"Far ahead, no rivals" — — He Xiaopeng seems to have watched Huawei’s conference in Yu Chengdong in advance, and responded to Huawei’s "far ahead" with "no rival".
What He Xiaopeng said is the latest platform architecture of car-making in Tucki, which clearly put forward the concept of "systematic car-making" for the first time.
The banner of autonomous driving and intelligent cockpit held high by Xpeng Motors before, including the new three-electric technology and integrated car body, is now unified under a technology brands.
What’s more, He Xiaopeng also said:
Under the new structure, it’s not how we challenge big-name car companies, but Great Wall Geely who think about how to challenge Tucki!
So what exactly is Tucki Whirlwind 2.0, and can it have such confidence?
And, this systematic car-making conference may also become a turning point in the development of Xpeng Motors.
It embodies Tucki’s new power of making cars from intelligent rivers and lakes, and has really started the transition towards all-round strength technology car enterprises.
Combined with the experience of Xpeng Motors in the past six months, this may be a decisive turning point.
Whirling 2.0, what is it?
From the release of products and technologies since the establishment of Tucki, the main contents of the surge have already been announced.
Boosting 2.0, these technologies are summarized into three modules: intelligence, power generation and vehicle.
intelligentize
This is the foundation and killer of Xpeng Motors, and it is also the selling point that has been promoted in the past.
In the new "whirlwind" architecture, the electronic and electrical architecture of X-EEA has been improved in two aspects.
The first is high performance, and the communication speed is made high by using the central supercomputing domain controller. Secondly, the control of the whole vehicle is partitioned from the intelligent platform to realize financial information security, and the safety of the vehicle is stripped from the intelligent safety. Third, the end and the cloud are better integrated, safer and more suitable for globalization, and there is also a very important effect — — The cost can be greatly reduced.
Second, the application of new electronic and electrical architecture. It will reduce the R&D cost of electronic and electrical equipment in Tucki by 50%, shorten the experience period by 30% in the future, and increase the current speed of OTA by 300%.
At the level of intelligent driving, Tucki believes that intelligent driving should ultimately have three abilities:First, it is safe enough; Second, it is widely used; Third, it is cheap enough.
XNGP has realized the first and only mass-produced BEV perception in China — — "XNet" is now based on vision, supplemented by radar, emphasizing perception and ignoring maps.
Some auto-driving solution companies in the industry hand over their solutions to their partners, but they can’t do anything in the end. Because there are two logics to make things "standard": First, the hardware/software must be consistent. Second, the hardware/software must be ultra-low cost.
Different heights, widths and layouts of cars will lead to a lot of data and labels to be adjusted and a lot of parameters to be changed.
"Boom" architecture is making XNGP, the highest level of intelligent assisted driving in Tucki, a "standard" in the future, and it can consider compatibility and upgrade of some platforms in the past. At the same time, it will improve the comprehensive research and development efficiency of Zhijia by 30% and reduce the adaptation cost by 70%.
In 2023, the goal is to take over NGP Expressway less than once every 1,000 kilometers. Now, the "Urban NGP" has been issued in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai, and it takes over about four times every 100 kilometers, which means that Tucki will not open for four times every 100 kilometers and needs supervision.
The goal for next year is to take over once every 100 kilometers and less than once.
At the level of intelligent cockpit, Tucki Xmart OS has accumulated a good reputation in the industry, whether it’s rapid response and localized full-scene voice, cockpit function service customized by users, or man-machine driving experience.
With SEPA2.0′ s "Booming" global intelligent evolution architecture, Xmart OS cockpit system will become more intelligent, with more advantages in development cost and experience. Tucki revealed that the comprehensive research and development cycle and voice dialogue service of Xmart OS can be shortened by 50% with the blessing of the global intelligent architecture.
Tucki will also bring ChatGPT-like capabilities to cars in the second half of this year.
In the "whirlwind" architecture system, the intelligent cockpit will be further built, and the cost will be greatly reduced, up to 85%.
Sandian
Based on the "whirlwind" architecture,A global 800V high-voltage platform will be standard.
At the same time, it will be compatible with 4C batteries to achieve faster charging speed and battery life of 200km in 5 minutes.
In addition, under the "Boom" structure, Tucki has a brand-new XPower electric drive. Through high-voltage silicon carbide technology, motor magnetic field distribution and optimization of the reducer, the highest efficiency of the electric drive system is 97.5%, and the comprehensive efficiency reaches 92%.
In addition to the battery life improvement brought by efficiency improvement, XPower is quieter and more highly integrated. It brings more spacious interior space, especially the longitudinal head space.
"Boom" platform will also be equipped with X-HP intelligent thermal management system. The battery life in winter is 15% higher than before, and the whole charging power and battery cooling capacity are also improved.
entire car
There have been many changes in the manufacturing process under the "whirlwind" framework.
The most important thing is the front and rear integrated aluminum die casting, followed by the integration of CIB battery body. The whole vehicle is smaller, more compact, safer and lighter, and is compatible with various suspension structures.
Tucki claims that it is the only aluminum die-casting body with front and rear integrated mass production in China. In the past, including Tesla, it was a part of aluminum die casting.
The improvement is that the whole vehicle has no abnormal noise when driving, and the torsional stiffness reaches 42 000 N/,which is 83% higher than that of the traditional body, and the safety is also greatly improved. The number of integrated parts is 161, which reduces the weight of the car body by 17%.
At the same time, the welding production area and the rhythm of parts production process in Tucki can be greatly improved, and the production efficiency is increased by nearly 60 times compared with the original traditional welding process.
He Xiaopeng also admitted for the first time that the compatibility of different vehicle architectures was not considered on the previous vehicle platforms, which led to only one vehicle being produced in Tucki every year.
And now with the whirlwind architecture,By 2025, Tucki can produce many cars., but the cost does not increase (the wheelbase covers 1800-3200mm).
To sum up, whirlwind 2.0, in fact, there are new things. For example, CIB battery chassis integration technology, integrated die-casting body, etc., but not many, not initiated by Tucki, but the industry has reached a consensus that every player must have the ability. This part belongs to Tucki’s "make-up homework".
Xpilot, intelligent cockpit, 800V high-voltage platform, etc., have long been bright, and basically belong to the leading level in the industry. Even for many traditional car companies, the leading generation is not the second generation. This part, if only superficial, is still the traditional He Xiaopeng’s "foresight". But the point that is easy to be overlooked is the real value of Boosting 2.0 architecture: cost reduction.
A set of electronic and electrical architecture and unified body data, first of all, when Tucki’s intelligent ability is adapted to each car, the construction period and cost are greatly reduced.
In terms of manufacturing, it’s really surprising. It’s almost 10 years since Xpeng Motors was founded, and it’s the first time that it really has the whole process capability of platform-based manufacturing.
This will lead to a qualitative leap in vehicle launch cycle, production cost and so on.
Exaggerated, Tucki has made many cars before, but it is still an "internet company". The essence of the achievements is actually the impact and freshness brought by the intelligent concept.
In the past two years, after the transformation of traditional car factories, Tucki’s advantage window period began to be under pressure.
Moreover, Tucki is still in the bottleneck cycle of autonomous driving research and development: the research and development of autonomous driving falls on the scale of data closed loop, map qualification access and so on. In fact, all new and old players in the industry have encountered the same bottleneck. However, in terms of manufacturing system and vehicle platform architecture, traditional car factories have obvious advantages.
Therefore, Boom 2.0 is a sign that Tucki is moving from a new force with a "sword out of the side" to an all-round strength car enterprise. It is also an important means to pull Tucki and old and new rivals back to the same starting line.
Whether Whirling 2.0 can take Tucki to a new level will soon be revealed — —
The first model, Tucki G6, will be launched soon at the Shanghai Auto Show, positioning the crossover SUV and benchmarking Model Y..
The change of product and manufacturing ideas is not all that Tucki made his debut after the in-depth adjustment, but also He Xiaopeng himself.
Peng Yan Peng Yu phase 1
He Xiaopeng didn’t speak like this before.
He Xiaopeng, a "technical house", has made almost all public speeches on autonomous driving potential, intelligent future and how to invest in R&D since he officially joined Tucki & HELIP;
Always enthusiastic about technology and always far-sighted about the future.
However, the G9 model in 2022 has become the total outbreak of the long-standing problems in Tucki.
Top management exchange, department adjustment and power collection … …
He Xiaopeng himself has changed from a futurist to a more conventional car company boss, even more "fireworks".
The first issue of Peng Yan Peng Yu is updated.
Talking about competition: "There are only 8 car companies left in the end"
He Xiaopeng: In the next 5-10 years, everyone is playing the "World Cup", which is believed to be "32 into 8". At that time, many small and beautiful or different sub-brands will be merged into big brands, which will form different brand classifications of the group, and finally form several giant enterprises.
Every enterprise here is based on three to five million. If there were no three to five million automobile enterprises in the world at that time, you would "not be able to live".
"32 into 8", only a small number of large groups can stay. Under the "Boom" framework, what will Xpeng Motors use to challenge brands such as Geely and Great Wall?
He Xiaopeng: We should ask them how to challenge us. Although we didn’t do well last year, we were able to rank 10th in terms of new energy risks in China. Compared with them, we have few models and few sales platforms. In fact, the very big shortcoming of the original new car-making enterprises is that the basic systems of many cars are not well done, such as sales points, after-sales points and supply chains. In the past five years, we have more than one factory. We have built a supply chain and initially started to build an after-sales system.
Why is it getting harder and harder for new car manufacturers? It will be very difficult to initialize a car from 0 to 1. We have done most of the work from 0 to 1. The later research and development efficiency will be improved. I think that in terms of intelligent technology, Tucki stands out. What it didn’t do well before is to control the cost. Doing this well and making it more efficient and organized will have great advantages. It is the most important thing for me to figure out how to run fast without wrestling under the new structure.
"The annual sales volume of 3 million is only the admission ticket for car companies". What is the logic behind this conclusion? Why did Tucki get this ticket?
He Xiaopeng: Personally, I think that if car companies also sell low-end models, they even need 5 million tickets, because high-end models have high gross profit and income, and they can live if they sell 3 million cars a year, but there are both low-end and high-end models, and they have to sell 5 million cars to live.
There is a scale value of logic, hardware consistency and software consistency. In the past, hardware didn’t have to be very consistent, and seven achievements were enough, that is, platformization and modularization. If the software achieves seven achievements, it will vomit blood. In the past, there was no software for self-research in cars.
In such a system, if the ability of intelligence is getting stronger and stronger, and the space for change is getting bigger and bigger, it will produce platformization and ecologicalization, and the original hardware logic will be subverted. In fact, this change has occurred in the field of mobile phones and mobile Internet in China.
Cars can’t appear today, because no car can achieve open, high-level intelligent hardware and stability, and there are a huge number, such as 5 million and 10 million, but there will be one in the future. This involves a lot of complicated thinking. I think 3 million vehicles may be the lowest line.
Do the last eight car companies have a list? What qualities do they need?
He Xiaopeng: I think there are at least three basic conditions to be shortlisted:First, the customer-oriented innovative architecture system; Second, the global scale sales ability; Third, brand-new organization and management ability for software and hardware.
In fact, cost power I think is talking about management ability. For example, how is the cost ability of hardware and software controlled? Mainly controlled by the R&D team. From my point of view, technology and manufacturing belong to research and development, while the ability of sales and scale lies in the marketing team. These three abilities, I think, are a foundation. Under this basic logic, we can see more than 100 enterprises now, and who can be shortlisted.
It took Tucki only a few months to see many places that could be optimized, which greatly boosted the internal morale. The second half of last year can be said to be very lucky, and fortunately let us see more problems.
Last year, it sold 120,000 units, ranking tenth in China. If there are 10,000 more units, it will probably rank seventh in terms of risk and first in terms of new forces in China. But in fact, the first one is useless. Even 100,000 or 50,000 units can’t survive. To achieve 3 million, 5 million or 10 million units, we have to see what core competencies are still lacking.
Talking about autonomous driving: "All problems will be solved in five years"
Recently, some voices feel that autonomous driving seems to be something that will appear very late, and it is of little significance at present?
He Xiaopeng: I still insist that in five years, the ability of autonomous driving will be greatly improved.
This will take time to prove. Five years ago and ten years ago, how many people thought that new energy vehicles would have today’s achievements? I used to say that what can beat the search engine, but later I asked what can beat the recommendation engine and beat a thing, never in the same way.
Today, it can be said that no autonomous driving is really done well. First, it is difficult in the city, second, it is expensive, and third, there are few supported models, but all these problems will be solved within five years.
How do you say that Tucki’s autonomous driving is "far ahead"?
He Xiaopeng: What do you mean by far ahead? There is a technical level and a market level. Just mentioned in the technical field, many people just talk a lot, but no customers say how to use it, which means that intelligent driving is just a technical marketing point in a certain way.
On the technical level, the most important judgment is, first, how many scenarios can users use? The second is how is the user’s word of mouth? What is the permeability and activity? The third is what is the cost? In the end, the cost is a very important point, which reflects the ability of a technology.
From the perspective of the whole market, the reputation of customers and the number of takeovers per 100 kilometers fed back from the market are very important to me. In May and June this year, Tucki will launch an NGP rewritten with XNGP to ensure the consistency of experience. The effect of our test is that a thousand kilometers driver can’t take over once. So when can we reach unmanned driving? Take over once every 100,000 kilometers on the expressway. Under ordinary road conditions, it is feasible to take over once every 10,000 kilometers. This is my point of view.
Talking about planning: "I suddenly found that I couldn’t live any longer"
He Xiaopeng: The whole "Boom" architecture will include many cars in Tucki from the end of last year to 2025, and customers will feel that the cars are more beautiful, with lower cost, more unified intelligence, faster upgrade and more space.
First, customer-oriented standardization. In the future, our global 800V high-voltage silicon carbide platform will be fully standard, whether it is 300,000 cars or 100,000 cars.
Second, we want to strengthen our ability at ultra-low cost, and spend the same 100 yuan to strengthen our ability by 20%, but the cost is 30% higher, which is not a skill. The ability level is the same, and the cost is 30% and 40% lower.
In addition, one of the challenges that Tucki faced before was that there were too many configurations. We expect that there will be only a few configurations for this year’s car, and only two configurations for next year’s car, and only one configuration for future cars. All the intelligent capabilities are consistent, and there is no worry about getting started.
Repeated "cost reduction", is it convenient to disclose at what node Tucki will achieve breakeven?
He Xiaopeng: It will break even in 2025. If there is a huge scale growth, I can push this node back. I think the ultimate success is a huge scale, not a small scale.
Xpeng Motors has made adjustments. During this process, have you made any personal changes?
He Xiaopeng: I used to want to live, and it would be nice to live well. Now I think living well is death. It’s just a question of whether to die in three years or five years.
I used to think that an automobile company would live well with a revenue of 100 billion to 200 billion a year, which is very good for ordinary enterprises, but then I suddenly found that I couldn’t live any longer.
In terms of change, the first one is that the perspective is different. The second important point is that I do a lot of things myself. The third is to think more about the reasons behind it, whether it comes from management, organization or the system of values.