EV Vision reported that from the release of the brand strategy in July to the initial finalization of the mass-produced vehicle in September, it has been a hundred days since Lantu Motors entered the new energy vehicle field with strong competitors. This seems The late-arriving seeded player has an obsession with knowing that there is a tiger in the mountain, and prefers to go to the mountain with a tiger. Every time he attacks quickly, he reveals his new "strength" in car building.
On November 17, Lantu Automobile held its first "Technology Open Day" on the 100th anniversary of the brand's establishment. Lu Fang, CEO and CTO of Lantu Automobile, demonstrated the ESSA intelligent electric architecture and China's The body-in-white of the large-scale high-end smart electric SUV helps users eliminate "anxiety" by providing multiple power options of pure electric and extended-range electric, and equipped with million-level high-end hard-core configurations.
As a new participant in the automobile market, it must have differentiated characteristics. Lantu Automobile has become one of the very few domestic brands to provide two electric drive technology routes at the same time. This reflects the scene definition of this "new strength in car manufacturing" Deep understanding of cars. When it comes to improving the user experience, both new car-making forces and traditional car companies are making similar thoughts and attempts. Lantu obviously also has its own technical methodology, touching on the most painful points of users and providing solutions to lock in the future development of the industry. The direction is precise and the layout is made.
User-centered technical logic
In the new consumption era, user experience comes first. In the current severe market competition and differentiation and elimination competition, it is not easy for a new domestic independent brand to be recognized by the market and consumers.
In the words of Dongfeng Motor Group Chairman and Party Secretary Zhu Yanfeng, the Lantu brand, which has been brewing for many years, is the start of a new round of arduous entrepreneurship for Dongfeng to develop high-end brands and promote brand improvement.
Lantu’s positioning is to be a “zero-anxiety high-end smart electric brand”. As the name suggests, the key words for quickly entering the high-end new energy vehicle market are “zero anxiety” and “intelligent”, which are exactly what users need The selling point of the product you care about most.
In order to meet and lead users’ driving needs for smart electric vehicles, Lantu Motors relies on the strong technical endorsement, mature supply chain system and generous financial support of the “national team” Dongfeng Group, and has decided to Multi-scenario new energy power solutions, sustainable and iterative smart technology, and full-scenario safety provide users with a new experience.
Grasp the unmet needs of current users and prepare practical and differentiated electric vehicle solutions. This is the technical thinking logic of Lantu Automobile. In Lu Fang’s words: “We put zero Leave the anxiety to users, and leave the anxiety of development to yourself. ”
ESSA’s inherent advantages
The solution provided by Lantu is called: ESSA?, which is an extremely innovative solution. The native intelligent electric architecture is intended to define the high-end intelligent experience of the new generation of cars from the four dimensions of "design, intelligence, performance, and comfort".
The four letters of ESSA stand for Electric, Smart, Secure and Architecture respectively, among which "E" stands for Electric, which means native electric. The two "S" stand for Smart and Secure respectively, implying wisdom and safety. "A" stands for Architecture, which means architecture. The development goal is to meet the user's "five senses" needs of security, comfort, respect, pleasure and taste.
To put it simply, ESSA is like the "soul" of all future mass-produced models of Lantu, allowing cars to have more diverse body shapes, richer power sources, smarter interactive experiences, and more sophisticated driving processes. Safety.
1. MVP multi-scenario power solution:
ESSA will provide MVP (Multi-choice Valuable Power) multi-scenario new energy power solution, with pure electric and increased A variety of power options such as Chengdu electric vehicles cover different user scenarios, which is the key to solving "range anxiety".
Among them, the Lantu extended-range electric vehicle uses a "1.5T four-cylinder" engine and is equipped with a rated power of 60kW generator. It can not only easily reach or even surpass the performance of traditional large-displacement fuel vehicles, but also has better performance Fuel economy, perfectly combines high performance and low fuel consumption. This gives us more expectations for the performance of the mid-to-large extended-range electric SUV that will be launched in December in terms of power, fuel consumption, and silence.
Pure electric-driven vehicles are a major trend in the future. In the reliable pure electric power solution, Lantu cooperates with top international suppliers, which will also bring reliable, safe and high-quality guarantee, as well as more advanced Charging scheme.
ESSA’s smart electric architecture can achieve rapid mass production of multiple models and meet users’ needs for rapid product iteration in the electric smart era in a more agile way. Lu Fang told us that modular development is the direction of future architecture, which can realize user-customized development and improve the systematic efficiency of architecture use.
It is worth mentioning that the first model based on the ESSA intelligent electric architecture is also equipped with high-end configurations for million-level luxury cars such as front double-wishbone rear multi-link independent suspension and air suspension. According to Lu Fang, the chassis has been rigorously adjusted to exceed the standards of luxury brands. It has better anti-roll performance, softer vibration filtering, and measured comfort is better than that of the Audi Q5L?30. The front and rear suspensions are made of aluminum alloy, which is lighter and stronger. The air suspension can adaptively adjust the chassis height to bring better passability and comfort. ?
2. OTA Intelligent Technology:
ESSA provides an advanced intelligent network architecture, has innate intelligence genes, applies advanced 5G technology and a high-power central computing platform to achieve The collaboration between the car and the intelligent cloud meets users' needs for intelligent interaction and autonomous driving functions in multiple scenarios, and enables vehicle upgrades and optimization through OTA.
3. Full-scenario safety:
For models developed and manufactured based on the ESSA architecture, in addition to active and passive safety, Lantu has built a panoramic safety system for the user's entire car journey. Including the safety of the three batteries that electric vehicle users are most concerned about, a number of safety guarantees have been specially developed, including the battery safety that electric vehicle users are most concerned about.
On October 30, Lantu Automobile’s medium and large smart electric SUV body-in-white was unveiled at the 2020 China Car Body Conference. Under the competition of BMW, Audi, NIO and other brands, Lantu iFree mass-produced the body-in-white Received a special medal of honor for world-first technology.
In terms of body structure, Lantu pioneered the world's first TRB Patch composite structure thermoformed A-pillar, and the B-pillar uses TRB aluminum-silicon coated thermoformed material, making the peak pressure of the vehicle body reach more than 100kN. In frontal offset collisions and side collisions, the structural integrity is ensured and the safety of the occupants in the vehicle is ensured. The economy and safety of the vehicle are balanced in the body design.
In terms of body strength, Lantu is the first in the world to use 2000MPa aluminum-silicon coating material for the door anti-collision beam, which further improves the safety of side collisions and has higher corrosion resistance. In addition, the high strength of the body accounts for 75%, of which the proportion of thermoforming above 1500MPa is as high as 31%. The thermoforming proportion is ahead of many luxury brands such as Audi e-tron (27) and BMW X7 (16), ensuring that the entire vehicle is collision resistant Safety; As the basis of vehicle performance, the static torsional stiffness of the body-in-white reaches 39.3Nm/deg, which meets the user’s requirements for driving stability and reliability when going through rough terrain.
In addition to excellent active and passive safety performance, the body-in-white has higher safety protection for the battery. Lu Fang, CEO and CTO of Lantu Automobile, said, “In the lateral pillar collision safety test, Lantu’s body-in-white was able to prevent the battery shell protection part from deforming at standard test speeds, which not only greatly protected the battery safety, but also It has achieved a level of occupant safety protection that far exceeds that of fuel vehicles.”
The first mass-produced concept car, Lantu iFree, has made its debut at the 2020 Beijing Auto Show, and the production car based on iFree is currently in the process of being tested globally. More than 3 million kilometers of rigorous testing including high-end, special-purpose and comprehensive strengthening.
With the addition of eighteen high-strength martial arts, Lantu will break the record of a new car-making force that takes an average of 3-4 years from official brand announcement to mass production delivery, and once again start again at an astonishing speed of about a year. Prove that he is a "new strength in car manufacturing".
From a user perspective
The forward-developed electric drive platform architecture is not only a demonstration of the R&D and manufacturing capabilities of a car company, but also a strategic direction for winning the future market.
Just like MEB is to Volkswagen and e-TNGA is to Toyota, Lantu Automobile has invested a lot of money and resources to continuously make breakthroughs in R&D technology and manufacturing technology. Based on ESSA’s native smart electric architecture, it provides users with Provide one more power option for your own needs to solve immediate and long-term worries about cruising range.
Challenging high technical difficulties. On one side is the future trend of "pure electric", and on the other side is the mainstream power solution "extended range". Lantu's parallel technical considerations have a lot to do with user needs, product planning, In terms of different market characteristics and other factors, it is not only very targeted and adaptable, but also fully consistent with increasingly stringent environmental protection regulations and the country's new energy strategic direction.
The General Office of the State Council released the "New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021-2035)" on November 2. In this strategic guideline for the next fifteen years, market dominance is the first basic principle. , give full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, strengthen the dominant position of enterprises in the selection of technical routes, construction of production service systems, etc., and determine that pure electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid (including extended-range) vehicles, and fuel cell vehicles will be the mainstay The "three vertical" R&D layout strengthens vehicle integration innovation.
Wang Binggang, an authoritative expert and leader of the expert group of the National Automobile Innovation Engineering Project, also recently told EV Vision, “As for the technical route, it cannot be either/or. There must be diversified thinking. Technology is based on demand. Come, the demand is diversified, and diversification means not just a single route choice.”
From a market perspective, according to the latest data released by the Passenger Car Association in October, the monthly sales volume of new energy vehicles. Sales exceeded 144,000 units, of which pure electric models sold 121,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 137%, becoming the absolute mainstream in the market. The extended-range electric vehicles, once considered a niche category, have once again received policy recognition and support in the "New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan". The ideal ONE, which combines the advantages of pure electric vehicles and fuel vehicles, is a new energy SUV. The large-scale delivery in the market also confirms the good user feedback and broad market prospects.
It can be said that Lantu Automobile’s technical layout is at the right time. In the MVP multi-scenario new energy power solution, whether pure electric or extended range, they are all electric drive methods. This is exactly This new car company's transformation from "product thinking" to "user thinking" is also a subversion of traditional car-making thinking in a sense.
At the end of the Technology Open Day, Lu Fang also announced an important piece of information. Lantu Motors’ mid-to-large high-end smart electric SUV will make its global debut next month and will be launched in the third quarter of 2021. We speculate that after the new car is launched, it will directly compete with high-end electric SUVs such as the NIO ES6, and the price is expected to exceed 400,000 yuan. An additional power mode will also become an exclusive advantage.
Conclusion
The new energy vehicle market is big enough to accommodate the existence of multiple technical routes. Can Lantu Automobile catch up with the latecomers and reshape the market structure? Now It is still too early to draw a conclusion,
But a good start is half the battle. If you move forward on the right road, you will eventually complete the "blueprint".
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.