Shen Yuru: See the future of BYD E6 from the 5.26 traffic accident appraisal report

According to the voice of the economy, “The World Company” reported that on May 26 this year, a GTR sports car in Shenzhen crashed into a BYD E6 taxi, causing the taxi to roll and hit a big tree and caught fire. Three people died inside.

After the accident, the quality of BYD pure electric vehicles was widely questioned. Its share price fell from 24.38 yuan the day before the accident to 14.20 yuan on July 31, a drop of 41.8%. The company's orders have fallen sharply, and many contracts have been suspended. The company is facing severe challenges.

Immediately after the accident, an expert group for the identification of pure electric vehicles was established for the “May 26” major traffic accident. The vehicle and power system, components safety, structural safety, collision safety, electrical and electronic safety, and electric vehicles of domestic electric vehicles were established. 13 industry leaders, including power batteries, automotive accident identification, fire investigation, and material combustion characteristics, have specialized in quality assessment in five areas such as complete vehicles, vehicle collision, power battery, fire, and traffic accident identification.

After two months of careful investigation and study, simulation calculations and various scientific experiments, the expert group issued the "Authentication Report" on August 3. The report provides the following conclusions:

First, this is a rare serious traffic accident. The speed of the sports car is 242 kilometers per hour, which is equivalent to the speed of the takeoff of a large civil aircraft. Although the rear-end sports car has braking action, the speed is still as high as 183-195 kilometers per hour. The speed of the rear-ended taxi is every hour. 81-83 kilometers, the speed of the sports car is still 100 kilometers per hour faster than the taxi. Therefore, experts say that this is a rare traffic accident. The strong collision caused the battery pack of the BYD E6 taxi to be seriously deformed, and some of the batteries had a short circuit with the vehicle body. The powerful electric spark ignited interior materials and other combustible materials, causing a fire.

Second, the taxi continued to roll and collided with a big tree on the side of the road. The big tree cut into the body 1.05 meters. The three occupants died as a result of severe injuries to the head in two violent collisions. They were killed instead of being killed. Burned.

Third, of the 96 batteries in the battery pack, only 24 had burned, accounting for 1/4 of the total. Although the aluminum alloy housing and the battery plate of the burning battery had local combustion, the battery plates remained neat and tidy. Because it is clearly structured, it can be judged that no explosion has occurred.

Fourth, the conclusion of the appraisal report is that the installation layout, insulation protection and high-voltage power system design of the power battery system on the vehicle are reasonable, and “there is no design defect in the vehicle safety”.

The conclusion of the appraisal report is fair and credible. A number of authoritative sources have pointed out that if such collisions occur on gasoline cars, the fire will be even fiercer. BYD Company stated in a statement issued after the accident that the E6 electric taxi has operated in Shenzhen for more than two years on a large scale. As of May 2012, the maximum operating mileage of bicycles has exceeded 200,000 kilometers, and the accumulated total mileage exceeds 1500. In the course of 10,000 kilometers, there were 18 rear-end collisions. No casualties or vehicle burning occurred. These facts also confirmed the conclusions of the expert group.

After the results of the appraisal were announced, the Shenzhen-related company that had once been stranded re-launched cooperation with BYD in public transport and 500 E6 taxis had already been placed. BYD's most difficult period is over. BYD, as a national brand of China's new energy vehicles, must create a better future for itself and must overcome many fortresses through independent innovation:

First, quality testing methods still need to be improved. Wu Zhixin, head of the Quality Evaluation Expert Group and deputy director of the China Automotive Research Center, pointed out that although the safety standards for battery cells and modules are currently higher than in foreign countries, the safety testing of battery systems has not reached the same level and there is still room for improvement. ".

Second, although in the current two kinds of lithium batteries, BYD's lithium iron cobalt battery (abbreviated as iron-based lithium battery) does not spontaneously ignite and explode under certain conditions like lithium manganate battery (abbreviated as lithium battery). The accident at 5.26 showed that severe squeezing of a vicious accident could cause a short circuit in the battery and ignite flammable materials on the car. Therefore, it is recommended that BYD Company learn from the anti-collision design ideas of automobiles and design a battery rack that can absorb and collapse in a collision, so that the battery will fall to the road in a collision accident. Even if it is short-circuited, it cannot ignite the car. Escape easily.

Third, there is much room for innovation to improve battery stability and reliability. For example, according to more than 200 electric taxi drivers, BYD claims that the E6's cruising range can reach 300 kilometers. However, drivers say that they can only run 170-180 kilometers. When the air conditioner is not on during the winter, they can run 240- 250 kilometers. Sometimes suddenly no electricity or alarm for no reason. The battery is still afraid of water. This shows that the battery's stability, reliability, and charge capacity need to be improved. In addition, waterproof, anti-chemical, and physical-extrusion designs can be improved.

Fourth, the development of BYD requires the entire society to include the government's understanding, tolerance, and support. It needs the liberation of the entire society. For example, a technical authority said that the current two kinds of lithium batteries, "there is no fundamental solution to the safety of the battery." Some people still think that the accident shows that the new energy vehicle technology is not yet fully mature. Excuse me, from time to time, we can see from time to time that Germany's Mercedes-Benz and BMW luxury cars are burning spontaneously on the road. Can we say that the German gasoline car also “does not fundamentally solve the security problem”? Is German gasoline auto technology "immature" or "not fully mature"?

In fact, "mature" has no end. Automotive technology is becoming more and more mature in constant progress. The development of fuel standards from Europe 1 to Europe 5 is the case. Can not be "immature" demanding new energy vehicles. As a government, in addition to subsidies for new energy vehicles, it should also actively support the independent innovation of electric vehicle companies. For example, the government should not always wait for international charging pile standards and delay the construction of charging piles.

In fact, it would be better for China’s BYD companies to set Chinese standards. China’s electric vehicles will be stronger before other countries, and other countries will naturally use Chinese standards. In the final analysis, the transformation made by China to China is not just scampered out, but it is only in vain. (Shen Yiru, Researcher, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)