For me, who only began to contact zero running from C11, the "king of cost performance" is my first impression of zero running, although I also understand some of the self-developed concepts of zero running, but in the end I did not pay too much attention.
When zero-run sales frequently appear on the list and begin to enter the first camp of new forces, I still think it is only a victory for the "cost performance" strategy.
But after watching the zero-run CTC battery chassis integration technology conference today, I found that it is not just the price.
Compared with the traditional solution, the battery layout space is increased by 14.5%, and the vertical space of the body is increased by 10 mm;
25% increase in body torsional stiffness to 33,897 Nm/deg;
The zero-run C01 will be the world's first mass-produced CTC sedan;
Future compatible with 800 V platform, 400 kW fast charging;
Zero-run CTC will be free and open to share, without the use of new technologies to create new barriers.
Companies with such a high pursuit of technology are the same as the zero-run judgment that people perceive to take the low-price route. The car company with the widest range of self-development after tesla and BYD should not only have low-price tags.
Well, today comes a zero run and the CTC technology it released today.
01
Why do CTC
Today's focus is, of course, on the protagonist of the technology conference: CTC battery chassis integration technology.
But to talk about CTC, we must first start with CTP, or even traditional battery packs.
To solve the problem of mileage that everyone cares about, the idea at the power battery level is to let the battery "load" more power. Decomposition is at the material level and in terms of engineering structure. In the short term, there will be no breakthrough in battery materials, and it is difficult to improve the energy density, so engineering optimization has become a starting point that cannot be ignored to improve capacity, that is, to optimize space and release more cells.
The battery pack form in the early stage of electric vehicle development, which is also the form used by mainstream electric vehicles at present, is the standardized module battery pack. A simple understanding is like 3 steps to put an elephant in the refrigerator:
First assemble the battery cells into modules;
Then assemble a number of modules together and add the shell to become a battery pack;
Finally, pack the battery on the body.
The existence of the module makes the battery pack simple in terms of overall technical requirements and assembly, and its obvious disadvantage is that the module and shell occupy more volume and the space utilization rate is not high. Therefore, CTP (Cell To Pack) technology, also known as moduleless technology, is developed, that is, the battery cell is directly integrated into the battery pack, reducing or omitting the battery module, and integrating the battery pack into the body floor as part of the vehicle structural parts.
The advantages of CTP are increased volume utilization, reduced part count, and increased productivity. The current level of industry development is in the process of shifting from standard modules to CTP technology. The disadvantages are crash safety, thermal management and after-sales maintenance. At present, the representative enterprises using CTP technology are BYD, Hive New Energy and Ningde Era.
Taking the Ningde era as an example, the capacity utilization rate of its CTP battery pack increased by 15%-20%, the number of parts decreased by 40%, the production efficiency increased by 50%, and the energy density of the battery increased by 10%-15%.
CTC (Cell To Chassis) technology refers to the integrated design of batteries, chassis and underbodys, further simplifying product design and production processes. By reducing the redundant structural design, effectively reducing the number of parts, while improving the space utilization rate and system specific energy, the body and battery structure complement each other, so that the battery impact resistance and body torsional stiffness have been greatly improved.
But this means that CTC technology is highly dependent on body chassis development. Compared with standard modules and CTPs, it requires more R&D capabilities of vehicle companies and more involvement in battery pack design.
In terms of development progress, Tesla released the 4680 battery cell and CTC technology on Battery Day in September 2020, and just officially delivered the Model Y of CTC technology at the Texas factory in April this year. At the strategic development conference held by Volvo and Volkswagen Group in early July 2021, the two traditional car giants also took CTC as a key technology route. CATL has also previously said it will launch CTC technology in 2025.
02
Where is the CTC strength of zero running
At this time, the low-key zero-run has released its own CTC, and announced that the zero-run C01 will become the world's first car equipped with CTC technology, which is the leading big brother of domestic CTC.
Technical difficulties
According to the introduction of the press conference, the idea of integrated design of zero-run batteries comes from the inspiration drawn from the design of smart phone batteries by CEO Zhu Jiangming in 2016, when the idea of integrated design was proposed.
It is said that Mr. Zhu set up a cross-departmental project team at that time to personally supervise the progress of the project. After years of research and development accumulation, in terms of structure, design, verification, process and tooling, the R & D team has overcome 32 key technologies, and after overcoming many difficulties, the seeds planted in the early years of zero running have finally sprouted.
Compared with CTC technology and traditional electric vehicle battery packs, the structure is very different, and the biggest difficulty is to be both integrated and relatively modular. In order to solve this contradiction, the zero-run R&D team proposed an integrated battery chassis structure, which solved two major technical difficulties:
Structural aspects:
The integrated design of battery and chassis innovatively applies the CTC double skeleton ring beam structure, which combines the battery skeleton structure and the chassis body structure into one, which is both the body chassis structure and the battery structure, and the overall structure is more efficient.
In terms of airtightness:
Through the body design to achieve battery sealing, CTC technology borrows the basic structure of the chassis, using the body longitudinal beam, beam to form a complete sealing structure, which is a major innovation compared to traditional cars.
Technical effects
From the technical results, space, endurance, performance and safety have been significantly improved.
The more integrated battery structure frees up more valuable chassis space, with a 14.5% increase in overall battery layout space and a 10 mm increase in vertical space. Don't underestimate the distance of 1 cm, for the limited head space of the car, every minute is very valuable.
In terms of battery life, in addition to the higher battery space utilization rate can put more batteries to improve the endurance of about 10%, while improving the battery insulation performance, alleviating the winter power loss defect, and further ensuring the winter battery life experience.
In terms of body performance, the torsional stiffness is increased by 25% up to 33,897 Nm/deg, providing better driving performance, better handling and better responsiveness. At the same time, the higher the body stiffness, the stronger the resistance to resonance, and the better the NVH performance.
From the software side, with the AI BMS based on BMS and the combination of online and offline cloud platforms, and integrating related tools such as big data and AI deep learning, a more active protection function can be realized.
In addition, zero-run CTC technology has good compatibility and scalability. It can be quickly and flexibly mass-produced to achieve cross-platform and cross-level adaptation. It will also be compatible with 800 V high-voltage platforms in the future and support 400 kW super fast charging.
In a word, the CTC with zero running is hard-won and worthy of praise.
03
Self-developed feelings
If you think that the story ends here, zero run relies on CTC to form technical barriers and give priority to market advantage, then the pattern is small. The development of new energy vehicles cannot be built behind closed doors, and the rise of the industry is not a one-man affair.
At the press conference, Zhu Jiangming clearly announced that "Zero Run will be free and open to CTC technology.". A good "new technology should not be a barrier, but a ladder to drive the industry to break through upwards"
The rapid development of electric vehicles has given China's automobile industry a real opportunity to overtake in curves. Behind the opportunity, it is not opportunism, but the hard work of countless Chinese engineers up and down the whole industry chain. In terms of research and development, zero run has always advocated self-research, and Zhu Jiangming said that zero run has become the most extensive car company with the widest range of self-research after Tesla and BYD.
Zhu Jiangming said plainly at the press conference, "Except for the battery cell, it is all self-research." Speaking of heroic, it is really difficult to do, in the national level more and more emphasis on technological autonomy and scientific and technological self-improvement in the environment, zero running behind the difficulties and efforts experienced behind self-research, worthy of being seen.
04
Write at the end
In my opinion, Zero Run is like a hard-working and non-verbal engineer, just like Zhu Jiangming, the founder of Zero Run.
There is no fancy marketing skills, but it has been firmly insistent on technology, and even the assisted driving chip is self-developed, which is really "out of place" in the current car circle.
Of course, the "self-research" of zero running is not perfect. Limited by self-research, a lot of basic work needs to be started personally, starting from scratch, and an inevitable result is that the product completion in the initial stage is not high. For example, assisted driving, which is not very easy to use, such as high power consumption that is often complained about, and so on. But as long as you insist on going, all problems will eventually be overcome and solved, independent research and development capabilities are the key to solve the problem, is the guarantee of enterprise stability and long-term development.
Finally, look forward to a wave of the first series production CTC technology sedan zero-run C01.
Written by: Pigeon No. 42
Edit: Reinhardt
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