Chinese carmaker XPeng has announced it is developing a new Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV) system, abandoning its previous EV-only stance.
Though final details are unconfirmed, boss He Xiaopeng promises up to 430km electric-only range and over 1400km of combined driving range from an “extraordinary” set-up that will be sold globally, according to CarNewsChina.
Xpeng’s Kunpeng Super Electric system, as it will be known, will use electric motors to drive the wheels directly and a combustion engine as a generator.
Battery size, engine type and what model it will feature in is not yet confirmed. However, to get 430km driving range a generous 65-75kWh battery pack will be necessary.
Expect a compact three- or four-cylinder combustion engine to keep the set-up as space-efficient and light as possible.
To keep it functioning like an electric car most of the time, the battery will have a ’5C’ charge rating, meaning it will be able to sprint from 10-80 per cent in 12 minutes, while the combustion engine is promised to only increase cabin noise by 1.0 decibel when engaged.
Aiding refinement will be an artificial intelligence (AI) system that can optimise battery and engine usage based on road conditions, elevations and grades. For example, the engine may turn on early to warm up in time for a steep grade it knows is approaching.
XPeng, like Tesla, is heavily engaged in developing autonomous vehicles and AI for vehicles.
The application for XPeng’s range extender system is for where there are less reliable charging networks, such as in Australia right now, as well as in colder climates such as China’s north.
The EREV, or range extender as you may know it, is not a new idea. Early EVs such as the Holden Volt and BMW i3 REx featured similar systems with small battery ranges boosted by down-sized combustion engines.
Nissan is another company using this type of technology in its e-Power hybrid versions of X-Trail and Qashqai, where electric motors power the wheels directly. A small battery is charged almost constantly by the three-cylinder petrol engine for short bursts of EV-only driving.
As battery technology has raced ahead, though, the technology has popped up again in China and instead of making driving ranges barely acceptable, it’s pushing the figures of mostly-electric cars easily beyond 1000km.
XPeng noted that the current crop of systems, as seen in some Deepal models, the new Mazda EZ-6 and Chery vehicles, to name a few, are slow to charge and offer limited range.
Range is everything in Chinese cars at the moment, with makers focused on pushing electric cars beyond 700km with bigger, more efficient batteries while plug-in hybrid are climbing easily beyond 2000km from a charge and tank.
As for XPeng, it will begin its Australia onslaught with the G6 electric medium SUV as a direct rival to the Tesla Model Y. Next up is a larger, three-row G9 SUV and the X9 people mover. The company has plans to put flying cars into production, as well.
