Original title: Winter practice Sanjiu, summer practice Sanfu, FAW-Volkswagen technology development test system visit.
Practice three nines in winter and three dogs in summer. From Turpan at 40 degrees Celsius to Heihe at minus 30 degrees, and then to the Nong'an Experimental Site, which has 'condensed' the world's worst road surface, the cumulative test mileage has exceeded 3 million kilometers, just to eliminate all problems before the market. Zhang Zhen said, "One of the core reasons why FAW-Volkswagen has the confidence to ensure that every car handed over to users has consistently high quality is that the new car has experienced the test of extreme environments such as high temperature, high cold, plateau, high humidity, high corrosion, mountainous areas, and sand and dust before it is launched. ”
The winner is powerful, and the self-winner is strong. With the support of the independent research and development capabilities built over the years, FAW-Volkswagen has continued to win the favor of domestic users, and has been able to stabilize the market scale in 2023, when the automobile market is ups and downs, and the sales of its three major brands have all achieved positive year-on-year growth. Looking forward to 2024, FAW-Volkswagen, which is "self-reliant", dares to let the three brands accelerate the strategy of "simultaneous development of oil and electricity", so as to achieve "reasonable growth in quantity and effective improvement in quality".
Half a year ago (July 2023), when I first met Cong Pengli in Turpan, Xinjiang, the reporter quipped, "This day of sufficient sunbathing has tanned you to an enviable bronze." After half a year, when they met again in Heihe, the cheeks wrapped in the army-green cotton coat were no longer the "enviable bronze".
As a senior employee of FAW-Volkswagen's vehicle test site, Cong Pengli has long been accustomed to the changes in his skin color, "In the hottest time in Turpan, with the scorching sun on his head, the car is fine, and it is inevitable that people will be sunburned; Now that the coldest time is in Heihe, the whole body is covered tightly, and it will naturally come back in vain. ”
Cong Gong (Cong Pengli)'s test team, from Turpan at 40 degrees to Heihe at minus 30 degrees, and then to the agricultural safety test site that 'condenses' the world's worst road surface, has a cumulative test mileage of more than 3 million kilometers, just to eliminate all problems before going on the market. Zhang Zhen, manager of FAW-Volkswagen's vehicle test site, confidently said, "One of the core reasons why FAW-Volkswagen has the confidence to ensure that every car handed over to users has consistently high quality, is that the new car has experienced the test of extreme environments such as high temperature, high cold, plateau, high humidity, high corrosion, mountainous areas, and sand and dust before it is launched." ”
Practice three nines in winter and three dogs in summer.
In the deep winter, the Heihe River is intertwined with ice and snow, dripping into ice, and the minimum temperature is below minus 30 degrees, and the extreme temperature can even reach minus 40 degrees. This extremely cold weather means a complete "cat winter" for the locals; But for the test personnel, it is the beginning of a new round of winter test cycle.
The test engineers and technicians, nicknamed "migratory birds" within FAW-Volkswagen, "migrated" to the Heihe Winter Proving Ground on December 15 last year and will remain there until March 15 this year. In this three-month winter test cycle, this group of "migratory birds" will take advantage of the unique weather and climate conditions of Heihe to conduct a 30,000-kilometer cold zone endurance test for each vehicle to comprehensively test the reliability, safety and stability of the vehicle under low temperature and complex ice and snow road conditions.
The FAW-Volkswagen Heihe Cold Zone Test Site was completed and put into use in 2016, and in 2019, the land facilities and ice test road were expanded, forming the current 17With a site size of 8 square kilometers, it is the largest cold area test site in China. Zhang Zhen said bluntly, "As an indispensable and important part of the research and development process of vehicles and parts, the alpine test not only requires harsh climatic conditions, but also requires strong hardware support." ”
According to Zou Wei, a vehicle test engineer, the FAW-Volkswagen Heihe Alpine Test Site is equipped with more than 10 kinds of land and ice roads, such as ABS test road, split ramp, noise and noise road, wading pool road, snow dynamic square, snow drill stable road, ice straight road, high-speed snow road, chessboard road and ice and snow ring road, etc., which condenses all kinds of winter road conditions and use conditions encountered in the process of car use.
Relying on the harsh local environment, FAW-Volkswagen conducts vehicle climate durability and reliability tests in Heihe, which include vehicle cold area road durability test, ESC functional durability test, vehicle functional climate adaptability durability test, vehicle cold area squeak durability test, etc., to ensure the normal driving of the vehicle in an extremely cold environment.
Taking the ESC cold area special test as an example, the test engineer will simulate the situation that the snow is not clean on the ordinary road, so that when the vehicle is driving, one side of the wheel is on the asphalt road, and the other side of the wheel is on the ice and snow covered road. By continuously activating ABS, ASR, ESP, MSR and other functions more than 10,000 times, FAW-Volkswagen ensures that the ESC system can play the role of maximum efficiency in various situations and ensure the safety of users.
In addition, FAW-Volkswagen will also carry out matching calibration tests of vehicles and systems including engine calibration, ESC matching, electric drive system calibration, steering system matching, chassis matching, etc., as well as vehicle performance tests including air conditioning heating and defrosting, new energy vehicle charging and discharging, vehicle wading, snow tightness, etc.
For FAW-Volkswagen's huge new car testing project, this is just a microcosm of a new car's pre-market testing work. "In addition to the cold zone low temperature test site in Heihe, FAW-Volkswagen has established a conventional comprehensive test site and a high temperature dry heat test base in Nong'an, Turpan and other places. Zhang Zhen said, "Practice three nines in winter, practice three dogs in summer." Relying on these testing grounds, which are known as the 'testing grounds' of automobiles, FAW-Volkswagen has been able to create consistently high-quality products. ”
Zhang Zhen also revealed, "The test site system built by FAW-Volkswagen is far ahead of the industry. This also allows FAW-Volkswagen to share the resources of the test site with other car companies and upstream and downstream partners, which can be opened to external companies, which not only improves the utilization rate of test resources such as roads and equipment, but also adds new revenue channels for the company. ”
Self-reliance, innovation and transformation.
In recent years, the automobile industry is undergoing profound changes with the rise of the "New Four Modernizations", and the original market structure and chain system are facing the challenge of reshaping. In the face of the new stage of accelerating the transformation of China's automobile industry to the direction of intelligence, FAW-Volkswagen Technology Development Vehicle Development Department closely follows the development trend of intelligent networked vehicles, and is currently working to build a site and product evaluation system to meet the needs of all-round testing.
It is reported that the upgrading and transformation plan of the FAW-Volkswagen Nongan Intelligent Networked Vehicle Test Site has been approved and is currently entering the feasibility study stage. In the future, with the completion of the construction of the intelligent networked vehicle test site system in the agricultural safety test site, FAW-Volkswagen will build a dual resource advantage in the field of traditional vehicles and intelligent networking, so as to fully ensure the performance and quality of products.
It is precisely based on the support of the test system of the Technology Development Department that FAW-Volkswagen continues to win the favor of domestic users, and has been able to stabilize the market scale in 2023, when the automobile market is ups and downs, and the sales of its three major brands have all achieved positive year-on-year growth.
Data shows that in 2023, FAW-Volkswagen will deliver more than 1.91 million vehicles to end users throughout the year, a year-on-year increase of 48%, achieve 86% market share, to achieve the annual business target. Among them, the terminal sales of the Volkswagen brand were 1.05 million units, with positive growth for two consecutive years; Audi brand terminal sales 69820,000 units (including imported vehicles), accounting for 36% of the global sales of the Audi brand8%；Jetta brand terminal sales 16200,000 units, with a record market share.
Through the exploration in 2023, FAW-Volkswagen has formed a development route of self-reliance, self-reliance, innovation and transformation; Looking forward to 2024, FAW-Volkswagen will take "self-improvement" as the key word of the year, and continue to do a good job in the joint ventures and cooperation it has developed2A new path of high-quality development in the 0 era.
The winner is powerful, and the self-winner is strong. With the independent research and development capabilities built over the years, the "self-improving" FAW-Volkswagen dares to let its three brands accelerate the strategy of "simultaneous development of oil and electricity" in 2024. According to reports, FAW-Volkswagen is independently developing a new electric model, and the current technical scheme has been basically determined; The self-developed hybrid system will also be installed, and the hybridization of all products will be realized in the future. When it comes to specific models, Audi will launch models such as the A6 e-tron and Q6 e-tron, of which the Audi Q6 e-tron will make its world premiere at the end of the first quarter of 2024. Jetta is expected to launch its first A-segment sedan in 2025.
While accelerating the implementation of electric and hybrid products, FAW-Volkswagen will also simultaneously promote the update and iteration of traditional fuel vehicles. Among them, the Volkswagen brand will launch two new products in 2024, and Magotan will also usher in a new product replacement; At the same time, "Volkswagen 2nd generation ** power" 1The 5T EVO2 engine will also cover the all-new Tange and all-new Tanyue; The Jetta will be available in facelifted VS5 and VS7 models, as well as a new facelifted model with a sporty off-road style. From the end of 2024 to 2025, Jetta will enter a big year of products, including the flagship model - VS8 developed based on the latest Volkswagen platform standards, and an A+ sedan - VA5.
Those who drop out have no success, and those who slack off have no gains. FAW-Volkswagen has the confidence to propose to achieve "reasonable growth in quantity and effective improvement in quality" in 2024 with the attitude of "self-improvement", behind which is the strong support given by its continuous precipitation and accumulation in technology research and development over the years. When many fast-growing brands occupy the market at the speed of developing a new car in two years and replacing a model in three years, FAW-Volkswagen still strives to polish more reliable, safer and more trustworthy products with the craftsman spirit of withstanding loneliness. The 2024 of the joint venture "leader" FAW-Volkswagen continues to be worth looking forward to! (China Economic Net reporter Wang Yueyue).
*: China Economic Net.