When people think of intelligent electric vehicles, they usually think of Tesla, Azure, Xiaopeng and other emerging brands, but this doesn't mean that traditional car companies have fallen behind in the competition for intelligent electric vehicles.
As the world's largest automotive group, Volkswagen has a clearer and larger plan for electrification and intelligence.
According to EV Century's official understanding from Volkswagen, by 2025, the Volkswagen Group will launch 80 new energy vehicles around the world, with global sales accounting for 20-25 percent. In the next 10 years, VW's new energy products will expand to 135 models, with a cumulative sales target of 26 million vehicles. Among them, the new MEB platform will launch 20 pure electric models in the next 10 years, and build eight MEB factories around the world.
Different from the currently well-known MQB platform, the MEB platform is a modular platform specially designed to build pure electric vehicles that the Volkswagen Group has spent a huge amount of money to develop, so the electric vehicle products produced by the MEB platform are more advantageous as pure electric vehicles.
The MEB platform was developed with the battery as the core, and the battery pack located at the bottom center of the vehicle saves space and significantly lowers the vehicle's center of gravity, and achieves an optimal front-to-rear weight ratio of nearly 50:50, thus improving the vehicle's dynamic performance and handling.
At the same time, the MEB platform has a highly flexible architecture that supports the development of different body styles from small, compact to medium-large, covering a wide range of vehicle types from sedans, SUVs to MPVs. With the elimination of the internal combustion engine, the front and rear axles can be shifted farther out, resulting in a longer wheelbase and shorter front and rear overhangs, which not only makes it easier for designers to create more dynamic proportions, but also allows for more spaciousness and versatility inside the vehicle.
In addition, the MEB platform models have a larger wheelbase, shorter front and rear overhangs, no center channel, 140mm more front area, more rear space, higher seating positions, different body forms, and have the appearance of an A+ class car with the space of a B class car, bringing consumers greater spatial enjoyment.
The flexible battery pack arrangement allows the MEB platform to distribute 7-12 modules for different needs, thus bringing different ranges to the vehicle, which can realize a maximum range of more than 550 kilometers under WLTP conditions.
Besides the new design in electrification, VW has also made new moves in intelligence.
Volkswagen MEB is equipped with the E3 electrical and electronic architecture, which is on the same level as Tesla's, and is a new, scalable, extensible, reusable, and portable automotive electrical architecture.
The E3 architecture includes three intelligent domain controllers, ICAS1 Comfort Ride Controller, ICAS2 Intelligent Ride Controller (currently in the development stage), and?ICAS3 Infotainment Controller, which is also FOTA upgradable in the future.
In terms of data transmission, thanks to the addition of in-vehicle Ethernet technology, the E3 architecture can achieve the fastest data transmission speed of 1GB/s, increasing the communication rate to fully meet the needs of the new generation of in-vehicle infotainment systems and ADAS systems, and more intuitive boundary effects.
Driven by innovative technologies, the E3 architecture can also provide intelligent mobile travel solutions, including all driving, parking and improving the safety of the entire vehicle related to driver assistance services technology, the integration of independent driver assistance functions, which can achieve 0-160km/h range of the whole speed domain, the whole journey coverage, with Pre-crash, Side? Assist, 360° bird's-eye panoramic visual parking and other assistance systems.
In order to realize the goal of launching 20 MEB platform models in 10 years, Volkswagen will build eight MEB factories around the world, and FAW-Volkswagen's Foshan MEB Smart Factory is one of them.
The FAW-Volkswagen Foshan MEB Intelligent Factory is an intelligent factory covering four major processes and a cutting-edge MEB battery workshop with a high automation rate and advanced process standards.
The plant's four major processes are laid out in a U-shape, with a smooth and complete process chain. The production line of the assembly workshop shows a lowercase h-shaped layout, which is the most reasonable production layout obtained by Volkswagen Germany after 100 years of production practice, and the reasonable production layout guarantees the smoothness and efficiency of the process.
The stamping workshop consists of an 800-ton uncoiling and unloading line, three 2100-ton debugging presses and three press production lines, and the whole line has mixed steel and aluminum production capacity. Adopting 6-steps (stretching, uncoiling, punching, bending, flanging, and correcting) stamping process, the high-quality car body with varied profiles is the masterpiece under this production line.
The intelligent factory adopts laser welding process on a large scale in the car body, with fast welding speed, small welding deformation, and much higher welding strength than ordinary spot welding, so that the steel plate will not be torn after the vehicle is collided. The laser online measurement technology during the welding process can measure the key points and important functional dimensions of the body-in-white skeleton of different models according to different predetermined trajectories, so that the size and precision of the body-in-white skeleton of each vehicle are recorded, ensuring the stability of the body dimensions during the manufacturing process.
Painting adopts the world's leading new drying distribution, new wax filling process of renovation and innovation, which greatly improves the anticorrosion performance of the body.
In terms of the most critical power battery, Foshan MEB Battery Workshop adopts a large number of high-precision new technologies in the industry in the whole MEB welding line, and conducts 100% testing on the sealing of the battery shell. the MEB assembly line simulates the normal environment, and conducts the basic setup and function testing of the battery pack; and adopts the German Froehlich airtightness testing system, and conducts 100% testing on the sealing of the battery pack. The MEB assembly line simulates the normal environment for basic settings and functional testing of the battery pack; the Florentine airtightness testing system from Germany is used for 100% testing of the battery pack sealing.
In terms of safety, through testing the strength, electrical performance, air tightness, charging and discharging of MEB batteries, which are closely related to safety, as well as monitoring the strength of 5,000 welded joints of the whole vehicle and stabilizing the body structure, we ensure that the passive safety of MEB products is stable and reliable; and through the 100% testing of the battery packs off the production line, including the quality of the parts/processes/whole packs, we recognize and monitor the quality, ensuring the high quality of MEB batteries and the quality of the battery packs. Through 100% battery pack off-line testing, including parts quality/process quality/whole-pack quality recognition and monitoring, to ensure the high reliability of MEB batteries.
While possessing perfect and advanced technology, FAW-Volkswagen Foshan MEB Intelligent Factory also has a very high automation rate. The welding workshop has the widest application of new technologies and the lowest working hours, with more than 1,269 KUKA robots, and an automation rate of 90%, of which the automation rate of the main welding part is as high as 100%.
The welding line in MEB workshop is a highly intelligent automatic production line designed based on the latest VASS6 standard, with the automation rate of the whole line reaching 85%; the automation rate of the whole assembly line reaches 80%, which is much higher than that of similar assembly lines.
Adhering to the planning concept of intelligent + automated manufacturing,? Foshan MEB intelligent factory assembly workshop for the first time using automatic marking equipment, automatic PGD equipment, automatic door seals, automatic high-voltage battery? Gripper and other equipment, to realize the automation rate of 21%, becoming the assembly workshop with the highest automation level of FAW-Volkswagen.
Meanwhile, Foshan MEB Intelligent Factory is the factory with the least water consumption among all FAW-Volkswagen's factory bases, only consuming 1 cubic meter of water to build 1 car; the automation rate of the painting workshop is close to 100%, and it is the production line that uses the largest number of robots and the highest degree of automation in China, with the topcoat sprayed in 100% full-automation.
At present, the total annual production capacity of Foshan MEB Intelligent Factory exceeds 600,000 vehicles, and by 2024, the production capacity of Foshan MEB Intelligent Factory will reach 770,000 vehicles.
And the FAW-Volkswagen ID.4?CROZZ is the first Volkswagen ID series model to be built by the Foshan MEB plant and will be the first to meet consumers.
The FAW-Volkswagen ID.4?CROZZ, as the first pure German humanistic intelligent cabin built on MEB's exclusive pure electric platform, not only boasts an original German pedigree, but also realizes a series of human-oriented future technologies and humanized and intuitive interactive experiences based on the MEB platform and the brand-new E3 electrical architecture.
In terms of intelligent driving, the ID.4?CROZZ is equipped with the IQ.?Drive?L2+ Advanced Assisted Driving System, which automatically adjusts the speed, distance and steering wheel at speeds from 0-160km/h. The system has been successfully used in more than 10 countries and regions. The system has been successfully applied to more than 10 models and has been verified by millions of users, reducing the driving burden and increasing driving safety for users.
In terms of intelligent interaction, ID.4?CROZZ's intelligent interaction is not only audio-visual but also tactile. Its AR-HUD augmented reality head-up display function, in addition to displaying vehicle information, can intuitively display driver assistance and navigation guidance information on the real road surface, elevating the interaction between the driver and the vehicle to a new level, allowing users to view car-related information without looking down, significantly enhancing the sense of technology and safety.
Three screens and one belt interaction, through the E3 architecture, realizes the overall interaction of 5.3-inch digital instrument, 10-inch center control screen, AR-HUD, and ID.Light interactive light belt, which brings more sense of technology and interaction to users. Intelligent voice interaction activates voice control through "Hello Volkswagen", which recognizes natural language, automatically analyzes semantics, and executes commands; available both online and offline, online can recognize richer semantics through cloud servers and execute intelligent commands.
In terms of vehicle safety, ID.4?CROZZ is designed and developed in strict accordance with the latest 2021?C-NCAP five-star standard. Combined with Chinese regulations, C-NCAP and Volkswagen's internal safety standards, it has conducted many vehicle crash tests and airbag parameter development tests to ensure that the entire vehicle fully complies with the requirements of the latest and more stringent five-star crash standards.
The safety of three electric systems, ID.4?CROZZ has more than 60+ tests than the national standard, the battery and high-voltage system meets VW's internal L4 electric safety requirements, and the waterproof grade is IPX7?&?IPX9K.
The battery of ID.4?CROZZ adopts the Ninde Times 811 cell, with the battery capacity of 84.8kWh, and the system energy density reaches 175Wh. The system energy density reaches 175Wh/kg, which can provide users with a comprehensive working condition range of over 550km. The battery has gone through 197 standard tests in reference to the German Volkswagen High Grade Safety Standard, which is 179 more than the 18 required by the national standard. It also underwent extreme environmental tests such as e-MAST vibration, water immersion with temperature shock, heat diffusion, external fire, low temperature short circuit, and long sequence test.
According to the plan, FAW-Volkswagen will launch four pure electric models built on the MEB platform in the next three years, with the ID.6 to be unveiled in the second half of 2021 after the ID.4?CROZZ, while the ID.3 is expected to be introduced to the Chinese market after the ID.6.
This article comes from the authors of Automobile House Car Family, and does not represent the viewpoint position of Automobile House.