What is it like to watch the extreme testing of electric vehicles?

Li Gen from Aofei Temple
Produced by Quantum Bit | Public Account QbitAI

We have seen many road tests of driverless cars, but this is the first time that electric cars have been tested on the road.

You may know more or less about the extreme environment tests that cars undergo before they are put on the market, but you may not know exactly how and what electric cars are tested, and what are the most concerned indicators.

It just so happened that this year, Singularity Motors, a new car manufacturer that will launch a mass-produced model, was willing to open up extreme environment testing follow-up visits, so we really learned about electric car testing knowledge first-hand.

In fact, regardless of the concepts of intelligence and new energy, no matter whether the power source is oil or electricity, the most basic attribute of a car is still a car, just like the advertising slogan of a certain brand, Das Auto! Since it is a car, from a practical point of view, reliability is undoubtedly the most important.

The reason why automobile manufacturers generally choose to conduct large-scale tests on vehicles in extreme cold and heat is to test the reliability of vehicles in extreme environments. For Singularity Motors, which has always adhered to the principle of "respecting tradition and boldly innovating", it is natural that it will not give up this indispensable research and development link.

The so-called extreme environment testing usually refers to the three high tests (high temperature, high cold, and high altitude) concentrated in winter and summer . As early as the beginning of the year, Singularity Motors had completed the winter high cold test in Yakeshi, Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia.

In addition to verifying the constant temperature function of the three-electric thermal management system in an environment of -40°C, we also calibrated the latest generation of braking system and body stability system in collaboration with Bosch using the icy and snowy roads unique to high-altitude areas.

It is reported that the iBooster II and ESPhev, which are tailor-made for electric vehicles by Bosch, a world-renowned supplier, are used in domestic models for the first time.

Half a year later, Singularity’s engineering and technical team marched westwards to Xinjiang, a transportation hub located in the “Belt and Road”. What kind of hardships will iS6 experience here?

When it comes to Xinjiang, what is the first thing that comes to mind? The precious Hetian jade, the sweet Hami melons or the beautiful girls from Dabancheng... But when it comes to Turpan, besides the famous grapes, the most famous thing here is the ancient and modern famous Huoyan Mountain!

According to statistics, in Turpan, the maximum temperature is above 35℃ for about one-third of the time each year, especially in midsummer, when the ambient temperature is as high as 45℃ and the surface temperature can even soar to 70℃. It is for this reason that Turpan has become the only choice for many automobile manufacturers to conduct summer high temperature tests.

So what effects will high temperature have on vehicles? From the user's perspective, the cooling effect of the air conditioner is definitely the most important, and this is equally important for the engineers in the R&D team, but even more important is the cooling effect of the battery.

Like the engine of a fuel vehicle, the battery of an electric vehicle will also generate significant temperature rise when charging or discharging. Although the battery pack of the Singularity iS6 has a liquid active water cooling system , how to define the battery operating temperature and how to define the cooling capacity of the cooling system require a lot of testing and calibration by engineering and technical personnel.

In addition to the sensors built into the vehicle, the testing team also added an additional 200-300 special test sensors to the test vehicle to ensure the most accurate test data.

Moreover, all test data holes can be synchronized to the backend through the cloud, so that engineers at the back end can conduct more detailed analysis and improvement of the test results.

In fact, before this summer test, the thermal management system including air conditioning, batteries and motors had completed thermal management tests in a simulated environmental chamber, and the early analysis and design achieved relatively ideal results. The test in Turpan was essentially to test the performance of the thermal management performance design on the Singularity iS6 in actual usage needs.

In addition to calibrating and verifying the three-electric system and thermal management system, Singularity also conducted a nearly 20,000-kilometer endurance test on the vehicle in the hot summer environment of Turpan .

Whether in high speed, congestion, climbing, full load, heavy load (sudden deceleration, sudden acceleration), or even in harsh working conditions with the radiator partially blocked, the iS6's three-electric system will control the temperature within the designed range.

In addition to the above harsh conditions, the Singularity iS6 also endured another kind of torture in Qionghai and Wuzhishan, Hainan. As the southernmost province in mainland China, the summer in Qionghai and Wuzhishan is also painful.

Although the temperature is not as high as Turpan, the humidity here is as high as 70-95%, which is in sharp contrast to the former. The annual rainfall of nearly 2,000 mm is more than 100 times that of Turpan.

The iS6 is undergoing calibration and durability testing for the high humidity project here . Compared with traditional models, the electronic and electrical equipment on new energy smart cars is more complicated. In a humid environment, these parts are even more susceptible to corrosion than metal parts on the car body.

Therefore, issues such as waterproofing and anti-condensation of the entire vehicle, especially electronic components, are potential challenges in high humidity environments.

As it turns out, the endurance test of nearly 20,000 kilometers of a single vehicle in a hot and humid environment for more than two months has once again provided strong endorsement for the reliability of the Singularity iS6.

In addition, compared with the expressways and suburban roads in Qionghai, Wuzhi Mountain's nationally famous mountain roads and slippery roads due to continuous rain also posed severe tests to the suspension and braking systems of the Singularity iS6.

The front double wishbone, rear multi-link four-wheel independent suspension and the most advanced iBooster II and ESPhev from Bosch provide the Singularity iS6 with convincing driving performance, not only in the Wuzhi Mountain in Hainan, but also in the Kunlun Mountains in Qinghai.

Golmud and Kunlun Mountains in Qinghai are also places that domestic automobile testing teams visit all year round. The Kunlun Pass, with an altitude of more than 4,700 meters, provides an ideal testing environment for the majority of testing teams.

Low air pressure and low oxygen content often affect the normal operation of fuel engines. However, for electric motors, it seems that there is no direct impact. Therefore, most electric vehicles will give up the plateau test, which is one of the three highs.

However, Singularity Motors did not miss any opportunity to "trouble" the iS6. In fact, under normal circumstances, since electric vehicles do not need to use oxygen in the air to participate in combustion like fuel vehicles, the impact of the low pressure environment on the plateau is far less obvious for electric vehicles than for fuel vehicles, and Singularity Motors' iBooster II braking system does not require a vacuum booster pump to assist braking.

However, the great temperature difference in the plateau is also a test for the battery thermal management system. Large pressure difference changes may also cause battery cells to bulge. Large temperature and pressure difference changes test the adaptability of pure electric vehicles to extreme working conditions. In addition, the plateau environment can also be used to test the hidden dangers of battery cell bulging caused by pressure difference changes.

In addition, the plateau environment has a changeable climate, complex road conditions, and many uphill and downhill road conditions, which naturally increase energy consumption. This puts higher demands on the vehicle's energy consumption control, temperature control, and driving stability.

According to Singularity engineers, an additional benefit of this high-temperature test is that the intelligent thermal management system collects and enriches the rate of change graph of the target temperature and the ambient temperature. For special environments with large temperature differences, the intelligent thermal management system performs more precise dynamic control of the water pump fan.

This can be considered a small microcosm of smart cars. As the environment changes and data grows, intelligence will continue to improve with the help of data.

However, whether it is the snow scenery of Yakeshi or the Uyghur customs of Turpan, they are like clouds to the engineers of Singularity Automotive. They are testing this new car released this year in the harshest environment. Only they know the warmth and coldness of it.

What is certain is that after going through the complete tests of high cold, high temperature, high humidity and plateau, they believe that the Singularity iS6 can be delivered to users.

Next, on a certain day of a certain month this year, the "zebra pattern" on the test car was completely torn off.