After the launch of iX3, BMW showed off its new energy assets

[Autohome? Industry]? In Shenyang, the base camp of BMW Brilliance, a huge iX3 poster has been hung up at Taoxian Airport in early autumn: the slogan "Born Electric" has been reproduced since the i3 and i8. BMW’s new electrified model. On September 13, BMW’s first pure electric SUV model iX3 was launched at the Shenyang factory, and the pre-sale price was announced at 470,000-510,000 yuan. The next day, the second phase of the BMW Brilliance Power Battery Center was officially completed and put into production, becoming the BMW Group's first production base in the world to produce fifth-generation power batteries.

During the two-day press conference, BMW Brilliance intensively introduced the technical features of new products, R&D centers, power battery factories, charging, sales and service networks and other related layouts, showing a complete electrification system. This means that the difficulty of competition in the new energy industry has further escalated. It not only depends on the performance of the products, but more importantly, it tests the combat capabilities of the enterprise system.

Electric BMW is still BMW

iX3 (new car illustration portal) is built on the BMW compatibility platform. This flexible platform can produce not only pure electric vehicles, but also internal combustion engines, Plug-in hybrid model. Although BMW's R&D strength is there, a platform that accommodates multiple power types at the same time means there are trade-offs. Abandoning the "public opinion correct" pure electric platform, can the iX3 be competitive in terms of battery life, space, and energy consumption?

The key to the answer lies in BMW’s fifth-generation eDrive electric drive system. The three core technologies of battery, motor, and electronic control have significantly evolved. The electric motor, inverter and transmission are integrated into a drive unit, which greatly reduces the weight and required installation space while ensuring performance; the drive unit is integrated with the rear axle to further improve drive efficiency.

『BMW iX3 model architecture and battery pack structure』

The fifth-generation system assumes part of the chassis architecture, and a part of the floor space is reserved for installing and expanding the battery. group to obtain longer cruising range while ensuring a lower center of gravity. iX3 is the first model equipped with this system, and this system will become standard equipment on BMW electrified models in the future.

Comparing the Mercedes-Benz EQC and Audi e-tron, the BMW iX3 uses 74kWh of electricity to achieve a 500km range and an energy consumption of 16.7kWh per 100 kilometers, making it more competitive. BMW Brilliance executives said that the group attaches great importance to the three-electric technology and insists on keeping its research and development capabilities in its own hands. To give an example, the iX3 is equipped with CATL's 811 ternary lithium battery. The 811 high-nickel battery has been frequently involved in safety controversies recently. BMW Brilliance customized the battery cells according to its own standards and has made many layers in terms of structure, testing, software monitoring, etc. Protection, very confident about its safety.

The words of a BMW Brilliance executive are impressive: think like a new car manufacturer and deliver like a mature car company. This can also explain why the iX3 didn't come early. Although it can compete with Mercedes-Benz and Audi, its battery life is quite satisfactory compared with Tesla and some domestic brands. BMW's thinking is still to be stable and treat the new energy competition as a protracted battle.

In terms of intelligence, BMW Brilliance has equipped the iX3 with the latest BMW automatic driving assistance system PRO as standard, which provides functions including assisted driving, traffic jam assist and lane change assist, and can also be equipped with automatic parking. , BMW driving recorder, tracking reversing assist, remote 3D parking image and other comprehensive automatic parking assistance system functions.

The pre-sale price of the new car is 470,000-510,000 yuan, which is much lower than the starting price of 579,800 yuan when the Mercedes-Benz EQC was first launched. Gaulle, President and CEO of BMW Group Greater China, emphasized that electric vehicles must first be reasonably priced and cannot exceed this level. The pre-sale price of iX3 falls within the upper range of the top-end models of X3. After old rivals Mercedes-Benz and Audi launched their first pure electric models last year, their monthly sales of several hundred vehicles appear to have fallen behind BBA's usual standards. BMW does not want to "repeat the same mistakes". Summarizing the gains and losses of its opponents, it still put a lot of thought into the iX3, and we can get a glimpse of it from its marketing efforts.

The X3 is BMW’s second-largest model in terms of sales contribution after the 5 Series. It is also the model with the highest growth since BMW started the “Year of X” (a year-on-year increase of 197.21% in 2019). The X3 itself The popularity will also benefit pure electric models.

In terms of sales channels, BMW Brilliance plans to have nearly 200 BMW i authorized dealers by the end of 2020, accounting for approximately 1/3 of the current BMW distribution network, covering approximately 60 cities.

Based on the first-line production strategy, BMW emphasizes that "iX3 is an authentic BMW car" and emphasizes driving pleasure and quality. Whether this strategy can be transformed into the features and advantages of iX3 deserves follow-up attention.

BMW Group Chairman Zipse expressed his views on future product trends at this year’s financial report: Customer needs are becoming increasingly diversified, cars that look the same to everyone have become history, and different drive systems will coexist. , so the industry will not be artificially divided into two different parts: electric vehicles and internal combustion vehicles. If you want to become a global automobile company, you must have such flexibility. According to the plan, BMW will start cutting 50% of its powertrain research and development from 2021, while streamlining the model series to achieve first-line production with more compatible model architectures and power systems.

Compatible platforms and first-line production also play a significant role in reducing costs and increasing efficiency. Udo Haenle, BMW Group's head of engineering and technology, calculated that building a new factory will cost about 1 billion euros, while the investment in current facilities to produce electric vehicles is only 3 million euros, which costs less than 1 billion euros. One percent of the former.

The hot sales of BMW 5 Series PHEV in the Chinese market is a demonstration case. First-line production reduces high-cost investment and is conducive to the rapid popularization of the product. The price of the 5 Series plug-in model and the fuel version are basically the same, and the price/performance ratio is even better than the fuel version, which has contributed to the BMW 5 Series PHEV reaching the top of the plug-in market.

Coincidentally, the new-generation Mercedes-Benz S-Class, which was launched not long ago, also demonstrates the concept of flexible production. In the future, both the plug-in version and the pure electric version of the S-Class will be produced on one line. Flexibility and efficiency are still key elements for car companies to consider strategic deployment.

Systematic layout

BMW has completed the trademark registration of i1 to i9 and iX1 to iX9, and its products cover pure electric sedans and crossovers. The future electrified product lineup will be very rich. Behind the innovation, there needs to be a complete production system to support it.

Since 2009, BMW Brilliance has invested more than 64 billion yuan in China. Two vehicle factories and a powertrain factory, Dadong and Tiexi, have been built in Shenyang, with a combined production capacity of 520,000 vehicles per year. It is one of the BMW Group's largest production bases in the world. Both vehicle factories can realize the first-line flexible production of new energy vehicles and traditional power vehicles. In the next few years, BMW Brilliance will also renovate and expand two vehicle factories to produce more new energy models.

In terms of R&D support, BMW Brilliance opened a new R&D center and a power battery center in 2017. The R&D focus is on new energy vehicles and the entire development process from design concept to mass production delivery is realized locally in China. In addition to producing battery systems, the power battery center also covers functions such as research and development, quality, laboratory, procurement and supply chain management.

About half a year after the first phase of production was put into production, BMW Brilliance quickly started the construction of the second phase of the power battery center. It was officially opened in September this year to produce BMW's new fifth-generation power batteries to support the iX3 model. The second phase of the power battery center has more than doubled its production capacity and also reserved space for future production capacity growth.

According to the official introduction, the production model of BMW Brilliance's battery system has two major advantages: First, standardized modules ensure unified quality standards in production and lay the foundation for widespread adaptation to BMW's new energy models. The modular concept It can also quickly respond to customer needs; secondly, the size, shape and number of modules used in the aluminum shell can be adapted to various BMW models as needed.

In addition to strengthening its offensive in terms of products, in terms of charging infrastructure, BMW Brilliance is also accelerating its previous strategy of building self-built charging piles to join forces with charging pile giants. In June this year, BMW Brilliance announced that it had signed a cooperation agreement with the State Grid to provide car owners with 270,000 charging piles nationwide by the end of 2020, including 80,000 fast-charging DC charging piles, which will account for 80% of the State Grid’s charging piles by then. Available to vehicle owners.

From January to July 2020, BMW ranked fourth in global new energy sales.

In the Chinese market, BMW's cumulative sales of new energy vehicles have exceeded 75,000 units. Sales in China in the first half of the year increased by 49% year-on-year, of which 10,650 5 Series PHEV models were delivered. BMW's goal is to sell one million new energy models in 2021 and provide 25 new energy models globally in 2023.

In the pioneering era of new energy, the i series has proven technology for BMW. Entering into the next comprehensive electrification strategy, BMW, as an established automobile manufacturer, is still very cautious and has repeatedly verified it. Starting from the iX3, BMW once again gives its new energy models the "i" prefix, which is of far-reaching significance. As BMW Brilliance President and CEO Wei Lande said, "It demonstrates the complete new energy ecosystem we have built with customers in mind, from design and production to the electrification process of the entire value chain." (Text/Autohome) ?Du Junyi)