Source: First Financial Daily

After the conceptual version of the car appeared at the Beijing and Shanghai auto exhibitions, Chery New Energy S51 finally went to mass production. According to media reports, the mass production version of Chery's new energy S51 (Little Ant Concept Vehicle) pure electric micro-car will be officially launched in November this year.

It is understood that Chery New Energy S51 is the first small pure electric vehicle based on the super lightweight technology platform of "all-aluminum space structure + all-composite outer covering". Zhongwang, a research and development manufacturer of aluminium processing, participated in the design and manufacture of S51, playing its own advantages in the design and manufacture of aluminium alloy products and creating a benchmark product in the field of new energy automobiles.

Chery New Energy S51: Functional and Practical, Price-friendly

New energy vehicles have been placed in a strategic position by many automobile companies, and Chery's strategic goal is "by 2020, Chery's new energy will achieve annual sales of 200,000 vehicles, TOP3 sales in domestic competition, strive to be the first". S51 will be the main product of Chery New Energy in the A000 class electric vehicle market.

Chery New Energy has high expectations for S51. As early as 2012, it launched the first generation concept car. After several iterations, S51 brought forth new ideas. With its appearance and functions full of the sense of future science and technology, Chery New Energy earned a lot of eyeballs at various auto exhibitions, and also made all circles full of expectations for the mass production version of this model.

Chery New Energy S51 is mainly positioned as a young person's three doors, two A000 class new energy cars, designed with a maximum endurance of 200 km, a design speed of more than 100 km per hour, a body size of 3200 mm x 1670 mm x 1550 mm, a wheelbase of 2150 mm, and a complete mass of only 855 kg. The lightweight of the body benefits from the application of all-aluminum space structure technology and reinforced composite materials.

In terms of appearance and performance, Chery's new energy S51 has changed a lot from the previous concept car. It adopts the vanguard design of lens headlights, bicolor body, and adds more practical functions. For example, the 400L super-large reserve compartment is far superior to all models at the same level. Meanwhile, the interior of the car adopts Tesla style super-large size LCD screen, which integrates multimedia system and information display function. As an A000 class electric vehicle, the price of S51 will also follow the "pro-people" line. Chery New Energy is committed to making it a "national pure electric vehicle affordable and well-used by ordinary people".

The most complete preservation of S51's lightweight characteristics and technological sense is that its all-aluminium body-body framework aluminium-magnesium alloy application is ahead of the world, up to 93%, more than Cadillac CT6 and Jaguar Land Rover (the latter two aluminium alloy application ratios are 57% and 75%, respectively). According to an automotive industry source, the mass production of Chery S51 will become the first domestic independent brand to achieve all-aluminium body.

According to the EIA information declared by Chery New Energy Company, the plant of this project has been built.

Zhongwang, China: Helping the Design and Manufacture of "All-Aluminum Body"

Due to the influence of battery weight and battery mileage, the new energy vehicle has an urgent need to lighten its body compared with the traditional vehicle. Aluminum density is about 1/3 of steel. Aluminum instead of steel can reduce the weight of the car by 30%-40%. Lightweight body can greatly improve the speed and control ability of the car, and can make the same energy support for a longer distance. Therefore, a large number of new energy vehicles use aluminum alloy materials to solve the problem of body weight loss.

As the leading enterprise in the global aluminum processing industry, Zhongwang of China has cooperated with Chery New Energy to build all-aluminium body, which is an important attempt of the two leading enterprises in exploring the lightweight of new energy vehicles.

As a partner of many automobile manufacturers at home and abroad, Zhongwang of China provides all extruded aluminum profiles for S51. Extruded aluminium profiles for automobiles have very high quality requirements, which require qualified composition, compact and uniform structure, excellent static and dynamic lightness, and good ductility and toughness after heat treatment. Therefore, it also puts forward higher requirements for the strength of enterprises entering this field. From die design to alloy ratio, solution purification, temperature and speed control in extrusion and quenching links, the process parameters of each process must be strictly controlled. Zhongwang China is a "four-in-one" company that integrates gold casting, die design, advanced equipment and product development. It is one of the few enterprises in China that completely solves all the production processes of industrial aluminium profiles.

"During the trial production of the prototype car, the two sides exchanged and cooperated extensively in the aspects of fixture design, body testing method, dimension control after welding, product stability control and so on. Finally, the first prototype car was off line on schedule, and all the performances were good." China Zhongwang Industrial Design Team, said the relevant person in charge.

In fact, Zhongwang of China has been exploring and laying out in the field of new energy vehicles in recent years. Through cooperation with Chery and Huachen buses in the field of new energy vehicles, Zhongwang has upgraded from a simple supplier of aluminium processing materials to a supplier of integrated solutions ranging from overall design, material supply, assistant deep processing to complete manufacturing and welding assembly.