You may need to re-understand "oil to electricity"

Don't get me wrong, as the person who attaches the most importance to pure electric platforms in xixiang street, Bao 'an District, I have never intended to reverse the case for "changing oil to electricity".

When the time came to the end of 20021,when Tesla rushed to the trillion-dollar market value, when BYD hit the trillion-dollar market value for the second time, and when contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd. broke the RMB in 600 yuan, "oil to electricity" seemed to become a distant ancient vocabulary-reminiscent of the street mouse named "60km/h constant speed endurance".

However, today's oil-to-electricity conversion has not only failed to sweep into the garbage dump of history, but also car companies are constantly introducing new models, and some models have even improved a lot in the market. In the first three quarters of sales just announced by Porsche, Taycan has sold 28,600 vehicles this year, second only to Cayenne and Macan SUVs, and greatly surpassed its fuel cousin Panamera (20,300 vehicles).

Looking down, BBA oil-to-electricity three brothers: EQC, iX3 and e-tron, together, still can't touch the Y-shaped fraction next door, but they are graded at the micro level.

EQC and e-tron can't stand the cold at a height of 500 thousand, and two or three hundred vehicles a month are just for the sense of existence; After experiencing the official decline and preferential treatment of the terminal, iX3 can still stabilize its monthly sales of 2,000+,which is the first step for a small car.

In the more mainstream 200,000-yuan electric vehicle market, some of them are converted from oil to electricity, and they can even compete with competitors of pure electric platforms.

All the main models of BYD up to now, from Song and Tang Dynasties to Qin and Han Dynasties, are hybrid/pure electric "universal platform" models. Geely's two new energy brands, Geometry and Polaris, both have pure electric vehicles from CMA platform supporting multiple power systems, and the unique special-shaped battery pack is self-evident.

I didn't say that.

The earliest batch of oil-to-electricity that was dismissed as "industrial waste" has almost passed the life cycle of a generation of models. Not only are the models on the market basically iterated at least once, but many platforms and architectures in the hands of car companies have also changed.

This means that although they are all called "oil to electricity", oil to electricity is different from "oil to electricity".

The necessity of the old world

Why can't the fuel vehicle platform produce all-round electric vehicles without short boards? It is very simple, because there is a natural conflict between fuel vehicles and electric vehicles because of the optimal infrastructure solution.

The biggest change that electric vehicles need is naturally to arrange battery packs under the car. However, the lower body is the most basic and important part of the car body (the upper body is usually variable, such as coupe, car, travel, SUV, etc.). Various structures densely arranged under the car body participate in and determine the rigidity and collision energy absorption of the car body. This is also why car companies are often "half a car" when displaying platforms or architectures.

SGP, a fuel truck platform launched by Subaru in 20 17, is marked with a blue bottom rail system.

Looking at the longitudinal energy absorption system of SGP from the bottom of the car, the upper part can be ignored compared with that of friends.

The floor structure of a typical fuel vehicle body is very complex and irregular. On the one hand, it is necessary to arrange functional structures such as central passage (transmission shaft exhaust) and oil tank.

On the other hand, it is necessary to arrange reinforcement structures such as longitudinal beams and cross beams under the car. The position of the central passage is naturally fixed, and the fuel tank is basically only arranged below the back seat; The underbody cross member that resists side impact usually needs to occupy directly under the seat to make way for the front and rear positions and leave legroom for passengers.

Subaru SGP, pay attention, orange under the seat is high strength.

In this way, under the premise of not greatly changing the structure of the vehicle bottom, the electric vehicle can only be transformed into an electric vehicle: avoiding the solid structure that cannot be touched or moved, and only cutting the "soft persimmon". For example, the fuel tank under the back row, such as the empty central passage, can now be vacated to insert batteries.

Volkswagen launched the first batch of pure electric vehicles in China in 20 18: pure electric LaVida, pure electric Bora and pure electric golf, all of which were obtained by "plugging in" on the MQB platform. The "Earth"-shaped battery pack has a central passage just below the front and rear seats, but the simple plug makes the e-Golf only have 35.8kWh of electricity and the nominal battery life is only 255 km-this is the original sin of "changing oil to electricity".

In order to make the battery capacity and cruising range reasonable, the special-shaped battery pack is bound to expand into a tiled form. There are only two solutions for changing oil into electricity: upward expansion, occupying passenger compartment space; Expand downward and find a "negotiation space" for the ground clearance.

Plug in the battery, lift the floor upwards and reduce the ground clearance downwards. These three methods are not usually used separately. For example, Polar Star 2 raised the front floor to gain extra battery space while filling the T-shaped battery pack.

If you have seen early electric cars of brands such as BAIC and Geely by car, you should have felt the obviously high back floor. Toyota's electric vehicle based on GA-C platform reduces the ground clearance and raises the rear seat cushion.

The ground clearance of Lexus UX pure electric version is obviously reduced.

UX300e, clear at a glance, no need to comment.

A new method of converting oil into electric energy

When it comes to changing oil to electricity, no one knows better than BMW. The first investment in pure electric vehicle (i3) did not have a happy ending and was repeatedly ridiculed. Today, BMW is the most cautious about BBA's pure electric platform.

The EVA platform of Mercedes-Benz next door has blossomed everywhere in EQS and EQE, backed by the cooperation PPE platform of Volkswagen Audi and Porsche (mass production in 2023), while BMW was silent for seven years after i3, and it was not until the beginning of this year that the pure electric platform New Class was finalized in 2025, when it will return to the original pure electric vehicle competition.

On the contrary, before 2025, BMW can only rely on the "universal platform" in the electric vehicle market.

iX3

Let's start with iX3. IX3 is based on the CLAR platform commonly used by BMW longitudinal rear-drive fuel vehicles. CLAR has been applied to all BMW longitudinal engine models since 20 15. Similar to other "universal platforms", CLAR also claims to support various power systems such as fuel, hybrid, plug-in, pure electric and hydrogen fuel.

However, due to the late development time and more consideration for pure electric power, CLAR allows the battery pack to be arranged between slightly raising the floor height and reducing the ground clearance. Therefore, the ground clearance of 179mm iX3 is only nearly 30mm less than that of fuel version X3, but the floor height is basically the same as X3.

The layout problem of the complete battery pack was solved, but BMW did not let iX3 have the complete battery pack capacity. The periphery of the battery pack is vacated, and the battery cells shrink to the core area with relatively regular shape. The total capacity is only increased by the high energy density (8 1 1) of the battery cells, and a highly redundant protective structure is left in the peripheral space to cope with the risk of increasing the high energy density battery cells.

Even if all electric vehicles will strictly protect the battery, you rarely see the stacked safety redundancy like iX3. On both sides of the battery shell of iX3, there is a hollow aluminum buffer structure (blue circle above), then a vacant area (yellow shadow above), then a tile buffer outside the battery module (green circle above), and then the battery module/battery core area.

Squeeze the eggs in the middle of the basket, and then reinforce the basket with the space on the edge, indicating that the basket is not full.

In the later i4, such a multi-layer safety protection structure can no longer be seen, but a completely tiled and larger modular battery pack. In this way, i4 can be equipped with a larger battery capacity (84kWh compared with 74kWh) at a lower body height (car, compared with iX3), which is the ultimate form of CLAR oil-to-electricity conversion.

i4

For Porsche, the basic platform of Taycan and e-tron GT is called J 1, and the platform J 1 originated from the high-end exclusive platform MSB developed by Volkswagen Group for Porsche Panamera and Bentley brands. Like Panamera, Taycan has unusual positioning of front wheel brake calipers at this level, which is the result of optimization of fuel four-wheel drive system by MSB platform.

MSB is a high-performance platform for cars/coupes. If Taycan and J 1 platforms want to put enough battery packs, they can only find space upwards, but Taycan's low roof is designed in principle and cannot be changed. In order to leave room for the battery, Taycan raised the floor height at the front and raised his feet, making the front sitting position closer to lying flat.

The rear row with limited vertical space has no such room for manoeuvre. Considering that the roof line is lower than Panamera, Taycan simply "dug" the famous "foot pit" design in the back foot. This reflects Taycan's project principles and the basic rear space absolute cruising range designed.

Comparing the body structures of Taycan and Panamera, you will notice that under the B-pillar, the floor of Taycan is higher than the latter; The bulge caused by the battery system directly below the back row of Taycan has exceeded the height of the back door sill, and Panamera is the bottom beam flush with the back door sill here.

This is Taycan, notice that the projection under the back row has exceeded the threshold.

This is Panamera, and the rear crossbeam is just flush with the threshold.

Both CLAR and MSB are new platforms launched after the trend of pure electricity. Although it is still a general platform for fuel-powered vehicles, at least pure electric vehicles have been valued and reserved, which is the basis for an oil-powered tram to be accepted and selected by at least some people.

Before the arrival of BMW's new class and Porsche PPE, changing from oil to electricity based on the universal platform of priority fuel vehicles is the only realistic choice. BMW chose to change oil to electricity as pragmatic as possible and as low as possible; Porsche simply gave up the endurance war for appearance. BMW won't expect iX3 to really boycott Model Y, and Porsche won't expect Taycan to run all over the street like Model S.

Although the rewards they got were not as sensational as the launch of a new car with a pure electric platform, at least they heard a phased splash. Changing oil to electricity is not terrible. The terrible thing is that I don't know why I want to change, and I don't know what kind of return on investment I should expect. In the automobile market, finding the right position is always a priority than making a good product.