A friend discovered a strange phenomenon when choosing a car last year: a plug-in hybrid model has a pure electric range of only 50 kilometers, but the price is quite affordable; while an extended-range electric vehicle can easily have a range of more than 200 kilometers, and the price is also much higher. They are both hybrids, so why is there such a big difference in battery capacity? An engineer who has been in the industry for 20 years revealed the secret: This is not a technical problem at all, but the result of a game of human nature.
Plug-in hybrid is a "reformist" in the era of fuel vehicles. It was born with a clear mission to replace traditional fuel vehicles. As the pioneer of plug-in hybrid technology, BYD's strategic goal is straightforward: to compress the market share of joint venture fuel vehicles from 40% to about 10%. Therefore, the essence of plug-in hybrid vehicles is "fuel-based and electric-powered". The engine is still the main force, and the electric motor is more like a diligent assistant.
Extended-range electric vehicles are the "compromisers" of the electric vehicle camp. As early as the beginning of the last century, engineer H. Piper thought of installing engines for electric vehicles to solve the problem of battery life. The essence of a range-extended vehicle is that
A friend discovered a strange phenomenon when choosing a car last year: a plug-in hybrid model has a pure electric range of only 50 kilometers, but the price is quite affordable; while an extended-range electric vehicle can easily have a range of more than 200 kilometers, and the price is also much higher. They are both hybrids, so why is there such a big difference in battery capacity? An engineer who has been in the industry for 20 years revealed the secret: This is not a technical problem at all, but the result of a game of human nature.
Plug-in hybrid is a "reformist" in the era of fuel vehicles. It was born with a clear mission to replace traditional fuel vehicles. As the pioneer of plug-in hybrid technology, BYD's strategic goal is straightforward: to compress the market share of joint venture fuel vehicles from 40% to about 10%. Therefore, the essence of plug-in hybrid vehicles is "fuel-based and electric-powered". The engine is still the main force, and the electric motor is more like a diligent assistant.
Extended-range electric vehicles are the "compromisers" of the electric vehicle camp. As early as the beginning of the last century, engineer H. Piper thought of installing engines for electric vehicles to solve the problem of battery life. The essence of a range-extended vehicle is that it is "mainly electric and supplemented by fuel". It is essentially a pure electric vehicle, but it only carries an exclusive "mobile power bank".
This difference in design philosophy determines their different needs for battery capacity. The small battery of the plug-in hybrid car mainly plays the role of an energy transfer station, which is enough to cope with starting and low-speed driving scenarios. The large battery of a range-extended vehicle is the basis for supporting pure electric driving. Without a large battery, it loses its existence value.
Plug-in hybrid car owners have a relatively "Buddhist" attitude towards electricity. Even if the battery power is exhausted and the vehicle is driven by the engine, the power performance and driving experience will not drop off a cliff. Most of these users come from the fuel vehicle camp. What they want is to save fuel and do not have high requirements for pure electric battery life.
Owners of extended-range vehicles are extremely sensitive to battery power. An owner of an extended-range car said bluntly: "Buying an extended-range car is just to save fuel. If you have to start the engine every day, it is better to just buy a gasoline-powered car." Li Auto’s data shows that the proportion of its users driving purely on electric vehicles is as high as 80%. What these users pursue is the driving quality of pure electric vehicles, and large batteries are the guarantee for them to enjoy a quiet and smooth experience.
The performance in the power-depletion state is even more different. When fully charged, the ideal L9 accelerates from 100 kilometers to 100 kilometers in just over 5 seconds, but when the battery is exhausted, it takes about 9 seconds. This phenomenon of "one stop when fully charged and one when out of power" requires range-extended vehicles to be equipped with large batteries to avoid frequent power outages.
The choice of small batteries for plug-in hybrids is an inevitable result of cost control. Battery packs with 10-20 kilowatt-hours of electricity allow car companies to lower prices to below 100,000 yuan. Traditional fuel vehicles such as Sylphy and Lavida have dropped to 70,000 yuan, and plug-in hybrid vehicles must maintain price competitiveness by controlling battery capacity.
Extended-range electric vehicles are equipped with large batteries with a temperature of more than 30 degrees Celsius, which is determined by market positioning. Most of these models are concentrated in the mid-to-high-end market, with starting prices generally above 150,000 yuan. Users not only want performance and smart driving to be up to par, but also require luxury configurations such as refrigerators, color TVs, and sofas. Brands such as Nezha and Leapao found that after increasing the battery life to 300 kilometers, the number of orders increased sharply.
The results of consumers voting with real money are clear: plug-in hybrid car owners are more concerned about price, and the experience improvement brought by an increased battery is not as attractive as a 10,000-20,000 yuan reduction in car price; extended-range car owners are willing to pay a premium for long battery life, and large batteries are the primary reason for them to choose extended range.
The plug-in hybrid system is more complex and needs to accommodate both engine and motor power systems. If the battery capacity is too large, the vehicle body will be overweight, affecting performance and increasing fuel consumption. Plug-in hybrid vehicles are mostly modified based on traditional fuel vehicle platforms, and limited space also limits the installation of large batteries.
In order to meet the electric driving experience, extended-range electric vehicles have naturally high requirements for battery capacity. Taking the Ideal L6 as an example, its motor power is as high as 300 kilowatts, while the engine power is only 120 kilowatts. Small batteries cannot meet the energy needs of high-power motors, which will lead to the embarrassing situation of "no power, no performance".
Winter performance is also an important consideration. In the pure electric range achievement test, the top five were all plug-in hybrid models. This shows that plug-in hybrid technology is more adaptable in extreme environments, which partly explains why plug-in hybrid vehicles dare to adopt a small battery strategy.
Plug-in hybrid users and extended-range users are almost two completely different groups. Plug-in hybrid users are mostly pragmatists who want a more fuel-efficient alternative to gasoline vehicles. These users may come from second- and third-tier cities, where charging conditions are inconvenient and they often need to travel long distances.
Extended-range users are pursuers of electric driving experience. Most of them are residents of first-tier cities, and charging is convenient. They mainly rely on pure electricity for daily commuting, and only occasionally start the engine for long distances. A user who owns both types of cars shared: "The range-extended car basically doesn't need to be refueled when commuting to and from get off work. Although the plug-in hybrid car has a smaller battery, its long-distance fuel consumption is much lower than that of a gasoline-powered car."
This difference in user portraits allows car companies to make different choices in product definition. Plug-in hybrid vehicles adhere to the small battery strategy in order to maintain price competitiveness; range-extended vehicles must be equipped with large batteries, otherwise they cannot meet the needs of core users.
When plug-in hybrid models insist on a range of 50 kilometers and can sell well, and when extended-range models cannot gain a foothold without a range of 200 kilometers, what we see is not a simple dispute over technical routes. Data from Leapmotor shows that about 84% of driving miles are driven by pure electric vehicles, which seems to prove users’ preference for electric driving.
But the fuel consumption advantage of plug-in hybrids in highway conditions is also obvious. Especially when the battery is running low, the fuel consumption of extended-range vehicles may exceed that of plug-in hybrid vehicles due to energy conversion efficiency issues. This cross-fertilization advantage in performance gives each of the two technical routes solid fans.
