The World New Energy Vehicle Congress (WNEVC) 2024 was recently held in Haikou, Hainan. In a session on the new energy vehicle platform and key technology innovation, Cai Jianyong, CTO of CATL (Shanghai) Intelligent Technology, delivered a keynote speech on the “Practice and Standardization Initiative of Integrated Intelligent Chassis” and called on industrial partners to formulate integrated intelligent chassis standards with concerted efforts.

Below is a summary of the speech, and our fellow automakers are welcomed to discuss it.

Diversified Needs on the Demand Side and Unrelenting Pressure on the Supply Side

Bring Opportunities with Challenges

A review of the development of the auto industry reveals consumers' demand for versatile vehicles with “diversified functions, varied styling, and personalized space”... There are more spatial and consumer-oriented functions for vehicles. Moreover, electrification has made auto manufacturing easier but more difficult to profit. According to data on insured vehicles, there were around 500 new energy vehicle models in 2023, but the average sales volume was 14,000 units per model, and only 35 models acquired an annual sales volume of 50,000 units.

Moreover, the development of the end-to-end large AI model, image generation, and remote driving has accelerated the advent of the self-driving era, and the demand for vehicles as production tools has been further exploited. For example, Robot-Taxi, Robo-Truck, and Robo-Bus have made their way to the public view, and Robo-Space and Robo-X may follow their steps in the future. The functions, forms, and uses of vehicles are diversified, bringing new opportunities as well as new challenges to auto companies.

Empowerment from the CIIC

Promotes the Efficient Realization of Diversified Needs

CATL (Shanghai) Intelligent Technology proposes three core characteristics for the design of integrated intelligent chassis: internal integration, decoupling of the upper body and lower chassis, and open access.

The first characteristic is internal integration, including mechanical integration, energy integration, and control integration. Such design improves the level of integration, reduces duplicated parts for cost saving, makes the vehicle more lightweight, thus enlarging passenger space. It not only improves vehicle performance and safety, but also guarantees a more comfortable and spacious user experience. Mechanical integration includes the integrated integration of the energy bin, drive and thermal management systems and chassis; energy integration enables conversion of electricity to thermal energy on the chassis to ensure maximum efficiency; and control integration is designed for efficient management of chassis and energy through the chassis domain controller SICC and thus for energy waste reduction and the increase of cruising range, and ultimately improve the driving experience through collaborative control.

The second characteristic is the decoupling of the chassis from the upper body. Decoupling on the mechanical, electrical, and software interfaces allows for independent evolution of the upper body and the chassis and supports scenario-based vehicle manufacturing and parallel development. Decoupling of software requires standard control interfaces, such as body domain control, cockpit domain control, intelligent driving domain control, and vehicle motion control, as well as the standardization of service interfaces. This involves the OTA of the chassis, the collection of all chassis data, and the health diagnosis of the chassis, all of which require the use of standardized service interfaces.

After the chassis interface is standardized, the hardware, mechanical components and software of the upper body can be developed in parallel to accelerate vehicle manufacturing. Moreover, such flexibility provides users and customers with more personalized options. Customers can customize their vehicles according to needs, whether they are family cars, business cars or special-purpose vehicles.

The last characteristic is open access, which means the possibility to cater the chassis to versatile models through the opening of mechanical interfaces. Moreover, the open access of software/hardware interfaces supports the rapid updating and replacement of intelligent parts. This not only accelerates the launch of new models, but also allows for ongoing technology upgrading and a better intelligent user experience.

Promoting Practice-based Standard Formulation

Contributes to the Creation of a Future of Diversified Travel Options Together

What industrial changes will the CIIC bring?

First, the design process has been changed. The upper body and the chassis can be separately developed and asynchronously upgraded after decoupling to allow for more personalized and diversified design. This can reduce the period from manufacturing to launch to 12 to 18 months.

Second, the integration process has been changed. The traditional vehicle manufacturing model is a vertical model, which is a private, vertical, and closed pyramid-like structure. Based on CIIC, the new model is a horizontal model featuring sharing and openness. In other words, each module and component on this open system can be developed in parallel and then integrated to improve integration efficiency and accelerate vehicle launch.

Third, the manufacturing process has been changed. Traditionally, vehicle manufacturing is a linear process. However, CIIC can allow for a more flexible assembly line, and complete automatic inspection. This transforms the manufacturing model to reduce vehicle manufacturing cost, thus enabling profitability for even small-scale manufacturing.

The model developed through cooperation between CATL (Shanghai) Intelligent Technology and Hozon Auto has been tested for two years, and are expected to be officially put into mass manufacturing in November 2024. Based on industrial practices, CATL (Shanghai) Intelligent Technology has officially released the Concept, Design Principles and Standardization Initiative of Integrated Intelligent Chassis (Standardization Initiative) formulated under the guidance of the China Society of Automotive Engineers. In the future, CIIC will promote openness and sharing during the development of the auto industry, and CATL anticipates to work with industry experts and partners to advance the standardization of technologies and contribute to the future development of smart electric vehicles."