Foreword: If you are only interested in the off-road part of electric vehicles, you can skip the previous review; however, the review still has the meaning of review. If you don’t understand the form and reasons thoroughly, you will be at a loss even if the results are in front of you. Based on the status quo of new energy vehicles we have learned so far, many people will have anxiety about electric off-road vehicles, because the current industry perception generally believes that electric-driven vehicles are not reliable, so there will be a sad sound of off-road desolation. The purpose of my writing this article is to look forward to the future of electric off-road vehicles and see if the future of electric off-road vehicles is worth looking forward to.
The progress of automobile products has always depended on two points: technology and regulations The automobile has been born for more than a hundred years, and earth-shaking changes have taken place since it came out; the function and application of automobiles have far exceeded the imagination of the original inventors. The progress of the modern industrial revolution has indeed made the advancement of automobile technology possible. On the other hand, the competition among major manufacturers has also forced the acceleration of automobile update iterations; Originating from the establishment and continuous implementation of automobile regulations in various countries, this is the most important mandatory measure that forces automobile manufacturers to abandon their existing interests and must make progress; it is also an important source of power that leads to the progress of the automobile industry.
The establishment of emission regulations comes from the country’s measurement of various factors, among which air pollution, energy structure, supply balance, industrial development, geographical features, etc. Supporting development and energy structure will have an important impact. The reason why our country develops new energy vehicles in the most extensive, comprehensive and firm way in the world is an important starting point is energy security – only reliable energy guarantee is the cornerstone of the country’s long-term, stable and sustainable development.
As for environmental pollution, God knows everything.
Definition of new energy: What is new energy? Simply put, new energy refers to energy power systems other than traditional internal combustion engines; from the current situation, it refers to electric vehicles and hydrogen energy. Regardless of whether this new energy is actually “not new” for a long time, let’s interpret the country’s policy on new energy, which seems to be more active.
The state’s tendency to support new energy products is very clear; judging from the current situation, although the subsidy policy for electric vehicles has slowed down, the encouragement for new energy is still there; this is from vehicle licensing, operation and parking fees, etc. can be clearly felt. Judging from the current situation, the country’s encouragement for new energy will continue. This is caused by the country’s strategic level, because our country’s dependence on foreign oil imports is too high. From the perspective of national development and security, this must be change; and in terms of the advantageous energy that our country can provide, electric energy is currently the most optional direction, because it is the most realistic solution that can change the structure of power travel.
As for hydrogen energy, it is not bad; however, the development of hydrogen energy based on the characteristics of internal combustion engines and existing technical conditions is more difficult and more costly. This shows a slow attitude.
Source-supply-current situation of electric energy: Like the oil industry, there will be a lot of pollution in the production and manufacture of electricity. This is a problem in reality, and there is no need to avoid and selectively blind; so the country’s measures for electric energy are also gradually changing ; Including the improvement and progress of thermal power plant production (coal preparation-combustion-emission); vigorously build new supply sources of environmentally friendly power generation: wind energy, tidal energy, solar energy, nuclear power, etc., although this process will also produce secondary However, the discharge of fossil fuels from mining to final burning is also a continuous discharge of the entire industrial chain, so it is difficult to make such a detailed assessment of which is cleaner.
But electric energy is an energy system that we can fully control from raw material-production-supply; from the perspective of national security, this is the top priority, and we must understand this.
From the perspective of the characteristics of electricity – electricity cannot be stored efficiently at least at present, and the charging and discharging time of existing vehicles is too long. topic. But one thing is clear, that is, the country’s implementation of the National 6 has clearly affected our lives; the most realistic example is that the self-priming of the large row has been determined to tell us 88 forever, and continue to develop according to this trend , we are definitely going to drive an electric car to go off-road, go outdoors, and cultivate our sentiments.
Then a new topic is in front of us: Can electric vehicles go off-road? Where will electric off-road vehicles take us?
The characteristics of electric vehicles created by regulations. The current electric vehicles are still concentrated in the household field, and the expansion of many market segments has not yet begun. In terms of the characteristics of commercially available electric vehicles, they generally show high power and strong power; that is to say, the current commercially available electric vehicles have very good power performance, and it seems that any electric vehicle can be used to kill sports cars in the era of internal combustion engines—do not believe it You can look at the data. This result is determined by the high torque characteristics of the electric motor, and it is also the most favorable, realistic and convincing weapon for electric vehicles to grab the market.
The inclination of laws and regulations has made new energy sources fully encouraged, and they do not have to be restricted by large displacement and high emissions like internal combustion engines; so at least from the current situation, electric vehicles can be used almost without restriction. Power motor; this is actually very interesting. The most powerful argument for electric vehicles is environmental protection, but all of them want to make themselves like supercars. Electricity is also an energy source, and its production also consumes and emits emissions. Is the tram produced and used in this way environmentally friendly?
Then again, although the electric motor is not limited in power, it is limited by the current energy density (battery capacity and volume to weight ratio) and the feasibility of “refilling” – and this feasibility includes whether it can be quickly charged , Whether fast charging and discharging will have adverse effects on the power supply-electrical regulation system, the convenience of quick power-taking and changing, and the density of outlets.
What should an electric dirt bike look like? I have talked a lot in a long way, and the next thing I want to talk about is the key point; what I said above is based on the strong demand of big policies and big markets, what will the current status and development look like, and then we will talk about Down the road have a good talk about what the future of electric off-road vehicles should look like.
It is blunt to say that the current development of electric vehicles is just a makeshift stage, and what you see is not even a real electric vehicle prototype; if you compare it with the automobile industry, it is at most the era of the Ford Model T; Although the Model T car has numerous laurel crowns, its structure and capabilities are very tasteless. Although it was epoch-making 100 years ago, from the perspective of the development and extension of the automobile industry, modern cars have nothing but shape. Except for any changes, all structural features and ideas of the Model T were eventually discarded.
Existing new energy vehicles: Bug patches in the era of internal combustion engines For the solution of pure electric off-road vehicles, the simple behavior of replacing internal combustion engines with electric motors is almost meaningless. Existing hybrid solutions, such as the hybrid LC released by Toyota, are basically an act of “commitment and concession” to the regulations; without strict environmental protection measures, this product cannot be launched, because the history of so many years has already passed. It proved to us that large-displacement self-priming is the best off-road power. In the era of internal combustion engines, there is no other choice. Those who say it is not good are either too expensive to afford, or fuel-intensive and unaffordable. Well, there is another reason that you can’t buy it without indicators. Patriotism is also the reason, and it counts as one.
Otherwise, tell me another reason to let us see and see?
What is the difference between electric off-road vehicles and existing off-road vehicles? The biggest characteristic, or the biggest defect, of the existing internal combustion engine-driven vehicles is that it requires a complete set of ignition and start-up systems and clutch systems (both AT and MT have a power-transmission combination system, but the form is different. That’s it, the coupler or clutch essentially has the same function), the transmission system and the transmission system to achieve the final vehicle driving.
The standard transmission system includes the structure of gearbox – transfer case – front and rear drive shafts – four half shafts – ball cage. Only after the internal combustion engine passes through these mechanisms can the vehicle be driven. When the thermal efficiency is not high, the ultimate goal of workmanship can only be achieved through so many overlapping and complex mechanisms. In addition to the further reduction in efficiency, the failure rate will also accumulate; especially for high-power internal combustion engines with large gear ratios. – After deceleration in the low fourth gear, the pressure on the final drive system is huge, and once it is used improperly, it is very easy to cause failure of the drive system.
The essence of electric motor drive: Compared with the constant change of the power curve of the internal combustion engine, the characteristics of the electric motor itself have the ability of direct transmission without starting. In theory, the clutch, shifting, transmission mechanism, etc. of the traditional internal combustion engine can be completely omitted. Waiting for a lot of complex, heavy, expensive and problem-prone accessories can completely save the cost of the internal combustion engine. The motor itself has the characteristic that the maximum torque is the same as starting, which is far superior to the internal combustion engine.
However, most of the so-called new energy vehicles we see now do not take advantage of this feature. Many so-called new energy vehicles are actually “successful” by replacing the internal combustion engine with an internal combustion engine. Of course, this is a helpless move in the current transitional stage, but we It must be clearly understood that current electric vehicles are just “electric” vehicles.
Judging from the current motor development and technical characteristics, the hub direct drive motor is an ideal development direction—whether it is a street car or an off-road vehicle; the hub motor itself has become a technical reality, and from the current and possible For the foreseeable future development, hub direct drive is the real meaning of electric transmission; especially for off-road vehicles, it will bring about revolutionary changes in vehicle structure.
The application of in-wheel motors has changed the car beyond many people’s imagination; the advantages brought by high-power motors are incomparable to large-displacement self-priming and turbocharging, and the changes it brings are just like F1. After modifying the air-effect brakes in the past few years, Vettel took over, and Schumacher’s technology became obsolete overnight; just like Villeneuve back then, he was powerless to fight back.
How big this change is, let’s take a look at the tests of the Americans on advanced tactical vehicles. No steering mechanism, complete wheel hub motor drive; it can be said that the traditional power-transmission-drive wheel complex system has been transformed into a minimalist model. However, it is still a transitional product, but it uses electric transmission, and the power source is still a diesel engine.
The extremely high transmission efficiency of the hub motor: the direct drive method of the hub motor (whether it is decelerated or not), its transmission can far exceed the low efficiency of the current vehicle through a bunch of various gears and drive shafts, and it is reliable In terms of performance, it reaches the extreme—because it has few pitiful intermediate driving links, and there is no repeated impact of the clutch system; it also makes the design of the vehicle itself extremely simple in terms of driving. From an engineering point of view, it is a beautiful thing to think about things.
High-power power pack with multi-motor combination: the driving form of the hub motor makes the multi-motor system a realistic possibility, and it can usually be made into an all-wheel drive structure; even if it is matched with a motor with a small power, in the usual x4 motor power After that, the data of its power system is also amazing. In addition, this method can also use larger wheel and tire sizes. For example, the current civil off-road vehicles are basically 30-31 inches. Expanding the tire size, 33-37 inch level can be easily done, and at the same time, a large tire size is of great benefit in improving the power, heat dissipation, and firmness of the in-wheel motor.
The reliability and redundancy of the drive system are higher. Due to the removal of the complex clutch-shift-transmission components of the internal combustion engine system, the off-road vehicle driven by the hub motor will reduce at least 80% of the mechanical transmission failure points; this makes it reliable. The reliability is greatly increased, even if a drive motor fails, the rest of the drives can still continue to work, which achieves more redundancy than the structure driven by the internal combustion engine; that is to say, in terms of the ability to overcome failures, more A vehicle powered by in-wheel motors would be far superior to an internal combustion engine.
At the same time, because the most maintenance-requiring part on traditional internal combustion engine vehicles: the transmission-transmission system is gone, so the maintenance of the vehicle becomes extremely simple-because there are few parts that need cooling and lubrication, on the other hand, this is also The reliability is greatly improved.
The switching of the driving and steering mode is simpler: the 2-4 drive mode can be switched through the ESC system, without the need for a transfer case; the occurrence of switching mechanical failures is almost completely avoided; in fact, in terms of the driving characteristics of the hub motor, 4×1 or 4×4 can be switched arbitrarily, as long as it matches according to the road conditions. The characteristics of the motor can make the vehicle have the ability to travel at extremely low speeds while having multiple motors with great power.
The four-wheel steering concept of the Jeep Hurricane concept car was once amazing; the four-wheel in-situ steering function has great significance for the improvement of off-road performance, especially the use of narrow areas has more practical significance. However, Jeep in the era of internal combustion engines used two engines-two transmission systems to achieve this, which undoubtedly greatly increased its manufacturing cost and use cost, and also set obstacles to its use; because the two engines Under the circumstances, its space, battery life, and complexity are all greatly affected. With the drive of the hub motor, compared with the complex drive-steering structure of the internal combustion engine, this is simply “easy”.
The biggest advantage of the small space occupied by the electric drive system is that you don’t have to be caught by the transmission system, and you don’t have to worry about the length, strength, angle and ball cage of the drive shaft; as long as you design a suitable suspension form according to the vehicle’s needs, everything is OK. This advantage allows it to adopt a suspension structure that is almost impossible in the era of internal combustion engines, such as a longitudinal trailing arm suspension. The size of the trailing arm can be very long, which is almost impossible in the era of internal combustion engines, because a very long trailing arm means that the transmission system has to bear the drastic angle change when the wheelbase changes and the corresponding semi-axis telescopic change, but for This problem does not exist for hub motors at all.
The potential for arbitrary heightening and modification is completely incomparable to the internal combustion engine transmission mechanism, because the hub motor will not be restrained by those transmission mechanisms, so raising and changing the wheelbase depends on your wishes, and you don’t have to worry about any support arms. The length, the angle of the drive shaft, the resonance of the half shaft, and the broken cage. In addition, if the vehicle is designed in a form similar to the dual-flow steering of a tank, then all four wheels can be designed as a trailing arm suspension, and the vehicle does not need to mind the change of the driving wheelbase.
Waterproofing ability of the vehicle The waterproofing of the vehicle driven by the hub motor is easier and more convenient than that driven by the internal combustion engine; the electric drive itself has less additional equipment, which means that there are very few parts that need to be lubricated, which means that it is difficult to seal. In order to reduce it, things like ball cage rubber sleeves and half shaft rubber sleeves are basically not seen. Not to mention the handling of the intake and exhaust of the internal combustion engine, these will greatly improve the ability of the electric-driven off-road vehicle to cope with difficult environments.
The hub motor greatly improves the space inside the car. Because the transmission mechanism is completely omitted, the biggest advantage of the hub motor is that the front power compartment can be removed, and there is no gearbox-transfer case that occupies the space inside the firewall and the cockpit. Occupying any space in the car, compared with traditional vehicles, the design of the passenger compartment can be completely changed, because it becomes much larger than before, and the space structure is much more flexible. This is a completely revolutionary change.
Think about you always saying that the line of sight is not good enough, it’s because the engine compartment is in your way; It is said that the luggage compartment is not big enough, that is because the overall bridge and the back tooth box occupy the space; now that these are gone, the space is all yours, is it not big enough?
Having talked about the benefits of so many electric drives, let’s take a look at the biggest problem in reality: the supply of electric energy; the lithium batteries commonly used in electric vehicles at present are in terms of power density, temperature resistance coefficient, impact resistance and fast charging and discharging capabilities. They can only barely meet the current requirements, and the electric drive off-road vehicle we are discussing may still face many of the aforementioned problems, which is also the most important problem that hinders the development of pure electric drive.
In terms of technical reserves, there are not many technical difficulties in the hub motor and the ESC system. But from the perspective of technology outlook and development, the changes brought about by electric drive, especially the changes in off-road capability, will far exceed our imagination, and the leap in capability brought about by it will make us look back at the current era of internal combustion engines At that time, it was like a warrior with a rifle watching a stone age hunt. All it has is historical value—an era worthy of our recollection.
Remarks: Some of the pictures in this article are from the Internet. If there is something wrong, please let me know and delete it, thank you.
