Hongqi EH7 E/E architecture analysis is not inferior to emerging car manufacturers

Hongqi EH7 is the first model launched under Hongqi's new energy strategy. It is built on the new FMEs "flagship" super architecture and is positioned as a medium and large sedan. In terms of power, the new car provides single- motor two-wheel drive version and dual-motor four-wheel drive version. Among them, the two-wheel drive model is equipped with a rear single motor with a maximum power of 253 kilowatts and a peak torque of 450 Nm; the four-wheel drive model is equipped with front and rear dual motors, with a total power of 455 kilowatts and a total torque of 756 Nm. The long-range model is equipped with a 111kW·h ternary lithium battery pack from CATL , with a working range of 760km and 820km respectively. Charging at room temperature for 20 minutes can charge the battery from 10% to 80%. It is basically full marks in terms of three electrics. The appearance is very different from the traditional Hongqi. The main color is turquoise, which mainly attracts young users, especially female users. However, the EH7 is not priced low and will compete fiercely with BYD Han EV, Xiaopeng P7, Zeekr 007 and Xiaomi SU7. The EH7 will also be launched in Europe, starting with Norway.

The E/E architecture of EH7 is not inferior to any emerging car manufacturers, and is slightly stronger than Xiaomi SU7, but unfortunately it lacks the support of powerful chips such as Qualcomm 8295 or Nvidia Orin .

At present, the E/E architecture of emerging car manufacturers is divided into two parts. One part is divided by spatial location, divided into front, rear, left and right domain controllers . This spatial location division architecture originated from Tesla . However, Tesla designed the E/E architecture in 2017, so its controller does not have Ethernet and cannot be considered a strict domain controller. At present, the emerging car manufacturers in China are represented by the more advanced Q-World, which are equipped with complex and powerful Ethernet, which is much more advanced than Tesla. The other part is divided by function, divided into central computing, intelligent driving , cockpit and T-Box. Some combine T-Box and cockpit into one to reduce costs, such as Ideal. Central computing is similar to traditional gateways, but a lot of Ethernet is added.

EH7 adopts the most advanced cross-domain controller architecture, which is divided into three regional controllers: front, middle and rear. It is responsible for the network and calculation of each area, as well as the power supply system, which reduces the complexity of the wiring harness and reduces the length and weight of the wiring harness. Each of the four doors has a control unit connected to the convenience CAN network. The intelligent vehicle control platform is the central computing domain controller. The infotainment control is the cockpit domain controller, and the intelligent communication domain is the T-Box. The intelligent driving domain controller is not marked on the figure.

Hongqi EH7 vehicle control platform domain controller architecture, the vehicle control platform domain controller has 8 Ethernet interfaces, of which the advanced autonomous driving unit, infotainment control and intelligent communication domains are all Gigabit Ethernet connections, the other three front, middle and rear area controllers are all 100M Ethernet, and the diagnosis and OBD are also 100M Ethernet. It is speculated that its Ethernet switch is the more expensive Marvell 88Q5072 or 88Q6113. The Ideal L9 autonomous driving domain controller uses the 88Q5072, which provides 7 integrated IEEE 100BASE-T1 PHYs with 6 fixed 100BASE-T-1 ports. The 7th port can be configured as 1x IEEE 100BASE-TX PHY, 2x multi-speed SerDes (1/2.5/ 5G bps) or SGMII port, 1x RGMII or MII/RMII/GMII, 1xPCIe or SerDes. 88Q5072 also provides local and remote management functions, providing easy access and configuration of the device. The speed of RGMII/SGMII/RMII/GMII is Gigabit, but the auto-negotiation method is slightly different from 1000BASE-TX, which is used between MAC and PHY. There is little difference between the two.

The 88Q5072 includes a high-performance ARM® Cortex M7 CPU with dedicated on-chip memory , supports AVB protocols such as Precision Time Protocol (PTP) and a security firewall to prevent external malicious attacks. It uses an advanced routing engine to support Gigabit routing of incoming packets without CPU intervention. It provides the highest level of security through deep packet inspection (DPI) technology, denial of service (DoS) engine and trusted boot function to ensure the safety of vehicle networks. There is no PHY integration, which naturally leads to a higher overall cost than RTL9068 and the like, but better flexibility and scalability.

Hongqi EH7's autonomous driving unit domain controller architecture

According to the maintenance manual, EH7 is equipped with three laser radars , which should all be from RoboSense, and are luxuriously connected with Gigabit Ethernet, leaving enough room for upgrades. Generally, 100M Ethernet is used. 5 millimeter-wave radars , two more than Xiaomi SU7, are also connected with Ethernet, using 100M Ethernet. Most manufacturers use low-speed CAN-FD. A total of 9 Ethernet interfaces are used. It is speculated that the Ethernet switch may still be 88Q5072.

Hongqi EH7 three laser radar positions

Hongqi EH7 camera connection architecture

The camera connection architecture of Hongqi EH7 may have a small-angle camera that is not marked, which means a total of 12 cameras. In this way, Hongqi EH7 has 5 millimeter-wave radars, 12 cameras, and 3 laser radars, that is, a configuration of 12V5R3L, which may use the ADC 30 domain controller architecture of Furui Tech .

Furuitech ADC30 domain controller architecture

The above picture shows the architecture of Furuitech's top ADC30 domain controller, 12V5R3L solution, based on 3 Horizon Journey 5 chips, 2 TDA4VH and 2 Infineon TC397 architecture. The 3 Journey 5 chips are mainly used for BEV bird's-eye view. TDA4VH is responsible for high-precision map processing, sensor fusion, trajectory prediction, behavior decision-making, path planning and automatic parking. FAW Hongqi is a major customer of Furuitech. Such cost is not lower than using NVIDIA Orin. It is speculated that state-owned enterprises still give priority to domestic chips. Hongqi's low-end intelligent driving is said to use Black Sesame Intelligent's chip. In order to save costs, domestic chip manufacturers are quite stingy in CPU, so two TDA4VH chips are needed. The traditional algorithm of LiDAR still consumes CPU computing power . It can also be seen from the picture that this is a car-parking integrated system. One of the two TC397 chips is redundant. It is currently the design with the strongest safety redundancy in China, which is higher than the M9 of Wenjie.

The five millimeter-wave radars may also be responsible for the door opening anti-collision function. They are connected to the intelligent driving domain controller via Ethernet. In addition, they are connected to the vehicle control platform via the CAN network. This is a very rare design.

The cockpit area has three screen outputs, including a large central screen, instrument panel and AR HUD, in addition to driver monitoring camera and occupant status camera inputs.

EH7 antenna system architecture diagram

The extremely complex antenna system has antennas reserved for V2X. 5G, radio , and GNSS all have left and right dual antennas.

Based on the integrated brake controller plus RBU redundancy, it is speculated that the Hongqi EH7 may use Bosch 's IPB plus RBU system, which has diagonal cross redundancy and the highest safety and reliability.

EH7 Integrated Brake Controller Architecture

Hongqi EH7 has L3 mode. The power supply systems of L2 and L3 seem to be completely different designs. L3 adds an isolator . In addition, Hongqi has also joined Weilai's battery swap network and can swap batteries.

EPS architecture of Hongqi EH7

The steering system of Hongqi EH7 is also designed separately for L2 and L3. Image source: Internet

The E/E architecture of Hongqi EH7 is currently the most advanced, not inferior to any emerging car manufacturers. However, the price of EH7 is not low, and it faces fierce competition from Xiaomi, Zhiji, Tesla, and BYD. However, the publicity of Hongqi is far less than that of emerging car manufacturers. This is probably the weakest link of traditional car manufacturers and needs to be strengthened urgently.