Originally, the ideal was not a range extension chosen because of "technology is not good", but now it is considered an "advanced" hybrid solution, PHEV, and ideal has also had layout and actions.
Just after the delivery of the ideal L7 began, Li Xiang revealed that the ideal ONE initially did the PHEV parallel technology version, and realized the loading on the road to complete the highway road test. Li Xiang also commented that this model research and development is really - no difficulty, no difficulty, no difficulty.
In addition, Li Auto has also developed a pure electric MPV that focuses on ride-hailing, and D1 Plus cooperates with a travel platform - as we all know, this travel platform is Didi, but later because Ideal took Meituan's money, and Didi and Meituan have a taxi business competition, so then there is no more.
Interestingly, Li Xiang also specifically mentioned an internal employee - Liu Youbo this time, believing that in the project of the ideal L series, especially the ideal L7, he represents an uncompromising spirit within the ideal car.
So who is Liu Youbo? Is it really as difficult to develop PHEV technology as Li Xiang?
Li Xiang recently revealed himself
Li Xiang revealed on Weibo that when he was the first agent ONE (probably in 2015), he had completed the research and development of high-speed single-speed PHEV parallel technology, and realized the loading road test.
After large-scale drive testing, the results show that the ideal PHEV technology can save less than 4% of energy consumption at high speeds. After removing the rear drive motor, the front-drive parallel energy saving effect is better, saving about 7%.
So, why didn't Ideal ONE use PHEV paralleling?
Li Xiang calculated an economic account.
Assuming that users drive an average of 20,000 kilometers a year, based on pure highways accounting for 20%, users drive 4,000 kilometers at high speed a year. (Because there is no difference in energy consumption between PHEVs and range extenders within 80 yards, only high-speed sections are used to reflect economy.) ）
At high speed, PHEV parallel connection can save about 113 yuan per year (8.8 liters/100 kilometers x 4% x 8 yuan/liter x 40), 10 years can save 1130 yuan, and the NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) of the high-speed parallel engine is worse than the range extender.
Using PHEV parallel connection can not save the owner a lot of money, but also sacrifice the driving experience, so the ideal finally abandoned PHEV parallel connection, choose NVH better range extension.
And Li Xiang explained that because the new factory in Changzhou is reported and approved according to the "extended-range pure electric vehicle", it is not ideal that it cannot produce PHEVs, but only actively chooses not to produce PHEVs.
The translation is: ideal also has the ability to create plug-and-mix, just for user consideration, plug-in mixing is not as good as extended range incense.
In addition to the explosive cooking ONE once had a PHEV version, Li Xiang also revealed that the company once made a pure electric MPV. The platform on which this pure electric MPV is based is the pure electric platform used to develop the ideal ONE.
In 2017, a travel platform simultaneously found Ideal and BYD to cooperate in the development of exclusive ride-hailing vehicles, BYD's D1, a pure electric compact MPV; The ideal is the larger D1 Plus, with a three-row layout and a NEDC pure electric range of 500km.
Moreover, the D1 Plus does not have a passenger seat and trunk, and luggage is placed in the co-pilot's position; There are two independent seats in the second and third rows, and the door on the left rear side has been eliminated, completely for ride-hailing and ride-sharing scenarios.
Li Xiang did not name his name on Weibo, but those who are familiar with the ideal car building process may remember this photo of the two post-80s joint efforts.
This travel platform that cooperates with Ideal is Didi, and Li Xiang further revealed why the cooperation with Didi could not be done this time - because Ideal later took Meituan's investment, and Meituan (cut into the taxi business) and Didi began to have a competitive relationship, so Ideal and Didi terminated the cooperation "tacitly".
For ideal, the ideal capital chain at that time was only enough to spend on ideal ONE, so after breaking up with Didi, the company also terminated the D1 Plus project, all in ideal ONE and extended range electric.
But after the project was forced to stop, the people and things involved were not over.
A man named Liu Youbo, a large 5-seat extended-range electric SUV called the Ideal L7, became a sequel.
Li Xiang does not often thank a specific employee in public expressions, but this time he specifically thanked Liu Youbo.
Who is Liu Youbo?
Liu Youbo and Ideal L7
There is not much public information about Liu Youbo, except for Li Xiang mentioning his name on Weibo this time, Liu Youbo's other appearance was when the ideal L7 was released.
At that time, Liu Youbo answered questions from the media about the ideal L7 as the "project director of the R&D project of the ideal L series model".
Prior to that, Youbo Liu was a project manager at D1 Plus. And, the ideal L7 was almost canceled like the D1 Plus.
However, because Liu Youbo "understands both technology and products" and "does not compromise and fights very hard", the ideal L7 has emerged from scratch, and "the product value far exceeds the initial expectations".
On March 11, the delivery of the ideal L7 officially began, and Li Xiang recalled Liu Youbo's persistence for so many years, and specially posted on Weibo, "especially happy for him".
But what is more interesting is that although Li Xiang is so praised, this Liu Youbo was very low-key before this, and there was not even more personal introduction.
So if you know something, welcome to share other news about this low-key god~
Is there a difference between electric hybrid and range extension?
Of course, in the topic that can make Li Xiang the most uneven, there must be "range extension backward", and he will not miss any opportunity to justify this technology.
The last time was to expose BYD's high-end brand to look up,
The first car, the U8, also used range extender technology
, and this time, by revealing that the ideal has developed PHEV (plug-in hybrid), it is not an extension of technical ability.
So is there a difference in technical capabilities between extended range and plug-in hybrid?
If from the power mode, plug-in hybrid or range extender is good, it can be said that they all belong to the category of hybrid.
Among them, the parallel mode of PHEV is plug-in hybrid; The series mode of REEV is a range extender.
The main difference between the two is that the engine does not participate in driving the wheels.
For range extenders, the fuel engine is connected in series in the powertrain, and when necessary, it provides electric energy for the motor through fuel power generation, and does not participate in driving the wheels.
That is, with a "burning oil charging treasure", the range extension is only driven by the motor.
In PHEV plug-in hybrid mode, the fuel engine can directly participate in the drive, and according to the different positions of the motor, it can be divided into P0-P4 five categories. And different car companies will combine more than one motor layout according to their needs.
For example, the Honda i-MMD technology mentioned by Li Xiang is P1+P3's dual-motor series-parallel hybrid technology, which has three working modes: pure electric, series and parallel.
BYD DM-i, Great Wall Lemon Hybrid DHT, Geely Raytheon, etc. are all P1+P3 dual motor layouts.
△BYD DM-i layout
In addition, Great Wall recently released P2+P4
New Hi4 hybrid technology
, 9 working modes can be realized.
Under the extended range, because the engine only generates electricity, it is the motor that really makes the car run, so for car companies, the focus of research and development is how to improve the thermal efficiency of the engine and the power generation efficiency of the generator.
But if it is a plug-in hybrid mode, because different motor layouts will present different working modes, in addition to doing a good job of the engine and motor, car companies also have to consider how to combine the motor to achieve higher efficiency, while reducing energy consumption, reflecting better fuel economy, plus gearbox, range extension and plug-in hybrid in technology who needs more investment, naturally at a glance.
Therefore, according to the difficulty of R&D investment and problem solving, it is no wonder that everyone thinks that hybrid technology is more difficult, and hybrid players are facing the transformation of "new energy", hoping to reduce fuel consumption and improve fuel economy, and this justice in the context of carbon neutrality national policy also gives the basis and confidence to criticize the backwardness of "extended range".
But extended-range players are obviously not going for who has lower fuel consumption.
Their goal is to bring an electric driving experience without pure electric refueling challenges, and to further build smart products based on electrification architecture.
So although the mixing and extended range quarrel, it is a bit of "chicken and duck talking" after all.
In the end, it depends on the effect and belief.
For example, most obviously, many pure electric players have fallen for range extension and walked on at least two legs.
There are also players who insist on carbon reduction and emission reduction towards carbon neutrality, and still believe that the extended range is just a bad money that drives out good money under loopholes.
So as a car consumer, what do you think?
Li Xiang's original Weibo text:
Weibo Portal: