SAIC Motor: "Seven major technology bases" enter the 2.0 era, all-solid-state batteries will be mass-produced in 2026

On May 24, SAIC Motor released a number of important signals at its new energy technology conference, including the comprehensive upgrade of the "seven major technology bases" into the 2.0 era, the mass production of all-solid-state batteries in 2026, and the full implementation of zero-beam full stack 3.0 in 2025. The details are as follows.

◆ The “Seven Major Technology Bases” have leapt into the 2.0 era and will empower nearly 30 new models under SAIC in the next two years

In order to enhance the competitiveness in the field of new energy vehicles, in the past two years, SAIC Group has started from user experience and focused on building "seven major technology bases", including the "SAIC Nebula" pure electric exclusive system platform, the "SAIC Everest" mechatronic vehicle architecture, and the "SAIC Galaxy" electric-hydrogen integrated architecture. The three major vehicle technology bases, as well as the "Blue Core" powertrain system, the "Magic Cube" battery system, the "Green Core" electric drive system, and the "Galaxy" full-stack smart car solution. Four key system technology bases.

SAIC Motor's "Seven Major Technology Bases"

The mass production and application of the first generation of "technical foundation" fully supports the continuous breakthrough of SAIC's independent brand business and realizes the product empowerment of joint ventures. Data shows that in 2023, SAIC's new energy vehicle and overseas sales will be 1.123 million and 1.208 million respectively. In the total sales of the group in 2023, SAIC's independent brands accounted for 55.3%, an increase of 18 percentage points from 2014.

Now, with the continuous iteration and innovation of technology, SAIC's "Seven Major Technology Bases" have fully leaped into the 2.0 era. On the day of the press conference, Zu Shijie, Vice President and Chief Engineer of SAIC Group, pointed out that the new generation of technology bases has a stronger body, a stronger heart and a smarter brain. At the same time, he pointed out, "In the next two years, the Seven Major Technology Bases 2.0 will fully empower nearly 30 new models of various vehicle brands under SAIC Group, accelerating the comprehensive evolution of the technological life form."

◆The three platforms of Xingyun, Zhufeng and Xinghe have been fully upgraded and entered the stage of mass production and application

The "Nebula" pure electric exclusive series platform achieves coverage of a wider range of vehicle models, not only covering the luxury car and mid-range car markets, but also comprehensively upgrading the platform to meet the needs of users in the entry-level market. In terms of vehicle power consumption, the new Nebula platform's "one kilowatt-hour of driving range" challenges the industry-leading 12-kilometer target, which is more than 30% higher than the current level. In terms of user experience, the application of the wire-controlled chassis increases the vehicle's braking response time by 40% and the vehicle's driving stability boundary by 20%. Through four-wheel independent control, the vehicle's control is improved, the vehicle's cruising range is increased by more than 3%, and the vehicle's weight is reduced by more than 3%. By achieving a low-speed steering angle of less than 180°, the steering wheel can be stored to improve the cabin space. According to reports, the new platform will be fully presented on Zhiji L6.

The new "Everest" mechatronic vehicle architecture achieves full coverage of scenarios. The Everest architecture achieves full coverage of products from "engine-based drive" to "motor-based drive", from "oil hybrid" to "electric hybrid", seamlessly links the transition from "oil" to "electric", and the highest oil-to-electric conversion efficiency exceeds 3.75kWh/L, which is significantly better than the level of mainstream competitive products in the industry. The new "Everest" architecture has been reflected in the Roewe D7 DMH. Since its launch in November last year, the Roewe D7 DMH has been ranked among the top two mid-size plug-in hybrid sedans in sales for four consecutive months; in the first quarter of this year, the cumulative sales of D7 DMH exceeded 7,600 units.

The new "Galaxy" electric-hydrogen integrated vehicle architecture focuses on the use scenarios of hydrogen fuel cell passenger cars, and is the first to create an extended-range hydrogen fuel cell passenger car architecture solution, truly achieving "zero carbon and zero emissions". The extended-range hydrogen fuel cell solution refers to using hydrogen fuel cells as range extenders, and connecting power batteries and drive motors in series as the drive unit of the vehicle. It is reported that the extended-range fuel cell stack P4M system has a rated power of 45kW, a common operating point efficiency of more than 50%, and a maximum efficiency of more than 55%. At the Beijing Auto Show held not long ago, the Roewe iMAX8 hydrogen fuel extended-range hybrid MPV developed based on this architecture was officially unveiled.

Image source: SAIC Roewe

◆ In 2026, all-solid-state batteries will be mass-produced, and the total success rate density of electric drive will reach 4.4kW/kg

In terms of power systems, SAIC Motor has also proposed new goals and plans, including: by 2026, SAIC's all-solid-state batteries will be mass-produced with an energy density of more than 400 wh/kg; the total power density of electric drive will be 4.4kW/kg, more than 40% higher than the industry average; and the thermal efficiency of the hybrid drive system will be increased to 46%.

In the field of solid-state batteries, SAIC Motor has invested in research and development since 2015. In October this year, the Zhiji L6 equipped with Lightyear solid-state batteries will be officially delivered to users, with an energy density of more than 300Wh/kg and a range of more than 1,000 kilometers. At this press conference, SAIC Motor announced that in 2026, all-solid-state batteries will be delivered to mass production and prototype testing will be completed, with an energy density of more than 400Wh/kg, more than double that of traditional power batteries; in 2027, Zhiji's new cars equipped with all-solid-state batteries will be mass-produced and officially delivered to users; subsequently, the energy density is expected to be further increased to 500Wh/kg.

The new "Blue Core" hybrid powertrain focuses on modular, integrated, and exclusive DMH super hybrid technology, and has achieved a performance breakthrough. The Roewe D7 DMH is equipped with a coaxial clutch with higher integration accuracy, a hybrid-specific engine with an efficient thermal efficiency operating range of up to 85%, and the industry's first PICU module that integrates engine, gearbox, hybrid strategy, thermal management, air conditioning and other controls. In actual tests, it has a maximum cruising range of 1,962 kilometers and a fuel consumption of only 2.8L per 100 kilometers. In the future, the assembly efficiency of the new generation of "Blue Core" will be further improved by 10%. Among them, the hybrid-specific engine has a thermal efficiency of over 46%, and the hybrid gearbox adopts a new configuration of the "dual coaxial solution". The new "energy control brain" will more accurately realize the conversion of thermal energy, chemical energy, electrical energy, and mechanical energy.

The new "Green Core" electric drive assembly has further improved its performance after technical iteration. The iterative NPC shaft uses the original grid oil cooling technology and the extremely lightweight design of the magnesium-aluminum alloy shell. The assembly weight is only 86kg, the highest in the same power range in China; the effective power density of the motor exceeds 9.5kw/kg, higher than the national 2035 planning target of 7kw/kg; the total power density is increased to 4.4kW/kg, leading the industry average by at least 40%.

◆ Build high-speed mobile intelligent robots, and fully implement ZeroBeam Full Stack 3.0 in 2025

Focusing on the innovation of the "new car" product concept, SAIC systematically "deconstructs" the entire vehicle into "perception, cloud-based super brain, cerebrum, cerebellum and wire-controlled actuators", and then "reconstructs" the system according to a human-like intelligent architecture: integrating the perception architecture to digitize scene information; the "cloud-based super brain" deploys AI large models for self-learning and evolution; the learning results are distilled to the "smart brain" at the edge, which makes planning decisions based on the scenario; the "agile cerebellum" coordinates the real-time, reliable and stable movement of the wire-controlled chassis in three directions and six degrees of freedom; thus turning the smart electric vehicle into a high-speed mobile intelligent robot.

According to Dr. Li Jun, CEO of SAIC Zero-Beam Technology, the company has clarified the roadmap for the cloud-pipe-end full-stack architecture of smart cars: Zero-Beam Galaxy smart car full-stack solution 1.0 realizes "domain concentration", focusing on L2++ smart driving, smart cockpit and OTA; Galaxy full-stack 3.0 realizes "centralized + regional control", focusing on cost control and L3 autonomous driving; the future Galaxy full-stack 4.0 solution will focus on intelligent human-like architecture, AI big model, AI OS, and support L4/L5 autonomous driving.

Galaxy Full Stack 3.0 Smart Car "Centralized + Regional Control" Electronic Architecture

It is understood that Galaxy Full Stack 3.0 has two highlights:

On the one hand, the "brain" cabin-driver integrated central computing unit and the "cerebellum" vehicle central coordinated motion controller (VMC) are collaboratively developed in terms of electronic architecture and software. As a regional controller, VMC becomes an important node of full-stack 3.0, and can fully share the signals of the vehicle's sensors and actuators. On the basis of realizing 3-way 6-degree-of-freedom centralized control of the vehicle body, it can subsequently realize variable driving characteristics, driving and braking without slipping and other functions, bringing users an extremely safe, comfortable and energy-saving experience.