In May 2022, the sales of new energy passenger cars in China were 360,000, and increased by 91.2% year-on-year and 27.3% month-on-month.
After experiencing a brief setback in April, domestic new energy vehicle manufacturers represented by BYD and new car-making forces have restarted a period of rapid growth. In sharp contrast, traditional manufacturers are still catching up in the new energy field.
htmlOn June 13, SAIC MG MULAN, a new crossover pure electric vehicle model, was officially announced. The new car is built on SAIC Nebula's pure electric architecture and also adopts a brand new design language, which is obviously different from the models currently on sale by MG. The launch of
pure electric architecture and pure electric models prove that SAIC MG is catching up in the new energy field.
A new platform creates
Currently, MG brand has many new energy models such as MG 6 New Energy, MG Leader New Energy, MG HS New Energy, etc., but from the name, it can be seen that these are very ordinary oil-to-electric models, and they cannot be compared with real new energy models in terms of car use experience.
The emergence of MG MULAN ended this shortcoming in the new energy field.
MG MULAN's front face is full of science fiction, the narrow and long headlights look very aggressive, and the three-stage air intake grille is also full of sporty atmosphere.
Compared with the mature and persistent Roewe brand, MG has accumulated a good reputation in terms of youth and sports. MG MULAN naturally needs to carry forward this tradition.
From the side of the car, the body of this car is very slender, which is the visual effect brought by the low body and the suspended roof. But in fact, the body length of this car is only 4287mm, which falls within the scope of small cars.
Although the wheelbase of 2705mm is pretty good, for consumers who focus on internal space, this obviously cannot meet the actual needs.
power, the new car is equipped with a ternary lithium battery provided by CATL , with a maximum power of 150kW. The official claims that its acceleration time of 100 kilometers is only 3.8 seconds. Combined with the short and concise body, it can be seen that MG officially plans to turn this car into a "small steel cannon" model.
The new pure electric platform
Compared with the newly released MG MULAN, the outside world is actually more concerned about MG's new nebula pure electric architecture. According to SAIC MG official, this is a brand new pure electric architecture. Based on this architecture, more new pure electric models will be born in the future, and MG MULAN is just one of them.
As a general architecture, Nebula pure electric architecture supports various subdivided models from compact cars to MPVs to sports car , and can support a wheelbase of up to 3100mm. The mainstream models on the market can be born on Nebula architecture.
In addition, the Nebula architecture also supports battery swap, charging and dual high voltage platforms, which facilitates MG to develop various models and explore different market segments. The most important thing about the nebula architecture is the new battery pack it uses. This battery pack changes the arrangement of square cells from the common vertical to the horizontal, and cancels the module, thereby reducing the thickness of the battery pack, realizing the lightweight body, and significantly improving the range and safety performance of the entire vehicle.
In addition, this brand new battery pack also improves the vertical space in the car to a certain extent and improves the passenger's riding experience.
For MG, the new Nebula pure electric architecture is equivalent to building infrastructure for its new energy business, which will greatly reduce the production cost of MG electric vehicles and accelerate the pace of product launch.
is just a "make-up lesson" rather than leading
Before the emergence of the Nebula architecture, MG's new energy vehicles relied on oil-to-electric models to conquer the world. With the special identity of "British cars", MG has even achieved very good sales in the European market, and it seems that it has not been affected by oil conversion.
But oil-to-electric models have always been a temporary measure. Now that MG MULAN and Nebula architecture are released, it means that MG has begun to catch up with the mainstream level of the new energy industry.
But it should be noted that this is just a "make-up lesson" and cannot be said to be the leader. Compared with traditional domestic manufacturers, MG is not behind, and they are both on the same level. However, if compared with BYD, , Tesla, , and new car-making forces, MG is just a small step, and if you are not careful, you will be left behind by the market.
The reason is very simple. Tesla and the new car-making forces used pure electric platforms from the beginning. These brands have no history of making fuel vehicles and do not have historical burdens, so they have taken the lead in the competition in the new energy market.
As for BYD, its pure electric e-platform has been open for several years, and it also has a clear leading advantage compared to domestic manufacturers like MG.
More importantly, some of the "highlights" of the nebula architecture actually do not have particularly obvious advantages. The so-called new battery pack essentially uses a module-free technology.
CATL's CATL's CTP technology and BYD's blade battery have both successfully used it for many years, and MG is unlikely to gain market leadership through these characteristics.
As a traditional automobile manufacturer, MG's transformation speed is relatively fast, but it still seems a bit out of touch compared with the entire market. Nebula architecture and MG MULAN have only made up for their own shortcomings, and they also need more mass-produced models to support them.
