To be honest, no matter whether you love or hate Tesla, but without it in the car circle, we would have to watch less excitement! No, Tesla's "abnormal acceleration" incident in China has been escalating. The entry price of Model 3 is as low as 249,900 yuan. New car owners have just bought the lithium iron phosphate version, and they are still hot. The Model in the United States ?3 has been updated again... Why is this update called a "mid-term facelift"? Can you wait for the new Model 3? Without further ado, today the little detective will share his views with you.
Didn't say that.
The terms annual facelift, mid-term facelift, major facelift, and generation replacement used by traditional car companies are mainly classified based on concepts such as detailed configuration, interior and exterior decoration, powertrain, and platform. , and there is a bit of marketing flavor in it. After all, "remodel and replacement" are eye-catching words in themselves, and a model change means a publicity opportunity.
Musk: There is no “generation replacement” of Model X and S, only some minor ongoing improvements. The biggest change in the past few years is the replacement of the front-wheel drive motor of the S/X with a high-efficiency motor on the 3, which was put into production three months ago.
Looking at Tesla, they have cut down the public relations department in the United States, and one boss's Twitter account is popular all over the world... It shows that Tesla does not care about this kind of classification of product iterations. In the previous article, the little detective mentioned that Musk deliberately weakened the vocabulary of product iterations such as "modification and replacement".
■? A sincere "mid-term facelift"
The reason why everyone is paying close attention to the hardware update of Model 3 is because of the hardware of Tesla's three models The level of updates has never been as intensive as this Model 3. In the past, Tesla has made many upgrades in ADAS system computing power. For example, the chip has changed from MobileEye to Nivdia, and then to self-developed FSD, and Model 3 has HW2.5 and 3.0, because at the beginning of this year, domestic There was also an incident where a car that was supposed to be equipped with HW3.0 was given 2.5 hardware. Everyone must have had the impression.
Another more important reason is that this "mid-term facelift" of Model 3 has some upgrades aimed at comfort and practicality, as follows:
See? They are all hardware upgrades aimed at aspects that current Model 3 owners have complained about seriously! Among them, the double-layer glass is obviously to reduce the noise in the car that is currently the most criticized, and the electric tailgate and dual mobile phone wireless charging are to improve practicality.
To make up for product shortcomings purely through increased hardware costs, this is an extremely rare move by Tesla. Among them, I would like to single out the heat pump air conditioner and say a few more words about it. After all, Musk has praised this technology highly.
■? "Old" technology plays new tricks
We know that traditional PTC heating is basically a hair dryer, which delivers hot air to the car by heating resistance wires. , all heat energy comes from the power battery, which is why the battery life of most EV models is greatly reduced in winter (I am very worried about the winter battery life of my Xpeng P7). The heat pump air conditioner transfers the heat of the outside air into the cabin and transfers the heat from low-temperature objects to high-temperature objects by consuming electrical energy.
The process of this cycle is roughly as follows: the refrigerant is compressed by the compressor to increase its temperature and energy, forming a high-temperature and high-pressure gas, which then passes through the heat exchanger and transfers the heat to the cold air in the car. During this process, the heat of the refrigerant will be consumed and sent to the condenser through the throttling device. The evaporation process will absorb heat from the outside again, and then sent to the compressor, and so on...
In short, the heat pump air conditioner feels like a big deal. It is not a black technology. Products with the same principle have been available in the heating field for a long time, but they have only appeared in new energy vehicles in recent years.
How much better is a heat pump than a PTC? Take a heat pump air conditioner from Denzo Denso as an example. It consumes 1kW of electricity and can achieve the heating effect of a PTC air conditioner of 2kW.
However, there are conditions for the efficient operation of heat pump air conditioners - don't be too cold! That's right, the colder the weather, the lower the efficiency of the heat pump air conditioner and the worse the heating effect... Just like moving things, the higher you move them, the more tiring you will be. Fortunately, the current vehicle heat pump technology is more energy-saving than PTC heating at low temperatures, but the heating speed will be affected as the temperature decreases. In addition, the cost of this technology that sounds a bit "unbelievable" is not low, and the price is generally 3 to 4 times that of traditional air conditioners. So it is no wonder that heat pump air conditioners have not become mainstream in EV models until now.
As for the shortcomings of heat pump air conditioners, Tesla’s approach is straightforward – heat pump PTC! Isn’t it effective if you are too cold? I'll turn on the PTC mode again. The two heating systems work together to make up for each other's shortcomings. Isn't it beautiful?
The following table shows the heating efficiency performance of Tesla heat pump PTC air conditioners at different external temperatures:
This is not over yet, Tesla’s heat pump technology also has a very complex set of 8 In addition to the outside air, the heat source of the valve also includes the battery pack and the motor. PTC heating also uses the low-voltage power system of the 12V battery, which only plays an auxiliary heating role. Tesla's heat pump PTC technology has a heating efficiency of 1 at -30°C, which is equal to the power of traditional PTC heating and does not save electricity; while between -10°C and 10°C, a hybrid system will be used. In heating mode, the heating efficiency at this time is between 1 and 2, and reaching 2 can save half of the electricity; when the temperature exceeds 10°C, the heat pump system is fully used, and the heating efficiency will reach 1.5 to 5, which can save up to 80 Power!
■Can you wait for the new Model 3?
After briefly introducing Tesla’s heat pump PTC technology, let’s take a look at the battery life improvement of Model 3:
We talked about heating earlier. In fact, heat pump air conditioning It is also more energy efficient than traditional air conditioners in terms of refrigeration. This time, the battery life of Model 3 has been improved to varying degrees without changing the battery pack. This is most likely due to the use of heat pump PTC air conditioners.
Perhaps you may ask, with such a high cost, can Model 3 still hold up? I think it is absolutely possible. First, Model 3 already has enough profit margins, and Tesla’s general direction is here, at least it will not increase the price of Model 3. Second, the heat pump PTC is actually already on Model Y. It has been applied. Strictly speaking, the installation of heat pump technology on Model 3 is actually a technology decentralization. Therefore, Tesla’s cost pressure is not as great as imagined.
So, how much can the battery life be increased after domestic Tesla follows up on heat pump air conditioners in the future? My answer is: It will not increase. The reason may be ridiculous...
Because the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology tests battery life, you don’t need to turn on the air conditioner!
■?Little Detective Summary
Can’t wait for the new Model?3? From the speech of Tesla Global Vice President Tao Lin, it is not difficult to see that the follow-up of the domestic Model 3 will not be realized in the short term.
The domestic Model Y is in the final finishing stage, and the Chinese team’s energy is likely to be devoted to this car. The domestic Model 3 and the American version have different battery packs, motor configurations, and suppliers, which will definitely require a certain amount of time for adaptation and verification. However, Model?
My personal guess is that Model 3 will not be upgraded this year. If you are only interested in Tesla's brand and assisted driving, I think there is no need to wait; if you are interested in the brand but really can't accept the noise in the current Model 3, then just wait.
Of course, the above are just speculations. After all, no one can guarantee that Tesla China will copy the upgrade projects of the US version to the domestic version intact.
Regarding Tesla, do not trust any news released through unofficial channels...
This article is from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.