On the morning of June 25, the performance evaluation of the Fifth China EV Rally, Qinghai Lake (CEVR) was launched. The participating models started the evaluation at the Meyu Bridge in Nanchuan Industrial Park, Xining City, and the professional evaluation included acceleration, braking, control and water test. The models participating in the performance evaluation race include: BAIC EU5, BAIC EX360, BAIC EX5, SAIC EX5, Marvel X, Changan Eado EV of Second Generation, ZOTYE T300 EV, BYD Qin EV450, Dongfeng Fengshen E70, LinkTour K-ONE, and Iveco PowerDaily EV42.
The 2018 CEVR maintains a professional standard for the vehicle performance evaluation scheme and adopts professional equipment to evaluate the vehicles. In the evaluation of acceleration, braking, and control, there are strict standards for the length, width, slope and surface of the road. The site of the evaluation is at the Meiyu Bridge in Nanchuan Industrial Park, which is 463.2 meters in length, over 12 meters in width and no more than 1% in longitudinal gradient. Its surface is dry flat asphalt pavement, and its road is closed. The participating vehicles are required to be fully charged, and their tire pressure are adjusted according to their nameplate mark; weight is CVW ( weight written on nameplate ) + driver (the uniform weight of the driver, and the insufficient weight is complemented by the counterweight, which is put on the floor of front passenger seat ); if the vehicle has many kinds of driving mode choice, the unified setting is the motion mode; the vehicle window is closed and the light and other signal devices and the air conditioning are all turned off.
The acceleration and braking evaluation are divided into two rounds (one round includes go-and-return path), requiring each driver of two to drive the same vehicle for one round (could reduce the impact of human factors such as driving way on performance).The shorter acceleration time in the two rounds is regarded as the better performance score, and the sum of the shorter braking distance in the two rounds is regarded as the better braking performance result.
The control performance evaluation is usually the test of orbiting around pile. The total distance of pile-bucket is 120 meters and the distance between piles is 15 meters. The results are evaluated by professional laser timing equipment and tape measure. In order to ensure the justice and fairness of the Rally, the evaluation is divided into two rounds as well with two test drivers each driving the same vehicle to participate in one round, and finally the shorter time in the two rounds is regarded as the result of the Rally.
The wading challenge is divided into two rounds. The first is the evaluation of passing a 20cm deep pool, and the second is the evaluation of passing a 40cm deep pool. The pool has a strict standard. Its water sink is 8 meters wide, 30 meters long with hard cement bottom. The bottom of the water sink is 1.5 meters from the top of the dam (anti-overflow). The participating models must be assembled according to the factory standard. No modification of their power system, power supply, and installation of electronic control components is allowed. Without any external force, if the vehicle passes the pool within the prescribed time of 5 minutes, its wading challenge is a success.
Through today's performance evaluation race, we can have a horizontal comparison of the performance of the ten participating electric vehicle models. When talking about the main purpose of the evaluation, the technical manager of the Rally, Zhang Sipei, stressed that the performance evaluation race was not to distinguish between different cars, but to dig out their advantages by showing different models, so that consumers can have reference when making their choice and find the brand car that satisfies their demand more intuitively.
In order to ensure the fairness of performance evaluation results of the participating models, Zhang Sipei said that all participating vehicles were required to maintain their factory state, so the evaluation results could truly reflect the model's mass production level. Almost all car performances including acceleration, braking, and control and so on are closely related to the performance of the tire. According to the rules of the Rally, all participating vehicles are required to maintain original factory standards and the model and size of their tyr es cannot be changed, and their air pressure is not allowed to be adjusted. The sensitivity of the vehicle, to a large extent, depends on the weight of the vehicle itself. The participating vehicles were classified into four groups according to their original weight. Considering there were differences in weight of each driver, and the participating vehicles and the drivers were weighed before the Rally, with as little variables as possible. The drivers doing evaluation today have a very comprehensive technical performance. We can see that many of the drivers in the Rally are experienced rally players, which is the guarantee for stable and excellent vehicle skills. For professional drivers, if the performance of the car itself can be maximized, performance data will not have great fluctuation. In order to make the results more reliable, the two test drivers each drive the same vehicle for a round, and the better result is selected as the final result, which is scientific and credible.
On 26th, the Fifth China EV Rally, Qinghai Lake (CEVR) will usher in a three-day Tour of Qinghai Lake Competition, launching a wonderful competition with a total mileage of 690 kilometers. 10 out of 14 professional evaluation items including endurance ability, fast charging capacity, climbing ability, power saving ability, exterior design, interior design, space design, comfort configuration, mute effect, and technology configuration will be completed in the course of the competition. As the section of the competition belongs to the plateau area where the air is relatively thinner, whether the power performance of electric vehicles will be affected by high altitude, let’s wait and see.