No need to support the "Electric Dad" in winter anymore

Author | Wang Xiaojun

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

As winter arrives, news about electric vehicles becoming "electric daddies" has increased.

With reduced range, slower charging, and cold cabins, car owners are experiencing various challenges, such as wrapping themselves in blankets in the car unwilling to turn on the air conditioning, getting stranded on highways during freezing rain and snow, and charging guns freezing during charging...

In short, winter seems to be the season with the worst user experience for new energy vehicles, and a series of winter driving dilemmas have become obstacles for consumers considering purchasing new energy vehicles. This has also become a problem that new energy vehicle companies are striving to solve.

At the recent Li Auto 2024 Winter Driving Technology Day event, Li Auto showcased some of its achievements in improving winter range, winter charging, and winter cabin comfort. Through this, it hopes to dispel consumers' concerns about winter driving.

Range reduction is the number one enemy of winter driving. Li Auto found that in the decrease of winter range, air conditioning consumption accounts for 15% and battery loss accounts for about 10%. Li Auto proposed a set of "increasing revenue and reducing expenditure" solutions for these two issues.

In terms of "increasing revenue," Li Auto is committed to enhancing the battery's low-temperature discharge capacity.

This is mainly reflected in the industry-first Kirin 5C battery. For this battery, Li Auto analyzed the internal resistance components of the battery cells, breaking down a total of 17 internal resistance components across three levels, and then conducting feasibility analyses for optimizing each internal resistance component.

By adopting technologies such as superconducting high-activity positive electrodes and low-viscosity high-conductivity electrolytes, they successfully reduced the low-temperature impedance of the MEGA 5C cell by 30%, resulting in a corresponding increase in power capability of over 30%.

In terms of overall vehicle low-temperature range testing conditions, this means that internal resistance energy loss is reduced by 1%, battery heating loss is reduced by 1%, and overall range can be increased by 2%.

In terms of "reducing expenditure," Li Auto focused on the air conditioning, which accounts for 15% of consumption, and designed a dual-layer airflow air conditioning box.

The dual-layer airflow air conditioning box refers to a layered structure for the air conditioning intake, introducing an appropriate amount of external air distributed in the upper layer space, which not only addresses the risk of fogging on the glass but also allows occupants to breathe fresh air.

At the same time, by combining temperature and humidity sensors, carbon dioxide sensors, and other rich sensing units, Li Auto developed a smarter control algorithm that can increase the proportion of recirculated air to over 70% while ensuring no fogging occurs. For example, in the -7°C CLTC standard working condition, the dual-layer airflow air conditioning box achieved a 57W reduction in energy consumption, which translates to an increase of 3.6 km in range.

In addition, Li Auto has also developed a full-stack self-research thermal management architecture, mainly by flexibly allocating heat to achieve reasonable heat utilization. For instance, an option to bypass the battery was added in the thermal management system's circuit, allowing the electric drive to directly heat the cabin, saving about 12% compared to traditional solutions.

After using the Kirin 5C battery, not only has the winter range improved, but it has also surpassed traditional batteries in terms of charging At room temperature, traditional 2C battery systems typically take about 30 minutes to charge from 10% to 80%, but in low-temperature environments, the corresponding charging time extends to around 50 minutes. The decrease in charging efficiency is even more detrimental for luxury models.

To achieve the goal of a consistent charging experience throughout the seasons, Li Auto is upgrading technology in both hardware and software dimensions, optimizing across multiple fields such as high-rate cell design, efficient thermal management design, and various intelligent charging control strategies.

In terms of hardware, the Kirin 5C battery equipped in the Li Auto MEGA has optimized the cell materials (cathode, anode, electrolyte, separator) at the microscopic level, further improving the lithium ion transmission path and achieving high-rate performance. Under low-temperature conditions, the charging rate capability has improved by over 100% compared to traditional 2C cells.

On the software side, Li Auto has designed a very meticulous intelligent pre-cooling and pre-heating algorithm.

For example, after setting the navigation route to the supercharging station, the vehicle can adaptively adjust the battery pre-heating start time and pre-heating water temperature based on the real-time status of the battery and the real-time distance to the station, ensuring that the battery temperature is controlled within the optimal range when arriving at the charging station to start charging.

After this series of upgrades, models equipped with the Kirin 5C battery can charge from 10% to 95% in just 17 minutes, reducing the time by 5 minutes compared to before.

The changes in range and charging efficiency are more deeply felt by the owners themselves, but for Li Auto users, family travel is often the case, so the tangible comfort for family members sitting in the car is equally important, not to mention that the whole family might hesitate to turn on the air conditioning.

In addition to the mainstream industry solutions of PTC direct heating of water or air heating and hot air bypass, the Li Auto MEGA adopts a self-developed multi-source heat pump system, which has 43 modes to cope with energy allocation in various scenarios across the full temperature range.

To address the issue of poor heating performance of air conditioning in low temperatures, the compressor can quickly generate heat through "self-production and self-sales": utilizing the coolant that remains relatively warm after air conditioning heating to quickly heat the refrigerant, activating the heat pump unit, allowing the electric compressor to produce additional heating capacity. This solution compares favorably with conventional industry practices in terms of heating capability: faster heating speed and greater peak heating capacity.

To tackle the common industry issue of the first row heating quickly while the second row heats slowly or not at all, Li Auto continuously optimizes the vehicle's airflow distribution using comfort simulation calculations, setting the ratio of foot airflow between the first and second rows at 1 to 0.87, compared to the common industry ratios of 1 to 0.55 or 1 to 0.66, allowing passengers in both rows to enjoy a more equal comfort experience.

Moreover, to provide a better comfort experience, Li Auto has also considered the temperature layering between the feet and the face, ensuring that the feet feel warm while the head feels cool during low-temperature driving.

Currently, Li Auto's cumulative delivery volume has surpassed 1 million vehicles, but competition in the industry is becoming increasingly fierce, and 1 million can only be considered a new starting point. Today, Chinese automotive companies are gradually moving away from the past strategy of winning through "cost performance" to relying on products and user experience for success To maintain a competitive edge in a fierce market, it is essential to continuously deliver products that exceed user experience. This applies to all players in the industry as well.

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