Equivalent to two-wheel drive, Great Wall launches new intelligent four-wheel drive electric hybrid technology Hi4

Faced with the raging price war, Great Wall chose technical "rolling" - not simply cutting prices and adding inward rolling, but through technological innovation so that consumers can enjoy the performance of four-wheel drive at the price of two-wheel drive. At the new energy vehicle conference on March 10, Great Wall released its new intelligent four-wheel drive electric hybrid technology Hi4. According to the official press release, Hi4 technology will replace two-wheel drive at an equal price, pushing the automobile market into the era of all-electric four-wheel drive.

Hi4 technology will initially provide two power combinations, 80kW 1.5L self-priming engine + 70kW front axle motor + 120kW rear axle motor or 120kW 1.5T engine + 80kW front axle motor + 120kW rear axle motor. The corresponding battery pack capacities of the two specifications are 19.94kWh and 27.5kWH respectively.

Engine and Hi4 front drive module assembly

Hi4 rear axle electric drive module

The entire power system can reach a maximum total system power of 340kW, which can cover a large number of models in the A-class to C-class range. In the video at the press conference, Great Wall chose  Xiaolong MAX  (  parameters  |  inquiry  ) to demonstrate the technical effects of Hi4. As a direct competitor of BYD Song Plus, this car will be the first model equipped with Hi4 and is expected to be launched in April.

Xiaolong MAX may become the first model equipped with Hi4 technology

The key to achieving equivalent two-wheel drive with Hi4 technology is to subtract the front axle TM motor and make the rear axle P4 motor standard on the basis of the lemon double-speed DHT. To put it in a more "cunning" way: move the front axle TM motor to the rear axle. In this way, without increasing the number of motors, the four-wheel drive performance under more working conditions is achieved at the expense of front axle performance under certain working conditions.

By intelligently calling the engine and front and rear axle motors, Hi4 technology can arrange and combine 9 working conditions as shown in the table below to cope with different usage scenarios. In the configuration diagram, ICE represents the engine, GM represents the front axle motor, and P4 represents the rear axle motor. The blue line represents the energy flow direction of the engine, and the green line represents the energy flow direction of the electric motor.

It can be seen that after subtracting a front axle motor, the Hi4 engine's ability to recharge the power battery will be slightly worse than the Lemon DHT+P4 motor solution, because the front axle GM motor cannot drive the front wheels while generating electricity for the battery. This may also be the reason why Hi4 only has a plug-in hybrid version and not a hybrid version with a lower price threshold.

In daily driving, the vehicle will conduct comprehensive analysis based on complex data such as driving style, ambient temperature, slope, power demand, driving status, radar data, navigation data and road conditions, and coordinate intelligent control of predictive start-stop management and adaptive energy recovery management. , engine operating point intelligent management, predictive thermal management, intelligent SOC management, intelligent torque vector control system and other six systems to select the best operating mode.

general speaking:

When driving in urban areas: Intelligent switching between pure electric two-wheel drive, series mode, and 1st gear direct drive mode to avoid the low-power and low-efficiency range of the engine;

During rapid acceleration/climbing in urban areas: Intelligent switching between pure electric four-wheel drive and 1st gear direct drive modes. In pure electric mode, the dual motors are highly efficient and dynamically adjusted. In direct drive mode, the engine operating point falls in the high-efficiency range, with the shortest transmission path and highest efficiency;

During high-speed cruising: 2-speed direct drive mode makes the engine operating point completely fall in the high-efficiency range, with the shortest transmission path and the highest efficiency;

During high-speed acceleration/hill climbing: Intelligent switching between parallel two-wheel drive and parallel four-wheel drive ensures that the engine works in the high-efficiency zone, and the remaining power is provided by the battery;

During deceleration and braking: intelligent switching between single-axis recovery and dual-axis recovery modes.

After using electric drive technology to bypass automatic transmissions, the last technical barrier in the automotive field, Chinese brands are gradually achieving qualitative breakthroughs in key technologies. Compared with the various stars and seas that new power car companies like to talk about, Great Wall's new technologies always give people the sense of simplicity of the brand's hometown. There are no complicated dazzling skills or too many gimmicks, but they are very consistent with the mainstream. The essential demands of market users are affordable and practical.