On March 6, 2024, the DENZA D9 was renewed.
There are many factors for the success of DENZA D9, such as brand, technology, policy, etc., but the most important thing is the opportunity. In 2023, the number of Denza D9 vehicles will reach 106,740, accounting for 93% of the entire brand, which is the absolute main force of DENZA and also shows this.
The opportunity of the Denza D9 was given by the Buick GL8. In the past few years, the big brother of the MPV market has only had a gasoline version, neither HEV nor PHEV, and has hardly enjoyed any policies, while Buick has also set its sights on the higher-end MPV product Buick Century, which has also reduced the pressure on the Denza D9 to a certain extent.
There is a market logic called the Moutai effect, that is, when a product is recognized, the market share will become more and more concentrated, and the price will be higher and higher. Since the whole market has formed a tacit understanding, the product will become hard currency. This is the main work of the Buick GL8 over the past few years, from the Avia to the launch of the century.
It has become a habit for leaders and executives to ride the GL8, and it is very difficult to change, which is why the Buick GL8 will still achieve the results of 118756 units in 2023 under various unfavorable conditions, and continue to dominate the MPV market.
Now, Buick is ready, and the plug-in hybrid version of the GL8 is coming. It is clear that the Buick GL8 plug-in hybrid version is a new generation hybrid system based on series and parallel. You might think that the Buick GL8 and the Denza D9 DM-i would be direct rivals, but in my opinion, the relationship between friend and foe is more appropriate.
The series-parallel plug-in hybrid MPV has proven itself
What are the pure electric products that can continue to achieve more than 10,000 sales in the market of more than 300,000 people, regardless of MPV or not? Rarely heard of. Whether pure electric vehicles are suitable for MPVs or not, there is no point in debating, and the market has already given the answer. The EV version of the Denza D9 will only sell 6,503 units in 2023, while the Denza D9 DM-i will sell up to 100237 units, and the Buick GL8 will sell more than 10,000 units a month with pure oil. To put it bluntly, pure electric MPVs can't even beat pure oil MPVs. Of course, this should be related to the specific application scenario.
Pure electric MPVs may have advantages in some home scenarios, but they are inappropriate in business situations where they can go anywhere. Even if the charging is fast, the boss likes non-stop, not to mention that no matter how low the drag coefficient of the MPV is, the wind surface and body weight are placed there. Buick GL8 has a stalk in the market and says that 800 kilometers to take the official seal is like this.
Xpeng X9 and Ideal MEGA are very good pure electric MPVs, and most of the feedback from the sales line are home users, and there are few business users, and the point of view is that in addition to pure electric power, there are other factors such as styling and branding. In short, the all-electric MPV is not a match for the Denza D9 DM-i and Buick GL8 at all, and will only have some impact on the family audience of the Buick GL8.
As for the extended-range hybrid MPV, it is actually to abandon the high-speed direct drive of the engine, and the engine is completely decoupled, but in this way, the power is heavily dependent on the electric motor, and the energy consumption of the electric motor at high speed is not ideal. For this reason, most range-extender hybrid models will have high fuel consumption, high speed, high noise and insufficient power when running out of power, which indicates that this type of hybrid is not suitable for frequent high-speed scenarios.
The Denza D9 DM-i and Buick GL8 have chosen a series-parallel hybrid route, which is the most suitable structure for plug-in hybrid compared to power splitting.
First of all, the tax exemption policy of plug-in hybrid reduces the cost of car purchase, for MPV products with more than 300,000 yuan, if the purchase tax of more than 30,000 yuan is expected to reduce costs, it is better to increase the large battery directly; Secondly, plug-in hybrids are easy to control weight, reduce energy consumption, and bring longer battery life. Third, the series-parallel medium and low speed relies on the characteristics of the electric motor to bring a smoother and quieter driving experience.
The same name is not the same
Although both the Buick GL8 and the Denza D9 DM-i have opted for series-parallel hybrids, the road is not smooth, especially the Denza D9 DM-i, which still has various problems to solve. Of course, the product definition, battery form, and engine logic of the Buick GL8 and the Denza D9 DM-i are also very different.
DENZA built the D9 with the idea of creating both a pure electric vehicle and a plug-in hybrid. In order to arrange a high-capacity battery on the chassis, the DENZA D9 has reserved a lot of space in the chassis. Due to the weight and volume of lithium iron phosphate batteries, the chassis height has been virtually increased, and riding the DENZA D9 will obviously feel that the chassis is higher and the overall body is higher.
Buick's idea for creating the GL8 is to specialize in plug-in hybrids. Since there is no need for pure electric, the chassis does not have to compromise too much for the plug-in hybrid battery, so the sitting posture and chassis feel of the new generation GL8 are very good, and it is still the top existence in this class. The sitting position is one of the core standards for MPV comfort, because the vehicle will roll around an axis, the closer to the roll center, the smaller the occupant shake, the more comfortable the ride feel, and the less prone to motion sickness, which is difficult to overcome in high-chassis MPVs.
As for the high-speed scenes where the Denza D9 DM-i has been showing weakness, it is mainly related to the single-speed DHT, including stall, power, NVH, etc., which requires the Buick GL8 to prepare in advance.
The single-speed DM-i was originally intended to be responsible for low-to-medium speed through the electric motor, the engine for direct drive at medium and high speeds, and the rest in the form of extended range. The concept is simple and ideal, with the only drawback being that the lack of power gear in direct drive can lead to a lack of acceleration. But why does the DENZA D9 DM-i stall problem? 
Typical lithium iron phosphate discharge curve: the corresponding voltage of different SoCs is about the same, and the performance is significantly reduced at low temperatures.
The core of the DENZA D9 DM-i stall is the battery, and the SoC curve of the lithium iron phosphate battery is not as regular as the ternary lithium battery, but a curve that is stable when there is power and will drop sharply when there is no power, and it is extremely difficult to estimate the power. Despite this, the DENZA D9 still connects multiple cells in series in a long aluminum alloy shell, and the voltage monitoring sensor directly estimates the power of the entire series group, which is difficult to detect the initial imbalance of the cells.
Once the battery runs out of power and the engine doesn't start, the vehicle loses power and goes into a stall state.
The solution of the Buick GL8 PHEV is a set of 2-speed series-parallel hybrids, 1The 5t engine is the one with a power comparable to 20T, the Avatar engine with a large installed scale, the battery is combined with Autoneng technology, thus forming a series-parallel hybrid of Avatar + Autoneng.
1.Compared with the single-speed and 2-speed DHT, the 5T Avatar engine has improved its economy and the high-speed reacceleration ability has also been enhanced, which is very conducive to the advantages of the Avatar engine. At the same time, the engine can be driven directly at very low speeds, which can achieve fuel consumption and power comparable to that of power-split hybrids.
As for the battery, Buick has implemented individual cell monitoring for each cell since the Buick Micro Blue 6. Through the monitoring, statistics and calculation between different cells, the battery pack from Autoneng can be estimated very accurately, so as to achieve accurate feedback of the battery status and greatly reduce the possibility of stalling.
Seeing that the Denza D9 DM-i has been attacking the city in the past two years, the Buick GL8 PHEV must certainly not forget the previous and give full play to the latecomer advantage. If the Buick GL8 PHEV hybrid system is an instant hit, then the unique comfort and quietness shown in all road conditions, the Denza D9 will be somewhat stressed, and I don't know if the Denza D9 will turn its head down and bully the Japanese MPV.
Asteron Summary
Buick GL8 is an MPV product launched by the Buick brand rooted in the Chinese market, and it is also the most eye-catching product of the Buick brand and even the entire SAIC-GM. DENZA D9 is a commercial MPV product created by BYD according to the planning of large categories under the trend of new energy, and it is also the most eye-catching product of the DENZA brand at present.
The two cars show that only the Chinese market knows what kind of products Chinese consumers need, and it is impossible to succeed without going deep into the market and doing local technology research and development.
Of course, the situation of Buick GL8 and DENZA D9 is caused by the market's mistakes. Buick is pursuing high-end commercialization and people-friendly family in the MPV market, and has been aiming at Toyota Alpha, Lexus LM, Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sena in the past, while Denza D9 is aiming at the new energy MPV market, and both sides have left opportunities for each other. Now that Buick GL8 has turned around and invested in new energy, will this market be as peaceful as before?
I don't think so.