It is said that Chery is a science and engineering man, and Chery also likes to say that he is a science and engineering man. So if a brand with a polytechnic male personality is responsible for building a car for family users based on pure electric cars, what should this car look like?
The answer may be found in the Star Era et.
The Epoch et was unveiled at the Shanghai Auto Show last year, and on January 19 this year, the first batch of vehicles rolled off the assembly line, and it is expected to be released for pre-sale in the first quarter of this year.
After nearly a year of sharpening knives, the sharpness of Star Era et is finally going to be verified by actual combat.
The Star Era et, which is doubly tormented
Pure electric vehicles have changed our car life to a great extent, but there are still many shortcomings of pure electric vehicles themselves that need to be changed.
Too delicate is one of the major drawbacks of pure electric vehicles that need to be changed - they may get angry if they bump into it, they may get out of control if they are too hot, and they can't run or run far if they are too cold, so that pure electric cars are ridiculed by many users as electric dads.
Among them, the charging and discharging ability of the battery has been seriously affected due to the increase of the viscosity of the electrolyte in the battery and the decrease in the activity of the positive and negative electrode materials in the low temperature environment in winter. Therefore, the battery life and charging ability are stuck in the neck by the low temperature in winter, which can be described as the No. 1 problem for pure electric vehicles.
In addition, low temperature will also pose a threat to the stability of vehicle parts, such as recently, many users in Northeast China have complained on social platforms that the door handle is frozen and cannot be bounced out.
In order to keep the winter performance from dragging down the user experience of the Star Era et , Chery has not been less to the Star Era et to call its own black technology, and at the same time, the Star Era et has not been less tormented by Chery.
Dry against minus 30 degrees
In fact, in order to achieve better battery life and charging performance in winter, the core is to control the input and output of energy - on the one hand, improve the activity of the battery and ensure the charging and discharging capacity of the battery; On the other hand, it reduces losses and makes the most efficient use of the charged and discharged power.
In this regard, in terms of batteries, Star Era et chose CATL's Shenxing super-rechargeable battery.
According to CATL's official statement, CATL has made innovative designs from materials to battery cells in order to cope with the extremely cold environment, which can achieve the effect of charging for 400 km in 10 minutes.
In terms of electronic control, Epoch ET adopts an 800 V high-voltage architecture and an electronic control scheme of SiC silicon carbide motor to reduce heat loss and improve energy utilization, and is also equipped with a more energy-saving dual heat source heat pump air conditioner.
According to official data, when the range was tested at minus 30 degrees Celsius, the Star Era ET, which had a range of 689 km under standard working conditions, ran until it couldn't run until it couldn't run, and finally ran 4359 km with a range achievement rate of 633%。
It is worth mentioning that, according to official tests, it took only 22 minutes to charge the Star Era et from 30% to 80%, which is basically the same as the charging time in summer, when the temperature was minus 25.
Hot and cold alternately
The stable operation of vehicle components under extremely cold conditions is a test of the quality of car manufacturing. However, for Chery, which has a 26-year history of car manufacturing, good car quality should be the basic operation.
Also in the outdoor environment of minus 30 degrees Celsius, Chery sprayed all the surface of the Star Era et with water and froze it for 24 hours. After 24 hours, Chery put the Star Era et in the warm storage to thaw.
We all know that as the temperature changes, some of the properties of the material are changed. When the extreme cold and heat alternate, the material will be subjected to the impact of thermal expansion and cold contraction. Therefore, under extremely cold conditions, the glass, surface body, rubber connectors, plastic parts, and assemblies of automobiles usually face a very big threat.
Of course, the Epoch et still resisted the torture of alternating hot and cold, and in the end, there was neither water ingress into the cockpit, nor any component failure, and the vehicle was still in normal use.
According to official information, in order to ensure the reliability of the vehicle in different environments, Chery will conduct 100,000 times of endurance tests on the door handle.
Battery Defense
Most of the delicate nature of pure electric vehicles comes from the battery.
To make the battery pack withstand the impact from the ground, Epoch et placed a 1,300 MPa hot-stamped steel base plate at the bottom; At the same time, silicone foam is used between the upper cover of the battery pack and the box, and between the bottom guard plate and the box, which is equivalent to wearing a cotton jacket for the battery, so that the battery is not afraid of cold.
At the same time, in order to reduce the risk of thermal runaway of the battery, Epoch et monitors the battery status in real time through the BMS system on the one hand, and on the other hand, it places aerogel insulation pads between the cells, and insulating protective materials such as mica plates, ceramic composite tapes, and PC insulating films on the top of the cells.
Like the whole vehicle, in order to verify safety, the battery pack of the Star Era et was also tortured by Chery, such as being soaked in an ice-water mixture for an hour; Burned in a blaze for 130 seconds, etc. However, under the protection of digital systems and physical materials, Star Era et still passed these tests.
This means that Epoch et is capable enough to handle most driving conditions, and users can let go of worries about wading in rainy weather, unpaved road underpinning, and spontaneous combustion in the event of a collision.
It should be emphasized that in fact, the above-mentioned ice, fire, and immersion tests are far beyond the national standard. Of course, meeting the national standard and ensuring driving safety is the unshirkable responsibility of every OEM, but for Chery, creating safety beyond the national standard is a particularly realistic problem.
After all, as a company favored by overseas users,Chery not only has to meet the needs of domestic users, but also has to take into account the needs of overseas users. According to official data, Chery's exports in 2023 will be 93710,000 units, already accounting for half of the total annual sales.
Judging from Chery's current major domestic and overseas markets, the Star Era et may not only appear in the icy Northeast after its listing, but also in the heat-hot deserts of the Middle East and the rugged and primitive mountains and forests of South America.
As for the general performance of Epoch et after delivery, you can also continue to pay attention to our related reviews of it.
Sofa, color TV, small coffee table
The Star Era et continues Chery's usual hardcore car-building quality full of science and engineering male style, howeverIf you want to see Chery's less science and engineering side in the new energy era, Star Era et will be a particularly ideal reference object.
I don't know if you have ever encountered such a scene - when driving on a long and congested highway, the co-pilot's relatives and friends put down the seat, lie there, and then lie on their sides to watch the movie or TV series on the central control screen, the charging mobile phone is placed on the wireless fast charging of the island, and the prepared drinks, snacks, and fruits are either placed next to the stomach or placed on the island or the center console, and it is always troublesome to take them.
The same scenario would be very different if it were at home. We often prefer to slump on the sofa at the same time, put the mobile phone next to us to charge, drinks, snacks, fruits on the small coffee table within reach, whatever we want, take it at will.
So can you achieve a more comfortable scene like home in the car? Star Era et is really close.
In order to be comfortably paralyzed in the car, the car itself must first be large enough.
With a length, width of 4,955 mm, 1,975 mm, and a height of 1,698 mm, and a wheelbase of 3,000 mm, the Epoch ET is larger than the Model Y, Xpeng G9 and other models of the same or higher class. In terms of interior dimensions, the Star Era ES has a cockpit space of 3At 45 m, it is larger than the Mercedes EQS SUV.
With a large space for endorsement, sofas, color TVs, and small coffee tables can also be arranged.
The sofa is the Star Era et looks like a sofa, ventilation and heating, seat massage does not fall on the main and co-pilot seats, of which the co-pilot also adopts the configuration scheme of zero-pressure seats, so that the co-pilot user can lie there more comfortably; Color TV is Star Era et 156 inches 2The 5K central control screen meets the needs of users for watching movies and dramas; The small coffee table is the Star Era et can move back and forth on the island, so that during driving, the co-pilot user can more easily access the mobile phone being charged on the island, the drink in the cup slot, etc., even if he is lying down.
In addition, the mobile island can also play other roles, such as serving as a coffee table for users in the back row; When the main driver's door is inconvenient to open, let the user go out from the co-driver; This frees up space for users to avoid running to the trunk to place oversized items, etc.
Sofas, color TVs, and small coffee tables are available, and there are some atmosphere group configurations on the Star Era ET, such as a center console with double-layer storage compartments and natural solid wood; The large area of ambient lighting on the door panel and center console makes the entire cockpit more relaxed and pleasant family atmosphere to users.
In other respects, Star Era et is also very capable of playing.
First of all, in terms of intelligence, the cockpit of the Star Era ET is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 chip and a large Lion AI model, giving users a more convenient and intelligent interactive experience, such as the above-mentioned mobile island can be controlled by voice.
In addition, the Epoch ET is also equipped with LiDAR, as well as 30 intelligent driving sensors and 2 NVIDIA Orin-X chips, laying the hardware foundation for urban NOA, high-speed NOA and parking functions. According to official information, Epoch ET is expected to be able to support high-speed NOA in February this year, and in the second quarter of this year, it will be able to support urban NOA in some cities.
Next, let's take a look at the driving controls of Star Era ET. At present, Chery has not officially revealed too many driving parameters of the Star Era et . However, judging from the data on the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the output of the front motor of the Star Era et four-wheel drive version is 123 kW, and the rear motor is 230 kW, which meets the power of daily use, and I believe that the power of the single-motor version will be excellent enough.
It is worth mentioning that in terms of suspension configuration, the Star Era ES is the only model in the 20-300,000 class that is equipped with air suspension as standard.
Write at the end
Having said all that, what is the ** of Star Era et decided?
Judging from the ** of the Star Era ES, it is not difficult to speculate that the ** of the Star Era ET will also be between 20-350,000. If the Star Era et really sets the ** in this range, then the Star Era ET is still very competitive compared to family SUVs in the same price range.
However, the current 200,000-350,000 family SUV track is already very crowded, and the next players to enter are known to be the ideal L6 and the first new car of the NIO Alpine brand, and there are many more unknowns - the Star Era et has to bear a lot of competitive pressure.
Fortunately, with the change between new energy and fuel vehicles, the household new energy SUV market as a whole is still in an upward development stage. Moreover, Chery not only has a large number of user groups in China, but also occupies a broad market overseas.
At Chery's stormy night in November last year, Chery once shouted the slogan that Chery Group's new energy will be fully launched in 2024, and the Star Era ET, as Chery's first high-end new energy SUV officially rolled off the assembly line this year, is obviously a pioneer in Chery's "unceremonious battle".
From the perspective of the product strength and positioning of the Epoch Epoch ET, as a pioneer, the Epoch et should not only continue to stabilize the high-end tonality of the Epoch sequence after the Epoch ES, but also shoulder a heavier sales task than the Epoch ES.
In fact,In the context of today's first-class war, if Chery wants to accelerate its transformation to increase its voice and gain a firm foothold in the new energy track, sales are the sharpest weapon without him.
At the off-line ceremony of the Epoch et just past, Yin Tongyue, chairman of Chery Group, said that he hoped that the Epoch et would become a disruptor in the high-end pure electric SUV market.
Of course, it is a question mark whether Epoch et can become a subversive, but it is obvious that Chery has fully mobilized the group's resources, and strives to break through the thinking gap between fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles, constantly iterating itself, and has been able to make some more delicate and warm ingenuity in products with non-science and engineering men's thinking - Chery is trying to achieve its own disruptive breakthrough in the new energy market through Epoch et - Chery is trying to achieve its own disruptive breakthrough in the new energy market through Epoch et .
In a word, Chery has the ambition to make the Star Era et a big hit.
It is reported that the Star Era et will not only launch pre-sale in the first quarter of this year, but will also release an extended range version at the same time. In the face of the cruel and chaotic living environment of the current new energy vehicle market, Star Era et is prepared, and Chery's fists are getting tighter and tighter.