Can the modular platform "deified" by traditional car companies be omnipotent in the era of electric vehicles?

When the concepts of platformization, modularity and architecture are deified into advanced pronouns by marketing, will the products under this specific environment and conditions return to their proper origin in the electrification era?

Not long ago, McKinsey dismantled 65,438+00 Volkswagen electric vehicles sold in China market, including Buick, BYD, GAC, Geely, Jianghuai, Weilai, Roewe, SAIC and Weimar. However, the "localization degree" of these electric vehicles is far lower than expected. This is mainly reflected in the following characteristics:

Nine of 1 10 cars have similar characteristics in battery shape, battery position and floor shape, and all adopt modified or usable internal combustion engine platforms.

2. The power battery of half of the models adapts to the shape of the module, rather than the regular layout with the highest space utilization.

3. Only three models have realized the physical integration of electronic components and electric drives, and the thermal management system covers all components. Other models of electrical modules and thermal management modules are separate.

Obviously, in order to shorten the time to market, most electric vehicles are modified based on the existing internal combustion engine platform. However, due to the theory of commercialization, the existing powertrain technology of electric vehicles will inevitably be standardized, and more electric vehicles will inevitably be produced on special production lines, and the original pure electric platform will gain more shares.

At this time, a question that has been discussed for several years in the era of fuel vehicles will be brought up again: Do electric vehicles need modular platforms?

To answer this question, we need to understand the requirements of the platform and the modular development model.

Whether it is media reports or consumers' understanding, most of the information about platformization or modularization comes from the marketing department of automobile enterprises, which is often confused in concept. But at the manufacturing level, platformization, modularization, serialization, generalization and standardization are all methods of product design and development, corresponding to different levels of vehicle products. All these means point to one goal: to improve the enjoyment of parts in batch manufacturing.

The so-called platform is the carrier of some general parts combination in manufacturing industry. The product platform is a platform for developing series products, and the vehicles on the same platform have the same or similar powertrain and chassis.

The so-called module is to split the general component combination with certain structure and function from the traditional vehicle platform, which is higher than the traditional system or assembly in level. Modular platform is a platform composed of several general modules, which is also called architecture in some car companies. The modular platform actually connects the traditional vehicle platform and module, which further reduces the cost and improves the efficiency.

Therefore, the core difference between the traditional vehicle platform and the modular platform lies in whether the cross-platform universality of component modules can be realized.

But the modular platform is not omnipotent.

The core of platformization is to realize the generalization of parts between different products, so that car companies can concentrate resources on the design and development of car platforms, and ensure the high-level and rapid landing of a series of derivative models with high-level platforms. However, in order to pursue a wider range of cross-platform versatility, the design of the * * * module can only choose the "least common multiple", the large module will be "redundant" in the car, and the small module will be "just right" in the big car. The design scheme of these modules may not be the best if they are placed on a certain model alone.

If car companies have short product lines, limited sales and unclear product planning, it is more meaningful to pursue a modular architecture covering all products, but it is best to focus on one or two platforms. Only when the sales volume is huge, the product line is extremely rich, the income of existing product platforms has reached the upper limit, and the gap between different platforms can be bridged by modular architecture, will there be a greater breakthrough.

On the other hand, during the implementation of the modular architecture, there is a * * * relationship between suppliers and car companies. After adopting the universal module, the supplier's mass supply capacity may need to be improved by an order of magnitude, otherwise the expected scale advantage will not be realized.

This determines that those who have the strongest desire for modularity and the most ability to do it well must be large-scale car companies with large sales volume and multi-platform product lines. Volkswagen, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Geely and the Great Wall are all the same.

Whether car companies should build a modular platform and build a structured car is only a means according to their own resource endowments and strategic goals, not an end, and it is not a necessary condition to judge whether a single model is advanced or not. Moreover, because the transition from product platform to modular platform is a difficult process, it will inevitably experience the impact of rising costs during the transition period, which will pose a huge challenge to capital and technical strength. Therefore, if we implement platformization or modularization, we can't achieve greater benefits in the long run, which is meaningless.

In the era of electric vehicles, the technical conditions, development concepts and development processes of products are changing, and the understanding of modularity itself will be different.

First, the vehicle structure is greatly simplified. Electric vehicle takes power battery as the core of the whole vehicle architecture. Compared with fuel vehicles, the number of mechanical parts is greatly reduced, and the integration of electric drive system and power electronic equipment has long been integrated at the part level. More and more suppliers can provide integrated platform solutions for powertrain. For automakers, the demand for modularity at the vehicle level is not as strong as in the era of fuel vehicles.

Secondly, the number of products has been greatly reduced. The new forces of new cars, such as Tesla, follow the principle of short product line, which invisibly weakens the demand for modular platform development. In this case, they can pay more attention to the advantages of bicycle design.

Finally, product iteration evolved from mechanical iteration to software iteration. The evolution of intelligent electric vehicle products is not entirely in the mechanical or design level, but more in the upgrading of the software functions of the whole vehicle, so as to achieve the effect of universality and continuous innovation. At the design level, pursuing the same goal of low wind resistance and high space utilization will also lead to the "standard answer" of modeling. This means that after the development of a single model is completed, there is no need to make high-frequency changes at the level of mechanical parts.

Therefore, in the era of electrification, it is still a very large car company like Volkswagen that clearly proposes a modular platform. They follow the product layout experience of the fuel vehicle era and want to meet the needs of different regions and market segments with a certain breadth of electric vehicle product lines. At the same time, they also have the ability to open the modular platform to other car companies and share huge development costs with each other.

On the other hand, the concept of electric vehicle modular platform is also extending from the traditional mechanical level to the electrical level. From the very beginning, a highly integrated modular architecture of electronic and electrical functions was built, and local centralized processing of different functional modules was realized through domains. Through the independent research and development of the underlying operating system, the central processor manages different domain processors and control units.

Such an electronic and electrical modular architecture can naturally be applied to different models, and the function and performance can be selected according to the level of the vehicle, and even the mechanical structure can be tailored for the electronic and electrical architecture, which is also the origin of "software-defined automobile".

In the era of electrification, the modular platform at the mechanical level is no longer the most concerned thing for emerging car companies that follow the strategy of streamlining products, and there is even a trend from modularization to standardization. However, the modular architecture of electrical appliances should be well thought out and laid out from the beginning.

Elon musk once reflected on the same platform of Model X and Model S, arguing that Tesla took great pains because of the contradiction between the functions realized on Model X and the design and layout of the original car, so the smaller Model 3 and Model Y simply had 75% commonality of parts. Tesla, which does not continue to demand derivative products, naturally does not need to invest more energy in the modular platform.

However, Volkswagen is a big fan of modular automobile manufacturing. Even in the era of electric vehicles, it is also launching a powerful propaganda offensive, making modularity the representative of "advanced car-making concept" in consumers' minds.

Old car companies have incomparable advantages in car-building experience, spare parts supply, production management, etc., while new car companies start from demand and make the layout that best meets the needs of most consumers within their own capabilities. Therefore, established car companies will tell stories from the modular cars they are better at, but more and more emerging car companies have taken the lead in making efforts in the electronic and electrical architecture and practicing the new modular road.