From knock-off old-man's electric vehicles to industrial giant

Chapter 289 Star Brand Heavy Truck, Perpetual Motion Machine in the Mine Goes Online

"This this……"

For a moment, Li Bin was at a loss for words.

That last sentence contained a lot of information.

As expected, Xingchen is working on even higher-end models.

But to his surprise, the target market was in the million-dollar range.

This is... way too crazy!!

"Of course, I was just joking..." Xu Yi smiled. "I still sincerely wish NIO success, otherwise we won't be able to sell our batteries!"

Li Bin didn't mind this "offense".

He and He Xiaopeng have a good personal relationship, and both of them have many years of rich experience as entrepreneurs.

Is there any guarantee of success in starting a business?
They discussed even more "offensive" ideas in private.

For example, He Xiaopeng once suggested that if the funds continue to be burned so heavily, and one day they really can't hold on any longer, they should just merge.

Intelligent driving + battery swapping... High-end + mid-to-low-end? Is there potential?

If they really merge.

There will be some problems in choosing a name.

Xiaowei Motors? Or Weipeng Motors? Or... Penglai Motors?!
……

Starry Sky Research and Development Center.

On the third floor of the laboratory building, Sun Pengfei led his team in bench testing of hub motors, a relieved expression on his face.

The research and development progress in recent months can only be described as insane!

From the moment Mr. Xu casually mentioned the concept of in-wheel motors to the moment they began researching and developing its application, less than half a year has passed, and now they have produced a version that can be used in passenger vehicles. If this is not crazy, then nothing is crazy at all.

Early in-wheel motors were first used in commercial vehicles. They were incredibly large. Because the electric drive assembly was close to the wheel, they were also called wheel-side motors. However, the motor was actually still mounted on the chassis. Power was sent to the wheel through a half-shaft and transmission structure, rather than stuffing the motor into the wheel hub.

To achieve this level of sophistication, one has completely crossed the boundary between commercial and passenger use.

In the center of the test bench, the electric drive assembly with the brand-new hub motor at its core has just completed its first round of assembly.

Its shape is not as long as a traditional drive axle; it looks more like a flat metal module close to the center of the wheel.

The unibody die-cast aluminum alloy shell has densely packed radial reinforcing ribs on the outer ring, which both controls thermal deformation and suppresses structural modes.

The assembly is "flat and barrel-shaped", with its axial thickness limited to within two palm widths. The high-voltage three-phase interface and the low-voltage signal interface are arranged in separate compartments, separated by a metal isolation rib. The interface area is raised and has a reserved drainage channel and two sealing steps...

Compared to any of Xingchen's previous self-developed motors, this hub motor represents a breakthrough in both size and energy density.

Looking at the motor assembly on the test bench, Yu Ruian was filled with excitement.

He was previously the R&D leader of the electric drive team at Jingjin Electric, but he switched jobs to seek better development opportunities. He is now in the Xingchen R&D team, where he is responsible for the R&D of motors and electric drive architecture.

In recent years, the prospects for new energy vehicle companies are better than simply staying with the leading motor manufacturers, and choosing Xingchen Motors was the best decision he ever made.

With the team's collaboration, he never expected to be able to create such a high-performance wheel hub motor so smoothly.

"High-speed 20500 rpm, peak power 240 kW, peak torque 420 N·m..."

Just looking at the actual test data is already terrifying.

Domestic electric drive R&D giants such as Jingjin Motor, Wolong Motor, Shanghai Electric Drive, and BYD have put a lot of effort into R&D in recent years in order to achieve breakthroughs in energy density, speed, and power. However, the highest speed of their mass-produced motors is only around 16000 rpm.

Overseas new energy vehicle companies, represented by Tesla, have flagship models equipped with motors that can reach a maximum speed of 17000-18000 rpm, while the in-wheel motors of their Starcraft can reach a maximum speed of over 20000 rpm.

With just two wheel hub motors, it can accelerate a typical two-ton vehicle to 0-100 km/h in under four seconds.

This is already the power of a million-dollar performance car in the gasoline system, but it is easily achieved by an electric motor.

This news is likely to cause resentment among self-proclaimed performance enthusiasts of gasoline-powered cars. They plan to install four such motors, and have therefore developed their own four-electric-drive vector control system for this purpose.

He couldn't even imagine how fast it would go if he put them all on one car.

Just looking at the bench test results is enough to make your scalp crawl!
"The concentricity of the output shaft at the wheel end is still slightly off. It's probably due to bearing preload or runout of the assembly reference surface. We'll retest the runout and yaw later, and check the positioning chain of the assembly fixture..."

Sun Pengfei shifted his gaze from the screen to the output end of the assembly, and tapped the reference point on the housing.

As an engineering prototype, there is still considerable room for adjustment.

"Okay, I'll make some minor adjustments after the retest is finished." Yu Ruian and several other R&D engineers present nodded in unison.

"This four-motor assembly will be used in the ultra-high-end models of the Brilliant series. Don't blame me for being nitpicky, but if we're going to pursue performance, we'll have to squeeze as much out of the curves and energy consumption as possible." Sun Pengfei let out a breath and patted the shoulders of the group with a smile.

He witnessed the team's progress firsthand. During their time at Xingchen R&D, everyone made rapid progress, far surpassing their previous achievements at other major companies. Indeed, people can only grow rapidly in the right environment.

The research and development was fraught with difficulties, but whenever he encountered a bottleneck, he felt as if his mind was on a superpower, with a burst of inspiration, and he also had exceptional focus at work.

On the contrary, during the Spring Festival, when I go back to my hometown for a period of time, this state of "superb focus" gradually disappears.

But once I get back to the company and start working, that same enthusiasm returns.

"People really do need to work. If you don't think about and do what you love, your brain will rust!"

Sun Pengfei attributed all of this to his own laziness, and he preferred to stay at the company even more during his holidays.

……

"Director, the heavy-duty truck electric drive system designed for Dongfeng Group has also been officially installed and tested."

A short while later, another employee came into the testing area to report.

The electric drive division has multiple teams working on tasks at the same time, one of which is responsible for developing the complete electric drive system for heavy truck chassis.

Since Xingchen and Dongfeng Group made contact, a joint technical team led by the bosses of both parties has been formed to develop new energy heavy truck models.

Due to the tight research and development schedule.

It's impossible for Xingchen to design Dongfeng from scratch.

Therefore, Dongfeng Motor Group was asked to send over its existing heavy-duty trucks with the "Chassis DFL3310B2" designation for on-site modification of the chassis and structure.

Heavy trucks are inherently spacious, so the other team completed the task with almost no effort.

Originally, Dongfeng Chairman Zhu Yanfeng wanted to first develop a new energy light truck for port transportation.

Fixed transportation routes at ports can better leverage the advantages of new energy vehicles and eliminate charging anxiety.

Otherwise, he felt it was not yet mature to allow new energy heavy trucks to run commercial transportation.

Unless a company is willing to purchase vehicles for commercial fixed-route transportation and build dedicated supercharging stations along the route, Dongfeng Group needs to further expand its business and start with demonstration projects.

During this process, Xu Yi put forward a very interesting hypothesis.

That is to utilize the principle of automatic charging by recovering kinetic energy when new energy vehicles go downhill, and to create a special new energy heavy truck for wide-body mining trucks in specific scenarios such as mining.

The truck went up the mountain empty and came down fully loaded.

Charge uphill, discharge uphill.

Back and forth is like stepping on your own foot with your left foot!

It transforms directly into a perpetual motion machine, saving you the trouble of charging!

The Dongfeng team members, who were hearing this concept for the first time, immediately became stunned.

--hiss!!!

(End of this chapter)