Text/Wang Xinxi
Guangzhou, which is still wearing short sleeves recently, has begun to cool down today, and many places in the north have been so cold that it has broken records. In the next three days, the strong cold wave will affect most of the central and eastern parts of the mainland, and the minimum temperature in some areas of North China and northern Huanghuai will be close to or fall below the extreme value of the same period in history, and the south will be reversed, and the temperature in many places in Jiangnan and other places will drop by about 20 °C.
A new round of cold wave and snowstorm is coming, and there is still half a month to go before New Year's Day. A new round of cold wave and blizzard superimposed on New Year's Day and Spring Festival, a new round of testing of new energy vehicles has also arrived.
Low temperature and cold wave weather is a big killer of new energy vehicle battery capacity and hidden door handles
For a long time, the issue of winter range of electric vehicles has been controversial, and some time ago, the winter performance test of Chedi also triggered a response from car companies such as Wenjie and Great Wall.
In fact, with the advent of the cold wave and blizzard, many new energy vehicle owners have begun to complain about battery life, which is more obvious in the north, because low temperatures will cause the discharge rate of the battery to be accelerated, and the battery's power storage capacity will be greatly reduced.
This makes the endurance of new energy vehicles in the cold winter greatly reduced, and during this time, many new energy vehicle owners have regretted it.
Some users gave three suggestions: 1. North of the Yellow River, don't buy trams. 2. If you want to go back to your hometown often during the holidays, don't buy a tram. 3. If you don't have a charging pile at home, don't buy a tram.
In fact, the reason why rural consumers in the north prefer oil vehicles is because the characteristics of the north are very high requirements for battery life, because the battery in the low temperature state often leads to a significant decrease in the activity of the electrolyte, an increase in the viscosity of the electrolyte, a sharp decrease in endurance, slow charging and other problems, the battery loss in the north is relatively large, which is a great constraint on new energy vehicles.
If there is a significant drop in battery life, slow charging and other problems, long-distance home and return are very worrying, if these conditions and scenarios are not met, then after buying an electric car, not only can not play the economy of using the car, but also become an annoyance.
Another noteworthy problem is that now new energy vehicles are basically all hidden door handles, but many new energy vehicle owners in cold areas have experienced low temperature ice and snow weather, hidden door handles are frozen, and even a lot of tutorials have appeared on the Internet to teach you how to open the door in this situation.
For example, thaw with warm water, cover with a hot towel, spray with lube, thaw with a lighter, thaw it with a lighter's flame before pulling the doorknob harder, and so on. Originally, the car door was a simple thing to pull casually, in the cold weather in winter, the new energy vehicle to open the door has become a technical thing, what is the value of this innovation, but also worthy of car companies to think about it.
The safety test left by ice and snow days for rear-wheel drive vehicles is also an issue that new energy vehicle companies need to pay attention to
One of the biggest challenges in cold weather is road conditions, including slippage in snow and ice, which is more likely to come from rear-wheel drive vehicles.
In the last month, car blogger Marco died in a car accident, which brought us to the attention of a major problem, that is, the problem of the rear drive car skidding on ice and snow, according to Jiupai News, Malone had run the track and drove more steadily. Or because the high-horsepower rear-wheel drive car will slip on the ice, and the vehicle is difficult to maneuver, resulting in tragedy. After seeing the news, many netizens said that they would never buy a rear-wheel drive car, either front-wheel drive or four-wheel drive.
When dealing with snow and ice, the weight of the front-wheel drive vehicle is concentrated on the front drive wheels, and the load on the front of the vehicle is heavier, so it is less likely to slip. The four-wheel drive vehicle is also more stable when dealing with ice and snow roads.
However, the front wheels of rear-wheel drive vehicles are heavier, while the side of the drive wheels is lighter, which can be understood as the friction of the front wheels is much more than that of the rear wheels. When the horsepower exceeds the friction of the tires, although the front wheels have been turned, the inertia force of the vehicle can easily overcome the friction resistance of the front wheels, and push the body straight according to the direction of the inertia force, unable to turn normally, bringing a great increase in risk.
During the Spring Festival last year, some northern netizens sighed: In the snowy weather, I saw seven or eight accidents all the way back to the city from Huairou, some of which were small rear-end collisions and some of which were very serious on the Beijing-Chengcheng Expressway. , the rear-wheel drive car encounters an uphill start and is troublesome.
At present, the proportion of rear-wheel drive vehicles is decreasing. In the Chinese market, front-wheel drive SUVs accounted for 72% of sales in the first quarter of 2022, while rear-wheel drive accounted for only 5%.
Although buying a car, try to buy front-wheel drive or four-wheel drive has become the consensus of the car circle. However, at present, in order to strengthen the acceleration performance, push back feeling and improve the handling of vehicles, more and more new energy vehicle companies have begun to transform the rear-drive platform, such as Changan (dark blue), BYD (seal), Xiaopeng, SAIC (Feifan, Zhiji, Roewe, etc.), Leap, Skyline, VOY, and so on.
Some automakers claim that rear-wheel drive is safer and more reliable at high speeds and in corners, saying that the rear-wheel drive design can also better transfer power to the drive wheels and provide better acceleration performance.
Now that the ice and snow weather has arrived, behind the strengthening of the rear-drive platform of new energy vehicles, how to solve the skidding and safety problems of ice and snow weather caused by rear-drive vehicles is an important issue that new energy vehicle companies need to pay attention to, and it is also a driving safety issue that consumers should pay attention to.
The test of charging and replenishing energy for long-distance travel during holidays is still restricting the competitiveness of new energy vehicles
In another half a month, New Year's Day is approaching, from New Year's Day to the Spring Festival in the next month, the mighty migration army will appear, and new energy vehicle owners will face the dilemma of difficult charging, battery life, and energy replenishment.
Every Spring Festival, we will find that most of the cars that drive back to the countryside are fuel vehicles, which stems from the fact that a large number of people in rural counties are working in provincial capitals or in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
Different from the May Day National Day, this year's superimposed cold wave and blizzard, low temperature power loss, battery life discount is more prominent, if there is no accident, "the tram should not go on the highway" and other topics may become hot search topics again.
This is also an important reason why many rural consumers, especially in the north, are more inclined to fuel vehicles. A survey by the China Times earlier also showed that in the northern counties, people return to their hometowns during the Spring Festival, and there are still few new energy vehicles, and most of the rural counties are still fuel vehicles.
In fact, at present, Huawei, PetroChina and other players have been promoting the layout of supercharging, and are committed to breaking the shortcomings of slow charging speed, claiming that they can run 200 kilometers in 5 minutes. Huawei has announced that it will build 100,000 supercharging piles in 340 cities by 2024, and at this rate, the charging efficiency and experience along the highway may be improved to a certain extent in the next three years, but the specific speed of promotion remains to be seen.
From the current point of view, the problem of battery life charging and energy replenishment is an important experience problem for tram holiday travel, and the superposition of extreme weather is further amplifying this shortcoming.
The safety and after-sales problems of rural road conditions during the Spring Festival are hidden dangers that new energy vehicle companies need to solve
Another reason is that the road conditions, charging pile construction and after-sales system in rural areas are basically prepared for fuel vehicles.
We know that the road conditions in the countryside are complex, there are various mountain roads, narrow roads, car chassis is inevitably bumped, a problem is that the new energy vehicle is now the battery is basically placed at the bottom of the car, if you accidentally bump and bump, the battery is damaged, the whole battery to be replaced, the cost is very expensive.
The battery price of new energy vehicles basically accounts for 30%-40% of the vehicle price, or even more than 50%, taking BYD Han EV as an example, the price of its battery replacement is 7-80,000 yuan, which is already cheap, and the price of battery replacement for some car companies also exists.
For rural consumers who pursue cost-effectiveness, they are more inclined to oil trucks with higher durability and suitable for complex rural road conditions, and the after-sales of oil trucks is more perfect, and maintenance is more convenient and cheaper. The entire after-sales system of new energy vehicles has not yet been established in the third and fourth lines and the entire after-sales system in rural areas.
Rural consumers pay more attention to whether the service outlets and after-sales service outlets of car companies are perfect, after all, the car is easy to deal with problems, and the lack of this aspect makes it difficult for new energy vehicles to open up the situation in rural areas.
The second is the construction of rural charging piles, which has been advancing in the past two years, but the overall demand cannot be well met. Rural consumers buy cars not only for travel between counties, but also for emergency vehicles and long-distance travel.
Therefore, the economy and practicality of new energy vehicles in rural areas are not as good as those of oil vehicles, which may be a problem that the industry needs to spend effort and effort to solve.
In general, the Spring Festival is approaching, the cold wave and heavy snow, and the complex weather will magnify the shortcomings of new energy vehicles, and how to solve these problems is an important aspect for car companies to further open up the market, make consumers feel more secure, and be more willing to recognize and accept electric vehicles.
In today's world, the focus of new energy vehicle companies is basically around the sense of science and technology, intelligent driving and other aspects of the fuss, the cost of battery replacement, ice and snow and other extreme environment driving safety issues, as well as a variety of consumers encountered complex road conditions use pain points, rural consumers for battery life charging, after-sales and other aspects of the real needs, can be solved by the heart of the manufacturer. But these aspects, in fact, are the key issues for consumers to choose oil vehicles or electric vehicles, new energy manufacturers may have a clear understanding of this, it is time to spend efforts to solve.
Author: Wang Xinxi, Senior Reviewer of TMT This article is not reproduced without permission