The brand positioning is scene intelligent electric vehicle. Before the car was experienced, this positioning was relatively conceptual. However, after the test drive of this iCAR 03, I really realized the technical cohesion of this "science man" for the ultimate scene, which is not limited to the elevation of the black technology software of the car, but also can put the high-level off-road ability that A-class pure electric city SUVs dare not play into iCAR03. I really didn’t expect that the seemingly "harmless" iCAR03 is not just as simple as a household electric car, but also has great achievements in the all-terrain field, such as easily climbing the 38-degree high slope, easily climbing the stairs, easily passing through the cross shaft, easily passing through the water pool mixed with ice fragments, etc., making cross-country very easy, which completely subverts people’s cognition of iCAR brand and always thinks that it is just a scooter.
After the off-road venue, I really feel that the brand’s promotion to iCAR03 is too conservative, and it is not as simple as "electric tidal box SUV".
Simple appearance but not simple
Last year was the year when China brand launched more square box-type off-road vehicles. Although iCAR 03 is also a square box shape, it is difficult for you to directly associate it with off-road vehicles and hardliners. However, if you look closely, there will be a ""content in the profile of the side body. However, in addition, the appearance of iCAR 03 is more original lines.
ICAR 03′ s external dimensions are 4406mm long, 1910mm wide, 1715mm high, and the wheelbase reaches 2715 mm. The overall shape is very square, and the tough body contour is outlined by using very geometric lines, which is friendly to the interior space.
The shapes of the light groups at the front and rear of the car are consistent, and they all use the shape of the "I" digital intelligent light group. The shapes of the front and rear light groups echo each other, and also echo the iCAR logo. The front lights have six kinds of intelligent lights, and the overall shape is relatively simple, but it has a high recognition rate. However, this kind of thing is definitely different for individuals.
The shape of the square box is simple, but the details are not simple. In addition to the small intention of the light group, iCAR03 uses an electric hidden door handle, which has an ice-breaking power of 120N in the snowy winter.
The appearance details are also reflected in the four-wheel eyebrow lights, all of which are embedded with "I-mark lights". This design is rare in other models. It can be said that the iCAR brand is very careful in increasing vehicle recognition.
In addition, there are two details: the design of iCAR at no cost. One is that the rear tailgate is opened at a 90-degree right angle only by hard-core off-road vehicles, in order to take things more conveniently. On this side tailgate, there is also an electric suction door, which can be automatically sucked with a slight clearance, so as to achieve the same configuration as the mainstream off-road vehicle, which not only saves worry and effort, but also from this aspect, the positioning of this model has slowly leapfrogged.
In addition to the tail door full of off-road flavor, a real small schoolbag was designed at the tail. In the past, off-road vehicles were called "small schoolbags" when they took a spare tire, but iCAR03 really installed a small schoolbag with Chaochuang personality, which can realize the wet and dry separation of take-away items. Press the point I in iCAR to open it, which is really intimate.
In terms of details, not only these, iCAR0 3 also has 50KG load-bearing luggage rack, 220V3.3kw external discharge, 1.6T traction qualification and 12V power supply in trunk. ICAR 03 adds a series of hardware for off-road, home and tide play, so that users can travel/drive with ease.
Interior Configuration of Intelligent Equal Rights
We see that the simple but not simple appearance is amazing, and the interior, configuration and intelligence are even more simple. The interior style of iCAR 03 has two colors: dark and light. It is expected that most users will choose the light interior because it is elegant, and the patchwork and rough outline make the interior style unique in the compact pure electric SUV.
The center console is equipped with two screens, a clear digital instrument screen and a 15.6-inch ultra-wide field of view central control large screen. The two screens have a clear division of labor, and for an A-class pure electric SUV, it can fully meet the demand.
ICAR 03 comes standard with Tencent Ecology, which meets the requirements of multi-instruction parallelism such as driving directions and entertainment. It has four-tone language control recognition, which can accurately identify the instructions issued by passengers from different locations, and the control is more intelligent and accurate. As well as full-scene voice control, greatly liberating multi-command control with both hands.
It can also expand mainstream APP applications, and its menu catalogue and function card design are easy to understand, and the pull-down shortcut function and air conditioning control are very intuitive.
It is worth mentioning that the intelligent cockpit of the four-wheel drive model adopts the 8155 chip, which can support the smooth playback of 8 channels of 4K video, and the 360 image and voice interaction function is supported by the 8155 chip to achieve the first-class in the same class. ICAR 03 also supports more than 20 intelligent modes such as pet mode, nap mode, karaoke mode and child lock mode.
In terms of audio and video configuration, this model is also the "top" configuration in the same level. The Infinity Swallow Lishi audio system equipped with 12 high-performance speakers above the four-wheel drive long-life advanced version has been professionally tuned by Harman Kardon.
In terms of technology configuration, it can be said that everything this handlebar can give is in place. For a model of 120,000-180,000 yuan, its configuration is rich and reasonable. In this respect, I have to admire Chery’s pursuit of cost control and technology.
Efficient power and reasonable configuration.
The power part of iCAR 03 is relatively mainstream, but in the mainstream, there is unexpected potential to be stimulated. The model of this test drive is a four-wheel drive version, equipped with dual-motor power, with a peak power of 205Kw, a wheel torque of 4100N·m, and an acceleration of 6.5s per 100 kilometers. The electric drive is a six-in-one flat-wire motor with the highest efficiency of 96.96%, which has the characteristics of high energy, high efficiency and low consumption.
As for the power battery, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited’s customized battery core is adopted, which has the characteristics of high energy density. In terms of battery cell energy density, the two-drive version is 401: 180.9 Wh/kg; Two-wheel drive 501 version is 182.19Wh/kg；; The version of the four-wheel drive 501 is 182.19Wh/kg, and the energy density of the 501 battery life package reaches 139wh/kg.
For battery protection, iCAR 03 adopts a "sandwich" structure with a 10mm battery protection armor body. The upper and lower versions of the battery pack are made of aviation grade material, the upper case is covered with 1000°C ultra-high temperature resistant mica material, and the lower case is made of aluminum alloy plate, which can achieve a pressure of 20kPa.
ICAR 03 has inherited Chery’s profound technical innovation ability in the aspect of three power plants, and has a long-term vision from capability to safety to sustainable use. For example, in terms of body structure and chassis, in order to enhance strength and reduce unsprung weight, iCAR has created a hybrid super-strong chassis, using a 3,500-ton integrated die-casting tower top structure and an all-aluminum honeycomb structure girder to form a super-rigid foundation. Hollow cast aluminum H-arm is adopted in the chassis structure of H-arm multi-link and hydraulic bushing, which reduces the weight by 30% and the unsprung impact.
In terms of body frame, it’s really worth saying more, because its body-in-white weighs only 230kg, which is not as heavy as an adult pig. In addition, the original all-aluminum multi-cavity cage body makes the curb weight of iCAR03 only start from 1.68 tons, which is a pure electric vehicle, and this innovation has laid a deep foundation for off-road ability.
Comfortable city driving
ICAR 03 with square box shape has advantages for riding experience, with ample head space and leg space brought by 2715 wheelbase, which is enough for a family of three to travel. The effective space utilization ratio of iCAR 03 vehicle reached 66%, and the interior space reached 64.3%.
The car has a super-large rear head space of the same level. According to official data, the rear head space reaches 991mm, which makes passengers’ activities in the car not cramped.
In terms of storage space, the whole vehicle has several extensible storage spaces, including the storage bin under the 24L rear seat and the backup storage space, which can be extended to 1238L.
In normal pavement driving, the acceleration of iCAR 03 is very rapid, and the required driving mode can be selected through the driving mode on Nakajima. iCAR 03 has 8+x all-road driving modes to choose from, and there are four modes to choose from on paved roads: energy saving/comfort/sports/personalization. If it is a four-wheel drive vehicle, the four-wheel drive and two-wheel drive will automatically switch during normal driving, which will bring more energy-saving performance.
For the iWD intelligent electronic control four-wheel drive equipped with iCAR 03, the performance on the pavement is very smart, and it will remain in the two-wheel drive mode most of the time, and will switch to the four-wheel drive only at the moment of starting and accelerating, and once the vehicle maintains a stable power output, it will remain in the two-wheel drive output.
ICAR 03 adopts the design of arms, which is very convenient when switching gears, moving forward and backward. When turning left and right, the central control screen will open the camera on the steering side to make up the blind spot, thus achieving a safer purpose.
Because the weight of the car body is the same as that of a fuel car, the starting and acceleration of iCAR 03 is very easy. Although it is also an electric car that has a smooth sense of acceleration, it is obvious that the support of the chassis is very resilient, and when turning at high speed, the control of the car body is very dexterous, and there is almost no inertia brought by the dynamic potential energy. The direction of the steering wheel is completely unified with the direction of the car body.
For the transmission of road conditions, iCAR 03 can transmit the road conditions as delicately as golf, especially the feeling between roads, potholes and gravel roads is relatively clear, the suspension is well supported, the resilience of shock absorption is obviously very tough, and there is room for accepting greater impact.
Generally speaking, the adjustment of iCAR 03 on paved roads is conservative, and it is mainly for the comfort of family cars, but it is not very radical. On the one hand, it shows that iCAR03 is positioned as a home and trendy car, not a performance car. However, the performance is not reflected in the pavement, but it is completely released in the off-road field.
Many cross-country events are not to mention.
Who would have thought that although the appearance of iCAR 03 has the value of "harmless to people and animals", playing in off-road venues, I think many hard-core off-road vehicles that sell more than 300,000 will not underestimate it. This off-road test drive was carried out on a site with a slope of 38 degrees. Seeing the models that don’t take off-road as the selling point, it’s really a sweat to challenge many hard-core off-road test sections, or I don’t have much confidence in iCAR 03.
However, the display is very cruel. iCAR 03 completely hit the face, not only with a 38-degree slope, but also with a cross shaft and a wading pool. Even the wheels will not slip, just adjust the corresponding driving mode in the car.
ICAR 03 can be regarded as a real software-defined car. Some SUVs that also use dual motors are just competing for acceleration time, but iCAR 03 makes it too easy for hard-core off-road to complete. When climbing a hill, you only need to stabilize the speed and look at the transparent body and direction displayed on the hollow screen, even without adjusting to any off-road mode.
After reaching the top of the slope, adjust the mode to flexible downhill, release the switch and brake, and the vehicle will firmly grab the ground and descend to the ground very stably, which makes the novice cross-country very calm. The difference between flexible downhill and steep slope descent is that the software is used to calculate the adhesion of each wheel, the slope data and the vehicle speed, and the torque release of each wheel is controlled more subtly, and the vehicle speed is controlled by a motor, instead of controlling the downhill vehicle speed to a set value in general.
With the difficult uphill as the foundation, it is actually easier to pass when facing the challenges of climbing stairs, small humps and narrow bridges.
What I didn’t expect was that iCAR 03 passed easily when it challenged the 30cm cross axle. We can see that when it crossed the axle, sometimes a wheel would be suspended and have no adhesion. At this time, IWD’s intelligent electronically controlled four-wheel drive can distribute the dynamic torque of the front and rear motors, start the wheel with millisecond-level response, and instantly increase the torque of the wheel with adhesion, so as to achieve normal passing. This does not require particularly high driving skills, just need.
What is even more surprising is that when many friends recommend various in-situ U-turn functions in a high-profile manner, iCAR 03 also has the ability of extreme turning, that is, after the steering wheel hits a certain side, the rear wheel will lock with the direction, forming a compass leg mode, dragging the vehicle to extreme turning, thus reducing the turning radius. In order to achieve this turning mode, you only need to select the extreme turning mode in the screen.
To sum up, the off-road capability of iCAR 03 is an unexpected bright spot, so that it masks its trendy nature. As the first model of iCAR brand, iCAR03 can definitely be called a pure electric compact SUV with a new height of "involution". If you are a cross-country enthusiast and just want to have a drink in the surrounding cross-country, iCAR 03 is a very good choice, and its price is still within 190,000, which is great for the cost of playing cars. If you are a user who likes go on road trip and needs daily transportation, the intelligence, comfort, space and expansion ability of iCAR 03 can fully meet your play needs, and it is a good choice for low-cost cars. Therefore, if you are interested in iCAR 03, you might as well go to its experience store to have a look.
