In the past two years, with the rapid rise of China's new energy vehicles, the debate on the superiority of the range-extended hybrid and the ordinary plug-in hybrid technology solutions in PHEVs has not stopped.
PHEV, also known as plug-in hybrid vehicles. EV, electric vehicle. P, plug-in, means that it can be charged by external power supply, H, hybrid, hybrid, hybrid, hybrid, means that there are both fuel engines and power batteries in the electric vehicle.
Therefore, it is not wrong for us to classify the Li Auto L series and Huawei Wenjie series range extender electric vehicles as PHEVs. In order to distinguish it from the PHEV models of traditional car companies such as BYD, Geely, Great Wall, Chery, etc., we often call it the plug-in hybrid technology, which we call the extended-range hybrid.
There is a difference between these two technical solutions.
The engine and power battery of the extended-range hybrid vehicle adopt a series structure, and the engine has only one function, which is to supply power to the power battery and "extend the range" for the electric vehicle. The striking feature is that the engine does not drive the wheels directly.
In the ordinary plug-in hybrid vehicle we often say, the engine and power battery are connected in series and parallel. The power battery drives the wheels through an electric motor (EV mode), and the engine can not only generate electricity to the motor to drive the wheels (series mode), but also drive the wheels together with the motor (parallel mode), and can also drive the wheels directly when necessary, so as to achieve greater efficiency and energy saving.
If it continues to be subdivided, the series-parallel hybrid technology scheme can be divided into single-gear series-parallel and multi-gear series-parallel, the former is used in BYD SAIC and other models, and the latter is used in Geely and Great Wall and other models.
In the industry, extended-range hybrid technology has always been regarded as a relatively backward new energy technology.
According to Ouyang Minggao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the extended-range hybrid is a simplification of the plug-in hybrid technology that is currently popular in China, omitting the link of the engine direct-drive wheel, or in other words, the plug-in hybrid we usually talk about contains the function of extending the range, which is more functional, and the efficiency of running fast roads and high speeds is higher, so the fuel consumption will be lower.
At the 2023 China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum, Ouyang Minggao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said for example that the plug-in hybrid of the series-parallel structure can take into account the dual needs of vehicle performance and economy, like BYD's super hybrid, open structure, very simple, this scheme has replaced Toyota and GM's planetary gear hybrid mode and has become a global consensus.
Automakers) can be marketed however they want, but the technology itself must be realistic. He said.
Who is the car manufacturer in parentheses?I think you should understand it very well.
However, the academician's point of view does not stop arguing. Although the technology of extended-range hybrids has been criticized for being backward, on November 8, the CEO of Li Auto, the king of Weibo, posted that Geely and Great Wall, car companies that use multi-gear PHEVs, will switch to the route of range extender in the next one or two years.
Yang Xueliang, global vice president of Geely, replied to Li Xiang that the core point of choosing a plug-in hybrid solution with a gear range extension or a gear solution lies in how to balance fuel consumption, cost and performance, as well as considering the user's charging conditions and driving range, and also depends on whether the company's R&D strength can support it.
Especially the last sentence, which is quite heavy.
In the final analysis, the dispute between extended-range hybrid and plug-in hybrid is a dispute between the new energy route between new forces and most traditional car companies. As for what the future holds, let the market make a choice.
But no matter what, every Chinese new energy vehicle company knows that PHEV plug-in hybrid is just a transition, and pure electric is the future.
*From the web.