news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

do you remember the industry debate between great wall motors and huawei on whether extended-range electric vehicles are backward technology? the controversy over this topic has continued to this day.

on september 13, a range-extending technology development forum called "top of kunlun" was held in kashgar, xinjiang, at the foot of kunlun mountain. at the meeting, there were not only car company bosses and industry experts, but also doctoral supervisors and professors of automobile majors from tongji university, beijing institute of technology and other major universities, who all expressed optimism about the future of range-extending technology.

has the “extended-range backwardness theory” been broken?

in the interview at the conference, in response to the "industry's view that extended-range electric vehicles are backward technology," avita technology vice president hu chengtai first expressed his views.

hu chengtai told dianju.com, "whether it is ev (pure electric), phev (plug-in hybrid) or reev (range-extended), they will still exist for a long time within ten years, because there is no power form that can meet all user needs. so, from this perspective, there is no one advanced and one backward."

cui dongshu, secretary-general of the national passenger car market joint conference, further stated that extended-range technology has huge room for development both internationally and domestically, and its share will increase significantly.

zhu xican, a professor at tongji university, believes that there is limited room for improvement in extended-range engines, and intelligence should be used to empower extended-range engines. for example, "can we close the loop of user data, summarize several vehicle usage modes, and avoid the feeding state?"

of course, it is not just the experts who are optimistic about extended-range technology. the growth in market sales is also the best proof that extended-range technology is favored and accepted by the majority of users.

how hot is the extended-range electric vehicle market now? data is the best proof.

according to data released by the china passenger car association, the sales volume of extended-range electric vehicles will reach 642,000 in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 181%, far exceeding pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. by the first eight months of 2024, the sales volume of extended-range electric vehicles has reached 749,000, accounting for 12% of new energy vehicles.

cui dongshu shared at the forum: "the growth of extended-range electric vehicles this year was 167% year-on-year, while pure electric vehicles grew by 39% and plug-in hybrid vehicles grew by 90%. the growth of extended-range electric vehicles is four times that of pure electric vehicles."

in addition, from the sales rankings, new forces including ideal auto, wenjie, leapmotor, and deep blue all ranked at the top by relying on extended-range technology. the sales of some sub-models of ideal and wenjie even exceeded those of traditional luxury brands of the same level.

it can be seen that more and more companies are joining the extended-range technology track, and more and more users are accepting and purchasing new energy products with extended-range technology. the "extended-range backwardness theory" is self-defeating!

so why is range-extended technology so popular nowadays? the main reasons are as follows:

first, from the consumer perspective, users have needs.

hu chengtai believes that the choice of power mode by users ultimately depends on the nature of the user. for example, why do some people like pure electric? according to their needs, pure electric does not need to travel long distances. if you want a quiet experience and don't want range anxiety, you can choose extended range or phev.

hu chengtai further stated: "in first- and second-tier cities, charging is particularly developed, so pure electric vehicles may be sufficient; in fourth- and fifth-tier cities, charging is inconvenient, or there are long-term long-distance needs, so reev or phev may be the choice."

in hu chengtai's opinion, many people still have concerns about phev because the driving it involves is not much different from the traditional one. in comparison, the pure electric extended-range driving can better enjoy the pure electric experience.

as mentioned in the consumer survey provided by cui dongshu, "the benefits of buying a reev are strong power, fast speed, more technological appearance, good quietness, high economy, and no range anxiety."

2. from a technical perspective, extended-range technology is no longer what it used to be.

some people think that the extended-range technology is backward because in the past, the technical content and difficulty of extended-range technology were indeed not high. as professor zhu xichan said, if "the engine of a gasoline car is used as a 'charging pile', then this technology is indeed backward."

zhu xichan classifies the first generation of range-extending engines as engines that directly use gasoline engines to extend the range, and the first generation is indeed backward technology. but in the second generation, it is a dedicated engine for power generation. "the range extender only generates electricity, unlike the plug-in hybrid, its engine power does not drive the wheels."

hu chengtai said that the current range-extended engines already have strong advantages, but there are still three pain points:

first, the power attenuation is particularly severe when the battery is feeding; second, the engine is noisy when starting; third, the capacity of the extended-range battery is relatively small and the charging is relatively slow. these pain points are also the pain points of the current extended-range vehicle users.

in response to these pain points, avita brought the "kunlun extended-range" technology.

how to solve the three major pain points of extended-range electric vehicles?

1. address the pain point of power feed attenuation.

"extending the range requires a one-stop service for electricity and a worm for power feeding." this is a popular joke on the internet, but it is indeed a fact.

extended-range models have strong power performance when the battery is fully charged. for example, a medium and large suv like the ideal l9, even if it is equipped with a 1.5t small-displacement engine, can still achieve 5-second acceleration when fully charged thanks to the extended-range technology, which is comparable to a v8 gasoline vehicle of the same level.

"extending the range requires a one-stop service for electricity and a worm for power feeding." this is a popular joke on the internet, but it is indeed a fact.

the range-extended vehicle has strong power performance when the battery is fully charged, but the power will be seriously attenuated when the power is fed in. this is because after feeding, the vehicle can only rely on the range extender to generate kinetic energy, which is then transferred to the battery, and the battery then distributes the generated electricity to the motor to drive the vehicle.

to put it simply, when there is no electricity, the vehicle can only be driven by a 1.5t small-displacement engine. the result is inevitably "a small horse pulling a big cart", with weak acceleration and poor climbing ability.

in response to this, avita uses a more energy-efficient range-extending engine, with a peak power generation capacity of 100kw and a continuous power generation capacity of 70kw, as well as catl's shenxing super-hybrid battery, which has a peak discharge rate of 9c when fully charged.

taking the avita 07 equipped with kunlun extended-range as an example, the two-wheel drive model accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 6.6 seconds when fully charged, and the power feeding is 7.3 seconds, with a decay rate of less than 10%.

second, address the pain point of high power feeding noise.

owners of extended-range vehicles should all have a deep understanding that once the battery is powered, the engine noise will increase significantly at idle or low speed. in response to this, most car companies use the "isolation method", such as adding sound insulation materials to the engine cover, etc., while avita's approach is to fundamentally solve the pain point of high noise from the engine. avita's self-developed kunlun extended-range engine is improved and optimized at the source.

hu chengtai said, "we have implemented more than 30 active and passive noise reduction measures to truly solve the problem at the source and achieve an effect of 35.7db when idling."

35.7db, this value is already very low in the industry.

3. address the pain point of slow charging.

with the popularization of 800 technology, many pure electric models now support 4c or even 5c. however, neither plug-in hybrid nor extended-range models enjoy this technical advantage. the charging speed is generally slower than that of pure electric models. in addition, the battery capacity is small, so more frequent charging is required, and the charging experience is very poor.

the avita extended-range model is equipped with a 39kwh super-hybrid battery, which has a peak charging rate of up to 3c. it only takes 15 minutes to charge from 30% to 80%, and its charging efficiency is almost the same as that of an 800v pure electric vehicle.

hu chengtai revealed, "next year we will develop a larger battery with a capacity of more than 50 degrees and a supercharging speed of more than 4c, which will solve users' complaints or dissatisfaction with the charging experience.

in summary, avita kunlun's range-extending technology is indeed very targeted. through technical improvement and optimization, it solves and improves the three major pain points of power attenuation, high power feeding noise, and slow energy replenishment. zhu xichan commented: "avita's kunlun range-extending technology represents the direction of the third generation."

"the purpose of developing high-end pure electric vehicles in the early stage is to establish a brand, and the purpose of developing extended-range vehicles later is to promote sales." at the meeting, hu chengtai shared his thoughts on the extended-range route. he believes that it is time for avita to promote sales, so avita launched its self-developed kunlun extended-range technology, and will have three extended-range products this year.

at the meeting, hu chengtai also revealed to us that avita is already conceiving the next generation of extended-range electric vehicles.

"all three power forms have advantages and disadvantages. how to concentrate the advantages of the three forms requires another more innovative and groundbreaking solution, which is the concept plan of avita's next-generation extended-range technology." hu chengtai said.