing body structure can be divided into commercial and passenger according to the use of two types.
Hardcore off-road vehicles can also be divided into tool-type hard-core off-road vehicles and passenger hard-core off-road vehicles according to these two definitions.
Typical representatives of the former include Toyota Fortuner, Mitsubishi Pajero Sport and other products based on pickup truck platforms, while the latter is represented by the tank 300, tank 500 and Toyota's Land Cruiser series of exclusive passenger off-road vehicles.
Although they are all non-load-bearing body structures, there are huge differences in the riding experience.
The market can explain the problem, those pickup-based chassis directly shortened to create a tool-based hardcore off-road vehicle, basically do not have a large user group.
All we're looking at is the passenger hardcore off-road.
The passenger hardcore off-road vehicle non-loader body platform, in the past two decades, in addition to the Great Wall tank platform, only Toyota has just released the TNGA-F.
As a result, the cost of corporate research and development is high.
The second is that you are expensive in safety design
It can be said that the evaluation criteria for the passive safety of automobiles have grown up along with the bearing body structure.
Today's load-bearing body structure can indeed meet the requirements of more stringent collision regulations.
But if these indicators are placed on the structure of non-load-bearing bodies, it is a difficult problem.
Because in the non-load-bearing body structure, the frame and the body are relatively independent relationships - the frame is a flat structure, the body is a cage structure, the frame is a thicker steel crimp stretch, and the body is stamped.
Two distinct and independent structures, energy absorption and collapse are two forms when faced with the same collision impact.
And when these two forms occur at the same time, it will inevitably lead to secondary damage.
Moreover, the frame, which is the main substrate of the body, will have fewer channels for collapse and energy diversion in terms of collision energy absorption than the configuration of the load-bearing body.
Therefore, in the current crash safety evaluation system, off-road vehicles with non-loaded bodies often do not score better.
This means that to meet better safety, auto companies need to invest more financial and material resources to build a new set of design theories for body safety collisions.
You see, in this way, the cost is up again.
Third, you are expensive in the power system
In the non-load-bearing body configuration, the longitudinal engine rear-wheel drive is the main configuration, and this is also the standard configuration of hardcore off-road vehicles.
Compared with the lateral engine front-wheel drive, the transmission, rear axle, and drive shaft of the power configuration of the longitudinal engine rear-wheel drive are additional parts, and for hard-riding off-road vehicles, there will be a separate transfer case, front axle and front half axle.
These parts, without exception, are mechanical structures, and at the moment when electronic products are popular, mechanical structures have become the most advanced and expensive part.
For the traditional configuration of the off-road vehicle, this part of the cost is actually the beginning of its brand premium.
The culture of off-road is actually the culture of machinery, and it is also the culture of a niche. The most attractive thing about an off-road vehicle is the exquisite combination of these mechanical structures.
In a way, off-road is like a donkey friend.
Although everyone has a dream of a donkey friend, if you really want to be a donkey friend, you will find that time is a problem, equipment is a problem, and outdoor survivability is still a problem.
In the end, only a few people became donkey friends. Of course, you can't imagine the happiness of donkey friends, and the same is true for off-roading.
Therefore, you must think about it and then buy an off-road vehicle, which is really not something that is expensive.