Test drive Changan Ford EVOS: a pioneer in vehicle-road collaboration, the “T-type car” in the era of intelligence

Chinese car consumers have increasingly stricter definitions of cars. In addition to the hard-core configuration, I also want to find other consumer urges to buy a car. For example, model culture, design details, cutting-edge technology and so on.

In short, the concept of consumption that “cars are a means of transportation” has gradually faded away from us with the term “pishi” in the 1990s.

This time, Pinwan/Pinjia was invited to Changsha to test drive the Changan Ford EVOS, which has not yet been officially launched. At this test drive meeting, we not only experienced this new product in an immersive manner, but also had a good understanding of Ford’s “ideas”. A deeper understanding.

If you don’t know enough about the Ford brand, please look here first:

The Ford brand was founded by Henry Ford in 1903. Like Mercedes-Benz, it is also a car brand with a history of more than 100 years. In these hundreds of years of development, Ford has achieved many “world firsts”.

Among them, a well-known “first” is that in 1913 Ford created the world’s first automobile assembly line. This reduces the original 12.5 hours of manufacturing time for Model T cars to 1.5 hours. In the same year, the Ford Model T was introduced to China. In 1924, Mr. Sun Yat-sen also wrote to Henry Ford asking him to help establish China’s automobile industry.

The “T-car” produced on the assembly line also became the first mass-produced car. When the Model T was finally discontinued, more than 15 million vehicles were sold during the entire life cycle of the Model T, which has been difficult to break so far. This also made Henry Ford known as “the man who put wheels on the world.”

In addition, Ford has a lot of history that is called “the world’s first”:

In 1955, Ford created the world’s first pearlescent car paint, which is still used by many car companies today;

In 1957, Ford launched the Fairlane 500 Skyliner, the first retractable hard-top convertible in history;

In 1964, Ford launched the world’s first car with positioning function;

In 1971, Ford launched the world’s first model with an electric sunroof, and the sunroof can be opened and closed with one button;

In 1980, Ford introduced the world’s first keyless entry system, which is now the starting point of the digital password unlocking function on Ford doors;

In 2015, Ford’s Shelby GT350R was the world’s first mass-produced carbon fiber wheel model.

In 2017, Navigant Research released a self-driving strength report. Ford ranked first in self-driving, and Google ranked seventh at the time.

Nowadays, with the arrival of Changan Ford EVOS, it is like a reappearance of history, and it has also created many “firsts”. What are the aspects? We dig one by one!

EVOS, Ford’s first build specifically for the Chinese car market

The trend of “win the Chinese auto market, win the world” has led many auto brands to focus on China. Changan Ford EVOS is the first model specially built for the Chinese automobile market by the Ford China team and the Australian team. Therefore, EVOS is not a domestically produced version of Ford’s global model, but a brand new pan-Chinese model.

EVOS is positioned by Changan Ford as a medium-sized coupe SUV with a range of 200,000 to 300,000. It is equipped with Ford’s main 2.0T EcoBoost gasoline engine + 8AT power combination.

After upgrading and tuning, this 2.0T engine can output 238 horsepower and 376 Nm. Although the entire system uses a front-wheel drive system, its zero-hundred acceleration time is only 6.6 seconds, and its acceleration performance is comparable to that of a small steel gun.

The overall proportions of the appearance of the new car are very coordinated. The plump and dynamic shape conforms to the aesthetics of Chinese consumers. The 20-inch big feet, bonnet stiffeners, and hatchback shape also allow EVOS to express its sporting genes.

Although EVOS is a medium-sized SUV, its body length is 4920mm and its wheelbase is 2945mm. The size of the leapfrog is directly close to the medium and large SUV BMW X6, which also allows the 1.8-meter person to easily lift his legs in the back row.

The exterior design of EVOS has many “firsts” for Ford. Among them, split headlights, penetrating daytime running lights, penetrating taillights (taillight LED lights are not penetrating), tail trunk switches, and retractable door handles are the “firsts” in the Ford brand design.

The most worth mentioning is that, in order to show the sense of ceremony, the designer also equipped EVOS with a welcome mode called “Wolong Awakening”.

When the key is close to the vehicle to unlock, the daytime running lights of the front of the car will light up, the “dragon scales” of the air intake grille will also be fanned, and the taillights of the car will breathe and flicker. This design is not only an innovation of Ford models, but also an unprecedented expression of the sense of science and technology for gasoline vehicles. Compared with electric vehicles that only use lights to welcome guests, EVOS will indeed interact more with the owners.

These “firsts” in the exterior design of Changan Ford EVOS are intended to give Chinese consumers a sense of freshness. Of course, these are still not enough, so EVOS has also worked hard on the interior design.

In the interior, the manufacturer has equipped EVOS with a 1.1-meter-long large screen. This entire screen is the largest in-vehicle screen except for the Mercedes-Benz EQS. When driving the EVOS and waiting for the traffic lights, there is indeed a sense of superiority, and I think, “The people in the car next to me must be envious of my big screen.”

This screen of Changan Ford EVOS is not only to prove that the large screen is not exclusive to electric vehicles, but also to make Ford models one step closer to being intelligent and connected in terms of function.

On the left side of this 1.1-meter-long screen is the dashboard area. There are three themes to choose from, and it can also implement AR real-world navigation, BlueCruise active driving assistance, and the vehicle-road collaboration system (V2I) to be mentioned later.

At the same time, the car machine also supports voice control, “Hello Ford” can realize such as air conditioning, sunroof, trunk control and so on. However, EVOS voice assistant does not support continuous dialogue, which is a pity. Looking forward to the further improvement of EVOS that can be OTA for all vehicles in the future.

The right part is the vehicle control and entertainment video and audio control area, which can realize the different display of “full screen” and “split screen”. In addition, during the test drive, a pop-up window that supports the setting of the dialect was popped up. This feature can add some surprises. In the words of Ford engineers, this is also to allow the main and co-pilots to participate together and connect emotions with the screen.

In addition to the innovation of the large screen, the interior of Changan Ford EVOS actually has many designs that satisfy Chinese consumers. For example, the “B&O Whispering Wall” inspired by furniture design not only guarantees the sound quality, but also embodies a sense of high-level design. However, B&O audio is more suitable for listening to vocals and symphony. If you are a rock lover, it lacks some bass and shocking experience.

It is worth mentioning that the seat design of Changan Ford EVOS is very ergonomic, and the adjustment of parameters such as softness, hardness and wrapping is very in place. It is rare for the “old series” to sit in the front and rear rows very comfortably. In some places, even the seats of Mercedes-Benz are even more comfortable than those of Mercedes-Benz. It seems that when designing the seat, the manufacturer must have done a lot of sample collection and data adjustment.

EVOS, Ford’s first “BlueCruise” model in China

For a long time, people are used to thinking that the concept of autonomous driving was first proposed by new energy electric vehicles, and it should be the best of electric vehicles. In fact, such an evaluation is a bit of a horn.

Autonomous driving and intelligent driving assistance systems are not exclusive to electric vehicles, gasoline vehicles can also achieve the same or even better performance. This time, Changan Ford EVOS proved this point.

Ford has actually researched autonomous driving in the United States for many years, and it was also ranked as the number one company in autonomous driving research in 2017, surpassing Tesla and Google. One of the research results, the BlueCruise active driving assistance function, was applied to Changan Ford EVOS this time, enabling it to realize L2+ level autonomous driving.

This function integrates ADAS map data, cameras, radar sensors and GPS positioning system, and cooperates with the driver’s attention monitoring system to achieve long-term quasi-autonomous driving on specific sections of high-speed and urban expressways.

During the test drive, we also tried to “let go” for a long time, EVOS can still continue to assist driving intelligently, although the current domestic regulations do not recommend users to do so.

EVOS, China’s first mass-produced vehicle to achieve “vehicle-road synergy”
True intelligent driving is not only realized on the single carrier of the car. When someone proposed to build smart transportation before, they believed that cars should be tied to urban traffic. And use the mutual coordination of “cars”, “roads” and “clouds” to realize smart transportation.

Today, Changan Ford EVOS is the first mass-produced model that can “interact” with traffic lights and urban road conditions in the process of building smart transportation in China.

EVOS’s vehicle-road coordination system can realize six core functions of traffic light information and countdown, red light warning, green wave speed, traffic information broadcast, green light start reminder, and electronic street signs. More functions will continue to be updated in the future. This “intelligence” has completely surpassed all electric vehicles.

Since 2016, the state has introduced a series of policies to support the coordinated development of vehicles and roads. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has also established an intelligent networked car cloud platform architecture, which is one of the basic pillars of a smart city.

In the intelligent networked vehicle architecture, the National Management Center uniformly supervises the “Intelligent Networked Vehicle Territorial Management Center”, which includes cities such as Changsha, Beijing, and Hangzhou. These “centers” then cooperate with car companies to interconnect traffic information.

The EVOS test drive will be arranged in Changsha, also because Changsha has a ceiling-level intelligent networked car territorial management center. In some sections of Changsha, you can experience the help of “road synergy” to drivers.

In the vehicle-road cooperative section, the working status of urban traffic lights can be directly transmitted to EVOS vehicles. Through the optimal traffic speed provided by the green wave, the red light is avoided to the greatest extent, and the travel efficiency is improved.

When driving EVOS, the most intuitive feeling is that the status of the front traffic light and the countdown seconds will be displayed on the top of the instrument panel. In this way, after the driver predicts the traffic lights in advance, he can reasonably control the speed of the vehicle to ensure the highest efficiency through the traffic lights. This kind of efficient experience is indeed unsatisfactory.

In addition, EVOS also has the function of changing lights when waiting for traffic lights. When you need to take a nap at the traffic lights or look at your mobile phone, if the traffic light turns green, the car will give a beep to remind you. This function avoids the embarrassment of being honked by the car behind because of not getting started in time.

Regrettably, the vehicle-road coordination function carried on EVOS is currently only available on certain road sections in Changsha and Wuxi due to urban infrastructure and software adaptation. In the future, the use of Beijing and other cities will be opened soon, and users can expect Changan Ford and the intelligent networked car local center to help us unlock them one by one.

Summarize:

This article uses a lot of space to introduce EVOS’s “first time” and the intelligent experience brought by “vehicle-road synergy”, without focusing on the driving experience of EVOS. It is because Pinjia/Pinwan believes that EVOS’s sports tuning is very Ford, there is nothing unusual.

More than 100 years of car-making experience proves that the stability of Changan Ford EVOS does not need to be doubted too much. The comfort and quietness are better than previous models.

But compared to driving experience, the comprehensive intelligent experience, the leap-forward improvement of the sense of technology, and the “firsts” made for Chinese consumers are the focus of EVOS that can make Chinese consumers the most “impulsive”.

After this test drive, Changan Ford EVOS is indeed “the fuel car most like an electric car”, in fact it is even “smarter” than an electric car in some respects. From this point of view, there will no longer be a clear boundary between fuel vehicles and electric vehicles with the “intelligent network connection”. New terms such as smart cockpit and smart car are no longer “proper terms” for electric vehicles.

If someone asks if Changan Ford EVOS is worth buying after it goes public?

Well, my answer is actually yes. Although the final price has not yet been announced, Ford’s comprehensive innovation on EVOS, its efforts specifically for the preferences of Chinese consumers, and its attempts in intelligent driving assistance and vehicle-road coordination are completely worth the bill.

I believe that the users who buy Changan Ford EVOS must be smart young people who like intelligence and technology and have the ability to rationally analyze. Because the purpose of this “T-car” of the intelligent age is very clear.