Tesla was once called? "iPhone in electric car". There are many similarities between them. Tesla fans will queue up to buy the company's latest products like Apple supporters. They are both eagerly waiting for the new software update. Finally, both companies adopted it? "Closed system?" Work-only their products can own their software.
Tesla did promise to sell software and components to other companies, but it never came true. On the contrary. Sandy Munro, Sandy? Munro is an automobile engineer, good at machine tools and manufacturing. He joined Ford Motor Company from 65438 to 0978, and then founded his own consulting company Munro&Associates. The company specializes in lean design, disassembling automobile products for research and putting forward suggestions for improvement and innovation. Ask Tesla for Nobe parts. What's the answer? "No" because Tesla won't sell them to others? "Unsafe project", it tries every means to prevent the root.
As the manufacturer of Apple iPhone, but Foxconn wants to be? "Android in electric vehicles" can be said to be Google in electric vehicles, and its platform product MIH is the benchmark of Android. Developers and other auto companies are allowed to access their MIH open platform, which includes hardware and software for manufacturing electric vehicles.
Foxconn needs it? "The power of software?" And then what? "The power of openness?" To change this situation. Taking the mobile phone as an example, he mentioned how the iPhone helped Apple beat Nokia to become the king of the industry. But Apple develops its own software and doesn't allow others to touch it. However, it is this strategy that makes it lose its leading position in smart phones and lose to Android and its open source strategy. Apple lost to Microsoft in the computer market for the same reason.
What if Tesla is? "iPhone in electric car", so Hon Hai wants to be? "Android in electric cars", let everyone help it develop an electric car platform. This strategy comes from the company that OEM iPhone for Apple, which is quite ironic, but it also shows that Foxconn did learn something in the OEM process.
Become? "Android in electric vehicles", Hon Hai hopes to copy Tesla's active strategy in automobiles. Instead of letting them? "Defined by hardware", Foxconn hopes that cars based on its platform can constantly evolve, provide new functions or improve old functions, such as cruising range. The only difference with Tesla is that it accepts contributions from third parties.
As elon musk said not long ago, Wei Lian believes that this strategy will help reduce the depreciation of vehicles. More precisely, the Tesla CEO said that Tesla's products will become with the development of independent technology? "Asset appreciation".
We can almost hear the laughter of Tesla supporters at this time: they think Tesla has cutting-edge technology related to autonomy. Foxconn also has something remarkable in this respect. In some ways, it may be more advanced than Tesla has shown so far.
Wei Lian said that the open source model of MIH open platform will realize hardware and software? "Layered isolation" allows them to develop independently. This kind of cooperative development will reduce the cost of research and development.
Although this seems very difficult in hardware, it is worrying in software, especially in autonomous driving. People who are familiar with what hackers can do to some cars will be scared. Predicting this, Wei Lian promised that the open source platform of electric vehicles will have a high level of network security. The question is, is this enough for anyone to drive their own open source car with confidence?
Zuo Zisheng, vice president of Hon Hai, introduced the hardware part. He is an executive with more than 35 years of experience in the automotive industry. Hon Hai's plan is to make cars for its partners. We may never see Foxconn's electric car-or Hon Hai. Even if it does appear, just like Google's Nexus and Pixel smartphones, it is only an exception. Hon Hai hopes that its platform can help develop and produce new vehicles, components and software.
Zuo Zisheng played a video, which showed that the wheelbase of Foxconn's electric vehicle platform can be from 2.75m to 3 3. 10/0m, the tread can be from1.59m to1.70m, and the ground clearance can be from12.6cm to 21. There are three battery packs to choose from, and the electric vehicle can be RWD, Forward or AWD.
For motors, Foxconn plans to provide at least three power options for the front axle: 95kW, 150kW and 200kW. The rear axle can have four powers: 150kW, 200kW, 240kW and 340kW. In other words, the MIH platform can be converted from a small 95 kW front-wheel drive to a 540 kW all-wheel drive car.
Tesla is still just a model? The strategy used in y is the same. Foxconn successfully reduced 7 front trailer body parts and 27 rear longitudinal beam parts to a single casting.
Hon Hai Technology Day, Hon Hai Chief Product Officer (CPO) Jerry? Xiao Caiyou further clarified this point. The company owns a 4,200-ton die casting machine and currently produces battery cases for BMW. Therefore, Tesla is currently using a 5500-ton IDRA die casting machine. Foxconn uses a special alloy with high ductility, corrosion resistance, excellent casting formability and high strength, and does not need heat treatment. This is almost exactly the same as the giant casting described by Elon Musk on Tesla Battery Day.
Foxconn has been involved in automobile manufacturing since 2007 and has been involved in the research of automobile core technology for more than ten years. For example, the friction stir welding technology developed by Foxconn is used in smart phones, and its main advantage is to improve the heat dissipation effect of electronic components.
Statistics show that the battery pack accounts for 30% to 35% of the total production cost of electric vehicles. In addition, power system accounts for 20% to 25%, EEA (embedded electronic architecture) accounts for 65,438+05% to 20%, car body accounts for 65,438+03% to 65,438+05%, and other expenses (wheels, tires, etc. ) accounts for 12%. Among these costs, the body structure is the least important one in electric vehicles. One of the most relevant, the electronic part is Foxconn's specialty. The MIH platform will support 5G and 6G, conforming to AUTOSAR and ISO? 26262, and prepare for OTA update and V2X (car to everything) communication, Hon Hai's progress in motor will also be remarkable.
Some companies' motors integrate inverters and gearboxes, which is a three-in-one arrangement, while Foxconn's motor is a 6-in 1 scheme, and DC-to-DC transformer, vehicle charger and distributor are added in the package.
Foxconn also said that it is making great progress in solid-state batteries with partners such as CATL and SES, a silicon valley battery company. Foxconn will sell solid-state batteries in 2024, which indicates that it will be based on the MIH open platform. These new solid-state batteries will use LMNO (lithium manganese nickel oxide) as the anode and silicon carbide (silicon carbon) as the cathode.
For electrolyte, Foxconn began to study metal oxide ceramic membrane from 20 17. Additives will help to increase the cycle life of the battery by 10%, reduce the weight by 50% and reduce the volume by 16%. Xiao Caiyou believes that whoever dominates the solid-state battery before 2025 will dominate the industry.
Hon Hai hopes that the battery management system (BMS) can be intelligent based on the principle of both software and hardware. In order to achieve this goal, a cloud artificial intelligence (AI) management system is developed.
Hon Hai's BMS will receive big data from each car's battery pack so that it can continuously learn, optimize and upgrade its software in the background, all based on how each driver uses the electric car. Xiao Caiyou believes that with the passage of time, the cruising range will become longer and longer.
Xiao Caiyou said: At present, there are airport shuttle buses in Japan, L3 self-driving and Hon Hai's technology.
Hon Hai may just show the tip of the iceberg of the car industry it envisions. If everything goes according to plan, automakers have only a few choices: join or avoid, or turn a blind eye. If MIH is successful, automobile manufacturers adopting MIH can provide cars that customers want through this platform. Those who skip it must be competitive enough to be real substitutes. Microsoft tried to own its own mobile phone operating system, but obviously failed.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.