The Japanese industry’s attention to Chinese electric cars began with the “national miraculous car” Wuling Hongguang MINIEV.
Dating back to 2021, Japanese NHK television made a special report on the popularity of the car.
Professor Meiyi Yamamoto of Nagoya University openly dismantled a Hongguang MINIEV in an attempt to reveal the low-cost secret behind the car’s popularity.
More than 100 people, including the media, gathered at the scene.
The move triggered a craze in the Japanese industry to dismantle Chinese cars, and with the Chinese army leading the way in new energy and intelligent races, more and more blockbuster models have been paid attention to by Japan.
Nikkei BP even edited the dismantling process and results of BYD seals into words and pictures, which were compiled into a book for public sale.
The Japanese industry’s high attention to Chinese electric vehicles was initially just like the dismantling of Hongguang MINIEV, focusing on “cost control”.
This is the first stage of Japan’s dismantling of Chinese electric cars, and what they want to know is how these popular models of the world’s best-selling electric cars, with attractive terminal prices, have achieved “extreme cost reduction”.
In the second stage, the focus of Japan gradually shifted from “low price and low cost” to the core competitiveness of key components.
This year, the Nikkei XTECH and Nikkei BP comprehensive research institute dismantled the polar krypton 007.
Although this car is not well known in Japan and has not yet entered the Japanese market, people in the industry agree that this is the first car product of the Chinese brand equipped with all-in-one die-cast rear-end aluminum body, equipped with 800V high-voltage fast-charging platform and 4C battery.
The secret of the ultimate cost reduction, the Japan Energy rate Association (JMA), a social group dedicated to the research and promotion of integrated business management services, imported a flagship version of Hongguang MINIEV from China in 2021 (38800 yuan, equivalent to 690000 yen).
Later, for disassembly and verification, the car was transferred to the power electronics research room led by Professor Meiyi Yamamoto of Nagoya University.
Professor Yamamoto’s team dismantled the Hongguang MINIEV.
Although the electric car was small, it was discovered after the dismantling that “the sparrow is small and has all the internal organs”, but more importantly, his research lab has also discovered a lot of “cost reduction secrets” that are not known to the public.
Through the dismantling of the Hongguang MINIEV, Yamamoto found that the model is “simple” with the basic devices that most pure electric models carry, such as saving (braking) energy recovery and water cooling systems.
Through the indirect “reduction” of some parts, the cost dimension has been greatly reduced, and the terminal price of the lowest version is as low as 28800 yuan.
The braking energy recovery system can convert the thermal energy of the vehicle while driving into mechanical energy and store it in the battery system which can be released quickly when needed.
The system is crucial for extended mileage, but there is no such device on the Hongguang MINIEV, so it can support a maximum range of only 170km.
Another detail is the cooling system.
Hongguang MINIEV carries motors and other parts, its cooling system is not water-cooled, but air-cooled.
The life of the inverter of Hongguang MINIEV is about 8 years or 120000 kilometers, while the life of most pure electric cars on the market is about 20 years or 200000 kilometers.
Of course there is another reason for the large-scale use of off-the-shelf parts.
Hongguang MINIEV, as the core bearing of the core component, did not adopt a special design, but switched to a general product in line with the performance.
Although equipment such as inverters used semiconductors from leading foreign manufacturers such as Texas Instruments and Infineon, they used products tailor-made for household appliances rather than more durable on-board chips.
Yamamoto found that although some of the parts adopted by Hongguang MINIEV are prone to failure, the manufacturer has chosen a more “ingenious” design concept and adopted the design of replacing the whole module, which is easy to repair after failure.
At a seminar on electric vehicles held by the Japanese Bureau of economy and Industry this year 70 Japanese auto parts companies visited the disassembly show to jointly discuss the body structure and parts of Chinese-made electric vehicles.
The electric cars displayed by “disassembly” include more than a dozen Chinese models such as BYD ATTO3 (yuan plus in the Chinese market) and ET5, as well as non-Chinese electric vehicles such as Tesla Model Y, involving more than 90, 000 auto parts.
In this seminar, the manufacturers attending the seminar jointly discussed why electric vehicles in China can be produced at a low cost.
After an in-depth analysis of BYD’s ATTO3, they came to a conclusion that the generalization of parts and components, self-development of core components and large-scale production are the main reasons.
A representative from Sanyo Trade said that Chinese manufacturers attach great importance to low-cost production and their requirements for quality are different from those of Japanese companies.
Japanese media revealed that after an in-depth analysis of BYD’s ATTO3, we have come to the conclusion that the integration of parts and components is an important weapon to reduce costs.
In the electric drive device “E-Axle”, in addition to motors, inverters and reducers, BYD ATTO3 also integrates eight parts such as vehicle chargers and DC voltage converters.
While reducing the cost, it also reduces the weight.
In addition, models such as the BYD ATTO3 also take advantage of sales to drive down the cost of spare parts through mass production.
However, some of the designs are not perfect, and many participants believe that the waterproof performance of the car battery is not enough and there is a lot of room for improvement.
, core components, technology is king, “in the past, the impression of Chinese electric cars in the Japanese industry still stayed on popular models such as Hongguang MINIEV.
Many views believe that this kind of models are popular in the market, more cheaply, and the technical core is not necessarily excellent.
” Japanese media reported that over the past two years, China’s self-built electric cars have begun to go international and exported to a number of overseas markets.
People gradually realize that the new electric cars launched by Chinese car companies not only have price advantages, but also gradually lead the world in terms of technical strength, especially in the fields of intelligence and new energy.
, “has exceeded Tesla’s Gigacast.
” The BRICS battery shines with gold and does not lose to BYD.
” After dismantling polar krypton 007, the Japanese industry lamented its advanced technology and simply copied the previous routine of dismantling BYD seals and compiled the details of the dismantling into a book for public sale.
In their view, polar krypton 007 uses a lot of electrified cutting-edge technology and sells for only 250000Around RMB, many Japanese experts call it “unbelievable”.
, , For example, an integrated die-cast body.
, , Nikkei BP spent a long time introducing in detail the disassembled Krypton 007 integrated die-cast rear-end aluminum body, which is also the focus of this dismantling plan.
The first feeling of the Japanese expert team was that the integrated die-casting parts were “really big”.
The entire rear body connecting the trunk and the battery pack became one.
The tires were removed, and the inside was also manufactured through integrated die-casting.
Compared with traditional manufacturing processes, the reduction of 81 parts and 820 welding points can well suppress body vibration and noise.
, , Another example is Geely’s self-developed BRICS battery.
A year ago, Nikkei BP dismantled BYD seals and found that the most eye-catching thing was the company’s blade battery.
This time, Krypton 007 was selected as the dismantling object.
The details of the battery part are still the most concerned by Japanese experts.
By comparing the performance parameters with previously dismantled BYD Seals, Tesla Model 3 and Volkswagen ID.
3 models, the team finally concluded that in terms of battery design, Krypton and BYD’s technology and product concepts, At this stage, it is indeed an effective solution to balance price and performance.
, , , , After dismantling the model, Nikkei BP also conducted surveys and interviews with technical experts.
After sorting out, it was found that Geely’s advanced deployment in the new four modernizations era and the commercialization of many cutting-edge technologies benefited from the hidden hard power at the patent level.
In September this year, the dismantling team used Patent Field, a patent information search platform, to analyze relevant patents of China Geely Holding Group.
During the 20-year period from 2004 to 2024, according to the IPC (International Patent Classification), the number of patents owned by the group directly highlights the rapidly rising technological capabilities in the past few years.
Among them, most of the technical patents that have gradually increased in recent years are in the fields of basic electrical components and patents related to the three power companies.
Judging from the latest technical interpretation of dismantling, the commercialization of these technologies has begun to achieve phased results.
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