As early as 20 1 1, they established a new energy sub-brand? "BMW? I ",and released i3 and i8. Even today, the design concepts of these two cars are still quite advanced.
In 20 15, BMW introduced the first PHEV sedan 530Le, which was in short supply for a long time after being listed in China. Last year, BMW 530Le also became the best-selling PHEV in the world.
This year, from 1 to 10, BMW sold 1 16963 new energy vehicles worldwide. Although there is still a gap compared with Tesla, in the field of high-end new energy vehicles with a price of more than 400,000 yuan, BMW is the real first-Tesla's sales are mainly supported by the entry model Model3, and its main sales model is lower than that of 300 yuan.
In the past nearly 10 years, BMW has achieved great success in the field of new energy and accumulated valuable technology and experience.
Nowadays, the new energy market has entered a new stage of competition. Driven by policies and capital, the whole industry has accelerated the transformation to pure electrification. Stimulated by new products and technologies, consumers' cognition and demand for EV have changed greatly.
Facing the new market environment, BMW has formulated a brand-new electrification strategy. IX3 listed at Guangzhou Auto Show this year is the first product of the new strategy. This is the second pure electric vehicle officially launched by BMW brand after BMW i3. It erases the experimental color of the former and presents different extremes with a more rational and accurate attitude.
Do pure electric vehicles have to build exclusive platforms?
BMW iX3 is a medium-sized pure electric SUV, and it and BMW X3 are both built on BMW's new generation CLAR platform. Presumably, some people will question this: Why doesn't BMW iX3 adopt a pure electric platform?
Regarding the platform, we are more or less biased by some wrong views. The industry has long been filled with the argument that pure electric exclusive platform is the general trend of EV development and should be strongly advocated. And those "oil to electricity" models based on non-exclusive platforms are synonymous with backwardness and will be eliminated.
Undeniably, pure electric platforms do have many advantages, but it is chaotic to define ev of non-pure electric platforms as "backward", completely deny it, and even advocate elimination.
Pure electric platform has obvious advantages in space utilization, but the high research and development cost can not be ignored.
In order to seek conceptual victory, some new car companies will publicize the shortcomings of EV, a non-pure electric platform. After all, their product line is only pure electric vehicles, and their technical reserve is only a pure electric platform. Under the pressure of competition, they will maliciously belittle other technical routes. In essence, this is a kind of slander.
For most traditional car companies, platformization technology has developed to a quite mature stage. The technical route of pure electric vehicles is not only pure electric platforms, but also compatible with two kinds of oil-electric platforms, namely fuel vehicles and electric vehicles, and can also create excellent EVs. We must realize the fact that the comprehensive product strength of an automobile depends more on the quality of the platform than on the category of the platform.
Take the CLAR adopted by BMW iX3 as an example. With the technical characteristics of light weight and high rigidity, it is the representative work of platform technology in today's automobile industry. Moreover, this platform has strong compatibility and can support the development of pure fuel-powered vehicles (gasoline and diesel), plug-in hybrid vehicles and pure electric vehicles at the same time.
At the beginning of development, BMW CLAR platform fully considered the compatibility of various powers. In addition to iX3, BMW will also launch a number of pure electric vehicles on this platform, such as the BMW i4 which will be launched next year.
This means that iX3 and X3 are two original models developed under the same platform, and there is no question of who "changed" who. The technical strength of CLAR platform has been fully demonstrated in X3. Based on the same platform, iX3 can integrate more advanced electrification technology under the already excellent technical conditions, thus becoming a more mature and advanced EV.
Leading technology, ultimate balance
Real users are too lazy to care about the platform, and the actual experience is the most important.
Luxury pure electric vehicle is a consumption upgrading mode, and what users need is the ultimate product performance. BMW, which has rich experience in the field of electrification, is very clear about what consumers need and how to present the real ultimate.
On the core three-electric system, BMW iX3 adopts BMW's latest fifth-generation eDrive electric drive system, and with the battery pack with a net capacity of 74kWh, the cruising range under NEDC standard can reach 500km. As can be seen from the following table, the battery capacity of BMW iX3 is the smallest among the three cars, but under the same test conditions, it has the longest cruising range and the lowest power consumption per 100 kilometers.
During the test drive, we drove about 80km (60% downtown, 40% high speed) in normal driving mode, and the measured power consumption per 100 km was 15.5kWh/ 100km, even lower than the data of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology!
Such excellent energy efficiency performance is inseparable from the technological innovation of BMW's fifth-generation eDrive electric drive system.
The system integrates motor, inverter and transmission. While realizing miniaturization and light weight, the power density is increased by about 30% compared with the previous generation products, and the highest energy efficiency reaches 93%. The maximum output power is 2 10kW and the peak torque is 400Nm.
In addition, BMW iX3 adopts induction excitation motor. Compared with ordinary permanent magnet synchronous motor, induction excitation motor has stronger explosive force and better torque durability. Even at high speed, there will be no obvious power attenuation, which is more suitable for high performance EV. Tesla model? S and ModelX use this kind of motor.
The fifth generation eDrive electric drive system adopts highly integrated design, and the whole system is smaller, lighter and more efficient.
Induction motor generates magnetic field by the excitation of current, which is not easy to demagnetize and the power output is faster and more lasting.
Under the strong output of the motor, BMW iX3? 0- 100km/h acceleration time is only 6.8 seconds, compared with BMW X3? The same is true for the high-power version (xDrive30i). Unlike those EVs that only pursue performance, BMW iX3 can give users a richer experience in terms of power output texture: in sports mode, can switching to ECO give you enough exciting acceleration pleasure? PRO mode allows you to enjoy a smooth and quiet driving experience.
BMW iX3 can achieve both explosive power and ride comfort, which is much more advanced than those EVs that blindly pursue fast.
For the positioning of iX3, BMW is very accurate. What they want to build is a luxury pure electric SUV that can cope with a variety of usage scenarios, not a speed machine just for fun. In the performance weight of iX3, battery life and energy efficiency are ahead of power, so in a variety of high-end pure electric SUVs, the extreme acceleration performance of BMW iX3 is not the best, but it is excellent in creating driving experience.
It continues all the advantages of BMW in handling, and iX3 can give drivers full confidence in steering accuracy, suspension responsiveness and curve tracking. Because the battery pack is placed at the bottom of the car body, the center of gravity of the whole car is lower and the stability becomes better. After readjusting the damping system, the ride comfort of the whole vehicle is better than that of the BMW X3 on the same platform.
IX3 is an original BMW, which has all the excellent genes of BMW. With the more advanced electric drive system, it can show a higher level of driving quality.
As can be seen from the dynamic performance, BMW did have careful consideration in the process of building iX3.
The combination of CLAR platform and the fifth generation eDrive electric drive system has a high technical margin, which is enough to make iX3 an EV with outstanding single performance index. However, BMW did not do this. They put practicality and balance in the first place, and made iX3 an easy-to-open and easy-to-use EV. This stupidity further reflects BMW's maturity in the field of electrification.
Smart technology full of surprises
From platform architecture to electric drive system, from performance parameters to actual performance, iX3 can well reflect BMW's strength in pure electric field. But this era needs to pay more attention to these, and intelligent technology with smart cars and smart driving as the core has gradually become a new competitive point.
In this regard, BMW iX3 not only failed us, but also brought many surprises.
It is equipped with BMW's latest iDrive? 7.0 Intelligent interactive system, optimized for China users. In addition to wireless Carplay and Carlife functions, it also integrates popular local third-party applications such as QQ music, Himalayan video and watermelon video.
BMW iX3 is not only rich in functions, but also can realize OTA upgrade.
Application is only the foundation, and the efficiency of human-computer interaction is the key.
BMW has equipped the iX3 with a dual voice assistant system, which can control navigation, music and windows, and at the same time, it can also realize online search, control smart home, set reminders and other functions. In terms of semantic recognition rate and response speed, this voice control system has made great progress compared with previous BMW models. Even if the instruction is given at a faster speed, the system can recognize it quickly.
A set of reliable voice interaction functions can not only improve the convenience of use, but also make drivers pay more attention to driving, thus improving safety.
Even more surprising is intelligent driving.
BMW iX3 is equipped with Pro, which is an automatic driving assistance system that can reach L2 level. This system can realize many functions, and I am impressed by the following two.
The first is the "congestion assistance" function. When the vehicle speed is lower than 60km/h, the system can allow the driver to release the steering wheel with both hands, so that the vehicle can automatically follow the preceding vehicle. In the process of car-following, the speed control of the system is quite natural, and there will be no sudden start and stop. No matter whether it is a straight road or a curve, the vehicle can always run stably in the middle of the lane.
If the hands are released from the steering wheel for too long, and the driver's attention monitoring system detects that the driver's eyes are not focused on the road ahead, the vehicle will trigger a warning to take the hands off. At this time, you only need to gently put your hand on any part of the steering wheel to remove the warning.
The second is the "automatic lane change" function. When the speed exceeds 70km/h, just turn on the turn signal, and the vehicle will judge the situation of the target lane and realize the automatic lane change. In the actual experience, this function is highly anthropomorphic, and the system can identify most situations that you think can change lanes safely. The whole lane change process is very fast and natural, just like an old driver helping you drive.
These two functions are actually not black technology. At present, many new models are equipped, but most of them are only to solve existing and non-existing problems. Like BMW iX3, the actual experience is well done, and users can use it with confidence. Very few. It seems that BMW's system can be used in E-NCAP? In 2020, the driving assistance test was "very"? The "good" rating is really reasonable.
In addition to pure electric vehicles, BMW's automatic driving assistance system Pro can also be installed on various newly launched fuel vehicles and hybrid vehicles. The advantages of the oil and electricity platform are once again reflected.
Summary:
In the official caliber, the full name of BMW iX3 is "Innovative pure electric BMW? IX3 ",literally," innovation "refers to BMW's technological innovation. For example, the fifth generation eDrive electric drive system, automatic driving assistance system Pro and so on. These new technologies can really make BMW iX3 have a longer cruising range, more delicate driving quality and more practical intelligent functions than competing products.
And when I have a deeper understanding of iX3, I also found another meaning of "innovation"-the innovation of product ideas.
BMW iX3 didn't adopt the so-called pure electric exclusive platform to keep up with the fashion. The reliable oil-electric platform enabled it to have a more mature technical foundation and better control the cost-its price (469,900-509,900 yuan) has entered the range of fuel vehicles of the same class (BMW X3 sells for 389,800-479,800 yuan), and it is newly listed in BBA.
All the innovations of BMW iX3 are based on the actual needs of users, in order to give users a better practical experience. In today's pure electric market, too many car companies are lost in various "pseudo-innovations" and "pseudo-concepts". In contrast, BMW's rationality and persistence are particularly precious.
Words? |? Zhu Qing
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.