Hybrid vehicles are the main path of transition from traditional fuel vehicles to new energy vehicles.
The development of new energy vehicles can effectively alleviate energy and environmental pressure. Still, the current transformation of the automotive industry into electricity is facing difficulties and challenges from various aspects such as policy, technology, cost, market, and environment.
Hybrid technology and products have energy-saving potential, moderate cost, high market acceptance, energy, are environmentally friendly, and have other advantages. In the medium and long-term stages of the transformation of automotive electrification, it will play an irreplaceable and essential role, with good prospects for development.
This article will introduce the major plug-in hybrid platforms in China from 4 aspects: BYD DM-i, Great Wall Lemon Hybrid DHT, Chery Kunpeng DHT, Geely Leishen Hi-X, and Changan Blue Whale iDD.
Engine
In a plug-in vehicle, the engine has to undertake both the generation of electricity to the battery and to participate in the drive at medium and high speeds, as well as to ensure that the powertrain combination is compact and efficient. Therefore, the engine is an important factor in the evaluation of plug-in hybrid technology.
The engine can be analyzed from two aspects. The first is the thermal efficiency of the engine, and the second is the transmission matched with the engine.
Of the five brands in which
BYD DM-i’s 1.5T engine has a thermal efficiency of 40% and is mated to an ECVT transmission
Great Wall’s lemon hybrid engine has a thermal efficiency of 38% and is matched with a 2-speed DHT transmission
Chery’s Kunpeng hybrid engine has a thermal efficiency of 37% and is matched with a three-speed DHT transmission
Leishen Hi-X engine thermal efficiency of 43.32%, matched with a three-speed transmission
Changan’s Blue Whale iDD hybrid engine has a thermal efficiency of 40%, but the transmission is not a hybrid-specific 6-speed transmission
Motor Architecture
The motor has to work with the battery to complete the power output as well as to realize the charging of the battery by the engine. Therefore, the arrangement and power of the motor are particularly important
Current motor layouts mainly have a combination of P0 to P4 architectures
P0 is located at the front of the engine, when the motor is usually less powerful, as the starter motor can not be purely electric drive
P1 is located in front of the clutch, directly connected to the engine, the same can not be purely electric drive, is the structure of the dual-motor, the power of the lesser one motor of the common location
P2 is the most currently used architecture, which refers to the common position of the less powerful motor located in front of the power coupling unit behind the clutch, and also in the structure of the dual motor, supporting pure electric drive
P3 is located after the power coupling device before the differential, is a dual-motor structure, the position of the main drive type motor with more power
P4 refers to the differential located before the different axles of the engine and is usually used in 4WD models
We mainly analyze the architecture of the two-wheel drive models of BYD, Changan, Great Wall, Geely and Chery, the five brands
BYD adopts the P1 + P3 combination mode, which is characterized by electric power as the primary and oil as the secondary and can realize electric drive, oil drive, and oil-electric dual drive, and extended range drive modes
Changan adopts P2, which can realize the all-area intelligent oil-electric dual-drive system, which can realize electric drive, oil drive, and oil-electric dual-drive, but not extended range
Great Wall Motor uses P1+P3, which features a dual-motor hybrid-hybrid architecture that can achieve electric drive, oil drive, and oil-electric dual drive, but not extended-range drive
Chery adopts the P2 dual motor, which is characterized by a front axle dual motor layout, which can also realize electric drive, oil drive, and oil-electric dual drive, but cannot realize extended range drive
Geely adopts P1+P2, which is characterized by full-speed domain parallelism, and it is the same as BYD, which can realize electric drive, oil drive, and oil-electric dual drive, and extended range drives
Battery Energy
The energy of the battery can be analyzed in two dimensions
One is the range, the other is the battery capacity and 100 km power consumption
Let’s take the popular products of each brand as an example
The first is BYD’s Tang dm, which is equipped with a 21.5 kWh battery that can achieve a range of 112 kilometers and power consumption of 19.2 kWh per 100 kilometers
Chery’s Ruihu 8plus PHEV, which is equipped with a 19.27 kWh battery, can achieve a range of 100 kilometers, 100 kilometers power consumption is 19.3 kWh
Great Wall’s Mocha DHT, which is equipped with a 39.67 kWh battery, can achieve a range of 204 kilometers, with a power consumption of 19.4 kWh per 100 kilometers
Changan’s UNI-K idd, which is equipped with a 30.7 kWh battery, can achieve a range of 130 kilometers, 100 kilometers power consumption is 23.6 kWh
Geely’s Dihao L phev, which is equipped with a battery of 11.3 kWh, can achieve a range of 100 kilometers, 100 kilometers power consumption is 11.3 kWh, but motivated by a car is a sedan, power consumption will be relatively small
Electronic control system
Plug-in vehicles have both engine and electric motor power sources, allowing for multiple drive modes.
Good electronic control system control, can achieve more accurate mode switching and be able to achieve lower energy consumption.
Since it is difficult to distinguish the advantages and disadvantages of the electric control system, the electric control system is compared by comparing the fuel consumption at the loss point and the fuel consumption in the mixed mode.
Geely Dihao L 100 km fuel consumption reduction is 43.3%, Changan UNI-K reduction is 40.5%, BYD Tang DMI is 38.9%, Chery is 28.6%, Great Wall is 20.7%
Summary
Through comparison, we can find that the performance of different brands of hybrid platforms has its own advantages. Although some brands have relatively more energy consumption, compared to traditional fuel cars, they have a significant advantage in energy consumption. And PHEV can also achieve more than 100km of pure electric driving. It can be said that PHEV is the perfect transition product from the fuel era to the electrification era.
