“BYD’s self-developed technologies are all gathered in a fish pond. When the market needs it, one can be fished out.”
This is BYD Chairman and President Wang Chuanfu, who often mentions the “fish pond theory” in public.
Wang Chuanfu has inexplicable confidence in BYD’s technology, and BYD’s own technology has rarely disappointed Wang Chuanfu.
Since 2020, leading new technologies such as blade batteries, super hybrids, and e-platform 3.0 have continued to jump into the industry trend in BYD’s fish pond, and have been transformed into growing sales to feed back the company.
Blade batteries have almost single-handedly reversed the market share of lithium iron phosphate and ternary lithium batteries. Super hybrid has driven major car companies to re-develop hybrid technology, allowing hybrid models to flourish in the Chinese market. .
At the beginning of this year, BYD began to officially launch an impact on the luxury car market. It continued to come up with new technologies in the “fish pond” and launched the YangWang architecture composed of Yi Sifang, Yunnan, Blade Battery, super body, smart cockpit, and intelligent assisted driving.
Prior to this, the value of luxury cars in the traditional oil truck market was enhanced by engine horsepower, model design, cabin materials, and various black technologies. These “scarce attributes” are difficult to see on models of China’s own brands.
The emergence of YangWang architecture is a technical framework created by BYD that is unique to Chinese luxury brands. At the Guangzhou Auto Show at the end of the year, the YangWang architecture achieved another breakthrough-from the off-road mode of the YangWang U8 to the track mode of the U9.
The six core technologies of the YangWang architecture are not developed for a single model, but can be used as a general platform technology to empower various models, showing different capabilities on each model, like a Rubik’s cube combination and transformation.
The emergence of the YangWang architecture has created a complete vehicle architecture for Chinese electric luxury car brands that is unique to the new energy era. It also means that China is no longer simply following and imitating the powerful automobile industry in terms of automobile manufacturing technology, but It’s accelerating through corners and overtaking.
Part 1: YangWang Architecture, from Off-Road to Track
The power source of the YangWang architecture comes from BYD’s blade battery, and the power control relies on “Yi Sifang”.
Looking back at the history of the development of the automobile industry, every major technological breakthrough has changed the definition of products in the automobile industry. The emergence of Yi Sifang is what the industry calls the “iPhone moment” of the automobile industry.
BYD’s basic research and development of Yi Sifang can be traced back to 20 years ago. At that time, the prototype of “Yi Sifang” technology briefly appeared on the ET concept car released by BYD. However, due to the immaturity of the new energy vehicle supply chain system, it was not available at that time. It does not have the ability to be mass produced and launched.
Now, with the continuous breakthroughs in the three major technical fields of battery, electric drive and electronic control, “Yi Sifang” has finally ushered in mass production opportunities.
“Yisifang” is a power system with four-motor independent drive as its core. It is also China’s first mass-produced four-motor drive technology, which can achieve precise control of all four wheels of the car.
In the era of fuel vehicles, body stability control is limited by the development of mechanical technology. At the execution level, there are problems such as slow response, low efficiency, low power, and low degree of four-wheel differentiation.
With the emergence of new energy vehicles, the three-electric system has replaced the three major parts of oil vehicles, and the wire-controlled system has almost reconstructed the chassis structure of the car. With this, “Yi Sifang” can use the more perceptive electric drive system to drive in milliseconds. The speed of each wheel is adjusted individually to better control the body posture. This lays the foundation for YangWang to realize functions such as turning around on the spot and traveling sideways.
At the same time, Yi Sifang’s four-wheel independent torque vectoring control can also make the vehicle’s cornering control more calm and precise.
The emergence of Yi Sifang has also greatly improved the safety of cars. For example, after a car has a flat tire, the “Easy Sifang” technology will accurately adjust the torque of the remaining three wheels at a frequency of 1,000 times per second, making a strong intervention in the body posture, thereby making the vehicle stable and reliable. Stop in a controlled place to minimize the loss of control of the car after a tire blowout.
At this Guangzhou Auto Show, BYD demonstrated the Yi Sifang concept car, which has no traditional steering gear or traditional braking device. It can realize turning, braking and other functions only through the three-in-one technology of driving, braking and steering. BYD has achieved vehicle-level safety redundancy capabilities.
The emergence of Yi Sifang has subverted the power control technology of traditional oil trucks and solved the problem of horizontal body control. Another core of the YangWang architecture, Yun Nian, solves the problem of body control in the vertical direction of the car.
Yun Nian’s first appearance was in a dancing posture, and its stunning “jumping on the spot” attracted a lot of applause. This is the industry’s first “new energy exclusive intelligent body control system”.
When the vehicle is driving, Yun Nian can not only perform high-speed calculations on road surface conditions, body posture, wheel load and other information, and output the optimal control strategy in real time to reduce bumps and improve comfort; it can also greatly improve cornering control performance, making the body posture more stable. It always remains stable when cornering at high speeds, making the control experience more comfortable.
At the same time, the Yunnan system can effectively protect the vehicle body in complex road conditions such as snow, mud, and water, avoid vehicle collision damage caused by terrain, improve driving comfort and safety, and achieve dual protection for people and vehicles.
Wang Chuanfu said at the Yunian press conference that the birth of Yunian has rewritten the history of relying on foreign countries for body control technology and filled the domestic technical gap.
The combination of Yi Sifang and Yunnan, using BYD’s unique blade battery as the power source, coupled with a super body, smart cockpit, and smart assisted driving, forms the YangWang architecture. This is a platform architecture that can be split and combined into various models.
Platform-based development is the path that every car company must take. This can integrate the company’s cutting-edge technologies, flatten R&D costs through the advantages of scale, and empower each model planned for the future. Different performance advantages can be demonstrated according to needs.
This is the case with BYD’s YangWang architecture. Off-road vehicles, supercars, cars, SUVs, etc. can all be developed based on the YangWang architecture.
On the already delivered off-road model U8, the YangWang architecture is reflected in its advantages such as climbing mountains and going to the sea, as if walking on flat ground. When it comes to the road track, the YangWang architecture makes the U9, a tram supercar, an epoch-making revolutionary product in the luxury car camp.
Part 2: Supercar U9, born at the right time
The unlimited accumulation of materials in one car regardless of cost, coupled with the huge premium space of luxury brands, is the competitive strategy of supercars in the era of oil trucks. It has created a glorious era of traditional luxury brands.
However, the popularity of electric vehicles has made “stacking” a standard practice. Many configurations such as air suspension have been rolled into the 400,000 or even 300,000 range by electric vehicles. The 100-meter acceleration performance of oil trucks has also been impacted by the powerful speed of the motor. The value of luxury cars in the new energy era has been blurred.
The emergence of YangWang U9 has re-established the concept of using ultimate technology to shape luxury brands. Its four major new changes in performance, aerodynamics, safety and cockpit are essentially different from ordinary “stacked luxury cars”, setting a good example for electric supercars. set a new benchmark.
Equipped with Yi Sifang technology, the YangWang U9 can not only maximize its power performance, with a horsepower of over 1,300 horsepower, and acceleration from zero to 0 to 2 seconds, it also has amazing performance in actual track tests, with the maximum instantaneous lateral acceleration reaching 1.7g. , the understeering linear zone reaches 0.72°/g. YangWang U9’s track cornering control is very calm and precise, and its body posture can always remain stable while driving.
With the support of the Yunnan system, when changing to urban road conditions, the YangWang U9 can also raise the chassis and the vehicle ground clearance to a maximum of 145mm, making it easy to pass through various obstacles in the city. YangWang U9 integrates sportiness and comfort, making it truly street-ready and race-ready.
Looking specifically at YangWang’s super body, it integrates three major technologies: super carbon cabin, new generation CTB, and super hybrid structure. The torsional stiffness of the entire vehicle reaches 54425N·m/°, and the lightweight coefficient of the entire vehicle breaks through the industry limits. For the first time, it has to within 1, to 0.95.
BYD not only poured its top internal technologies into the YangWang brand without reservation, but also reached a new height in terms of vehicle quality requirements and safety standards.
In the increasingly competitive automobile industry, the time to build a new car has been compressed to 18 months. This not only requires completing two winter and one summer tests within the limit time, but also shortens the test time for durability, stability and other tests. But on YangWang U9, we can still see traces of meticulous craftsmanship.
The YangWang supercar platform uses the most demanding testing procedures, and has planned extreme special working conditions such as jamming, bumping, and rolling for supercars. The test requirements far exceed global safety collision standards.
It is understood that BYD has invested more than 100 safety test vehicles and carried out 96 safety working condition tests. Currently, YangWang’s testing and verification of the technology is still ongoing.
Supercars embody mankind’s highest pursuit of speed, represent the ceiling of automotive performance, and are also a comprehensive reflection of a car company’s most exquisite technology. YangWang integrates BYD’s six core technologies and uses technology to anchor the “luxury” attributes of the new energy era.
BYD’s devotion to technology is the foundation on which it relies. Wang Chuanfu once mentioned that in the past 12 years, BYD has invested in R&D for 11 years, which exceeded the net profit of that year, and in many cases was even 3 to 4 times the net profit.
The current automobile industry is undergoing a brand-new revolution. The technological innovation capabilities of every automobile company are facing huge tests. Automobile assembly plants are becoming history. Only enterprises with core technologies are likely to survive.
BYD’s technological investment over the years has been transformed into sales that continue to support this new energy vehicle company, and it has become the world’s top seller of new energy vehicles. At present, BYD has sold more than 6 million vehicles, which is an unprecedented peak for new energy vehicle companies.
The emergence of YangWang carries the mission of brand promotion in BYD’s sales system. This is a battle that must be won, and it is also a key step for BYD to improve its brand matrix and become a global car company.
Upgrading the brand with luxury models is a path that many car companies will choose. The YangWang U8 has been officially launched and has started delivery. BYD is close to success in this path.
As China’s first million-level high-end new energy vehicle brand, from the off-line delivery of the YangWang U8 luxury version to the technical release of the million-level pure electric performance supercar U9, YangWang has built its brand and products with disruptive technology, and has continued to innovate and change. , bringing users unprecedented ultimate products and new life and travel experiences.