From knock-off old-man's electric vehicles to industrial giant

Chapter 181 Hey—why not just make a power bank!
The Xingchen Automotive National Dealer Conference has now been held for the third time.

If you want to franchise a directly operated store, or adopt a hybrid directly operated model.

The standards have also been greatly raised.

Judging from Xingchen Auto's market performance, as long as you join, you can make money. Naturally, many dealers and investors are eager to get in.

To join now, the registered capital must be no less than five million, the franchise fee must be three hundred thousand, the working capital must cover three months of operation, and a long-term, strict contract must be signed.

It can be said.

The first batch of small dealers who followed Xingchen Automotive have almost all become wealthy.

With sufficient working capital, Xingchen Automotive is more inclined to open directly operated brand stores.

...

"Moreover, the market order and sales feedback for the Starry Sky S7 is still good and continues to grow. Due to production capacity constraints, we expect to deliver more than 15,000 units this month!"

"Once production capacity explodes in June, the Starry Sky S7 should be able to reach monthly sales of 20,000 units!"

Yu Nian continued.

The current scale of Xingchen Motors.

A single model can support annual sales of 100,000 to 200,000 units.

The team is extremely excited about this achievement!

Xu Yi was not surprised by the result. "Well, in terms of sales distribution, our sales in the southern region are very good, but in cities in the northern region and the three northeastern provinces, they are much worse."

The sales data chart on the conference screen shows that Xingchen Auto's sales network and sales volume cover most first-, second-, and third-tier cities, including rural areas.

However, in major northern provinces, the number of sales outlets has begun to decline significantly.

Some areas are even sparse and bleak.

Yu Nian replied:
“The coverage of charging facilities in the northern region is much lower than that in the south. Although our Xingchen brand stores and supercharging stations have been established, sales have not yet taken off. It will probably take time for them to become more widespread.”

Xu Yi pointed to the vast area in the north: "The low coverage of charging infrastructure is one aspect, but the biggest reason is the constraints of the environment and temperature. Winters in the north last for four or five months, and in the most extreme cases, the temperature may drop to minus twenty or even minus forty degrees Celsius. So there is almost no choice but to use gasoline vehicles."

It is an indisputable fact that traditional gasoline-powered vehicles perform more reliably in extreme weather conditions.

Pure electric new energy vehicles currently only achieve a range of around 500 kilometers.

If you factor in actual driving wear and tear, plus the outside temperature of minus twenty degrees Celsius, it's estimated that it would struggle to travel even a little over two hundred kilometers.
-
Battery life may decrease by 50% in 40℃ environments, and this is no joke.

Rather, they had all tested it themselves.

Even though Polestar batteries are more cold-resistant than their competitors, they still cannot defy the laws of physics.

"Currently, pure electric vehicles are not a viable solution to this problem."

We must come up with a hybrid solution, specifically our next extended-range SUV, capable of both refueling and charging, achieving a range longer than gasoline vehicles in the harsh winter conditions of northern regions. Only then can we alleviate the concerns of consumers in these areas.

Xu Yi made it clear.

In fact, once the sales volume of pure electric vehicles reaches more than 20,000 units per month, they will encounter the first hurdle.

That is, people in the northern regions don't buy it.

This isn't discrimination on their part.

Even if a later generation of CLTCs achieves a range of 700 kilometers, the range is halved when temperatures drop to minus 20 degrees Celsius in northern winters, rendering it practically useless.

To solve this problem.

Either extend the battery life further, or make the battery extremely cold-resistant.

These are problems that current lithium iron phosphate batteries cannot solve, at least not this year or next.

We must at least develop solid-state batteries, or even higher-density, more cold-resistant semi-solid-state batteries.

That's why hybrids sell so well.

It's because they sell well in the north.

It offers a high-spec driving experience comparable to pure electric vehicles, and it also has the advantages of refueling and long range!

This constraint is also why Xingchen Motors needs to adopt a two-pronged approach.

Otherwise, if they blindly follow the pure electric vehicle route, they will essentially shut out all consumers in the northern region from the outset before solid-state batteries are developed, giving other car companies that are pursuing hybrid technology an opportunity—a completely free win.

"Mr. Xu, the development of the 1.5T engine in cooperation with Dong'an Power is progressing smoothly. The prototype using the Atkinson cycle + high-pressure direct injection solution has begun bench performance testing. The newly optimized high-strength aluminum alloy cylinder block achieves a thermal efficiency of 40% at low speed "1500rpm/3bar" load and 39% at high speed "2500rpm/5bar".

The next phase of research and development aims to achieve a thermal efficiency of 40% under low to medium operating speeds and loads.

Chen Zhou spoke.

After months of dedicated research and development, the hybrid vehicle division has achieved great success.

Even exceeding the previously set target of 39%, the first-generation range extender is expected to achieve a thermal efficiency of 40%.

This is already incredibly amazing!

of course.

Bench verification and physical prototype testing are only the first step.

In the subsequent vehicle integration stage, it is necessary to develop a range-extending mode control algorithm and further optimize indicators such as power, fuel consumption, NVH through road tests.

"In addition, we have also considered emission policies. At present, we meet the National V standard, but we have reserved room for upgrading to National VI."

Once the entire system is offline, compared to other range extender solutions in the industry, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a super range extender system.

Speaking of which.

He had a confident expression.

Currently, there are very few companies in the industry willing to invest heavily in the research and development of range extender systems.

There are even fewer products that boast a thermal efficiency of 40% while also meeting high-specification NVH and stability standards!

Calling it a "super range extender" is not an exaggeration! Apart from domestic brands, those German luxury brands that have the capability to develop engines don't actually make range extenders.

That's very "lonely".

They've unknowingly surpassed their competitors by a huge margin!

"Okay, we need to refine the engine technology as much as possible, as it will be a major asset for our future high-end strategy."

Xu Yi nodded.

It's not that high-end pure electric vehicles can't be made, but the high-end range-extended electric vehicle route is often easier to navigate.

Don't be fooled by its 1.5T engine; it's far more powerful than the 1.3T range-extended engine in the original Nissan ONE.

Moreover, it has a thermal efficiency of 40%.

Xingchen Motors aims to dominate the extended-range vehicle market, so it will spare no effort.

……

"Mr. Xu, the second-generation Polestar battery is also nearing the small-scale verification stage. This time, we have improved the positive and negative electrode materials, further increased the tap density, and developed a safer electrolyte, which further reduces the risk of thermal runaway in long and thin cell.

In terms of structure, we have optimized the space utilization and reduced the internal resistance. At that time, the overall energy density is expected to exceed 175Wh/kg, and multiple rounds of needle penetration experiments can be carried out.

The most crucial peak discharge performance has also been greatly improved.

On the battery R&D side, Cao Yang reported on the recent progress.

Batteries are arguably the largest research and development area for StarCraft.

This is an improvement on the first generation, and in fact, the timeline is even faster than the first generation of Polestar batteries.

Of course, there is also a lot of room for optimization in terms of structure and formulation.

In fact, they could even make cells with higher energy density, but they also need to consider the cost of mass production.

After all, the second-generation Polestar battery is intended to be directly installed in vehicles.

If cost were not a factor, they could even develop a lithium iron phosphate battery with an energy density of 200Wh/kg.

But that would require using extremely high-purity electrolyte imported by Xiao Rizi, a purely laboratory product, which is too expensive to mass-produce.

Just like some laboratory engines, which claim to achieve thermal efficiency of 48% or more.

Just hearing that makes you gasp.

In reality, if he were to actually put it on, it would be extremely difficult to work under complex road conditions. Even if it were forcibly installed, the possibility of knocking and malfunctions would be extremely high, making it impractical for mass production.

Xu Yi listened to the rapid progress of research and development in various departments.

The smile on his face was impossible to hide.

very good!

Once these technologies are mass-produced, I can't believe how powerful Xingchen Motors will be!

Based on the progress reported by each R&D department, if this were any other new energy vehicle company, they would be laughing all the way to the bank!
Xu Yi still tried his best to remain restrained.

After all, this is just a small achievement.

Their Xingchen Motors hasn't even truly conquered any market, and in terms of individual models, they aren't particularly outstanding in the realm of gasoline-powered vehicles.

but.

To Xu Yi's surprise,

The team that is closest to implementation is actually the one working on mobile phone battery cells.

"Mr. Xu, we have completed the second-generation sample experiment of high-nickel ternary soft-pack battery cells. The energy density has reached 320Wh/L, and the standard-sized samples have a capacity of 3300mAh-3800mAh. If we adopt the design of increasing the battery cell volume like flagship phones and further optimize the volume density, the capacity is estimated to easily exceed 4200mAh."

Dong Yuxuan then said.

The mobile phone battery cell R&D team consists of only a few dozen people, but the R&D progress is fast.

Basically, it involves continuous formula optimization and sample verification.

Last time, it was only the performance of mid-range mobile phone battery cells; this time, it has directly broken through the battery cell density of flagship models.

It's not particularly difficult.

"A maximum capacity of 4200mAh? As far as I know, there aren't any flagship phones in the industry with a capacity exceeding 4000mAh right now, are there?"

Xu Yi's face showed a thoughtful expression.

“Yes, the current flagship phones all have capacities of 3300mAh-3500mAh, but according to rumors, Huawei seems to be releasing a flagship phone with a capacity of 4000mAh this year, which our battery cells can easily surpass!” Dong Yuxuan nodded.

They conducted market research and disassembled all the high-density flagship battery cells.

At present, the technology level seems to be nothing special.

"However, in order to achieve our goal, we have also verified many samples, including performance and life tests. In the end, because the cycle life was relatively good, we still have a lot of good capacity soft-pack battery cell samples left. They are considered defective products. What do you think we should do with them?"

"Defective product?"

"Yes, although they are defective products, their capacity and internal resistance discharge performance are still quite good, mostly reaching 3300mAh or more. It's a bit of a waste to just scrap them like this. If they are reused and made into power banks as employee benefits, I think that would be a good idea."

Dong Yuxuan smiled.

These battery cells are just not up to standard; their density and internal resistance are not bad, and their cycle life is very long. They are at least no worse than the battery cells used in flagship phones. It's a bit of a waste to scrap them like this.

As soon as these words came out.

This immediately caught Xu Yi's attention.

"Hey—why not just make a power bank!"

……

(End of this chapter)