Great Wall Motors Unveils New Hi4 Hybrid AWD Technology

New Energy Vehicles (NEVs) are a significant vehicle category in China. Their entire industry has been motivated to develop new electrified solutions. The goal is to provide an alternative to ICE vehicles while also staying ahead of traditional vehicle competitors who have yet to completely dominate the electrified vehicle sector.

Great Wall Motors (GWM), a major Chinese automaker, spent 'Intelligent NEV Day' on March 10th highlighting some of their recent advancements in the field.

GWM appears to be working on a variety of NEV technologies in addition to hybrid and battery electric vehicles. Hydrogen power is also being researched, and the company is hard at work on intelligent cabin, driving, and chassis technologies.

It new hybrid Hi4 technology, which combines an intelligent hybrid system with all-wheel drive, is one new technology that is almost ready for market. According to GWM, Hi4 will be available on one of GWM's many brands by April. For vehicles supported by this technology, the price and energy consumption of two-wheel drive can enjoy the four-wheel drive performance experience, which has become a highlight. The new Hi4 is based on Great Wall Motors' forest ecology, integrating new energy and intelligent cutting-edge technologies, and launching intelligent four-wheel drive electric hybrid technology with an innovative configuration of dual motors on the front and rear axles in series and parallel electric four-wheel drive.

In terms of energy efficiency management, Great Wall Motor's intelligent energy management system and iTVC intelligent torque vector control system complement each other, intelligently selecting a more matching working mode under different working conditions, and realising fine power control in specific scenarios, to achieve the overall vehicle system. The amount of energy consumed is drastically reduced.

Great Wall Motors uses a new configuration, a combination of high-performance power sources combined with the iTVC intelligent torque vector control system, to intelligently distribute and dynamically adjust the torque of the front and rear axles in real time to improve vehicle handling in terms of power guarantee, safety and stability, and road passability. Stability, safety, and comfort are all important considerations.

The new Hi4 comes with two sets of powertrains, with system power reaching 340kW and covering A-C class models, giving users more power options. Simultaneously, the core components of its technical modules are quite appealing.

For example, the 1.5L/1.5T two special hybrid engines can achieve the highest engineering thermal efficiency of 41.5%, reducing fuel consumption by 6%-7%; the new Hi4 front drive module assembly, the transmission efficiency can reach 98%, with no setback in gear shifting and intelligent switching of working modes, improving power and comfort.


Furthermore, the motor power of the rear drive module assembly reaches 150kW, with a motor efficiency of up to 96.5%. The low internal resistance power battery with fast charging function can provide more than 100km of pure electric battery life.

The new Hi4 expands the usage scenarios of the traditional dual-motor series-parallel configuration, which can realise the improvement of power, economy, and road adaptability in the full speed range and full working conditions, through power decoupling and high-efficiency dynamic adjustment of the dual motors on the front and rear axles.

At the same time, the new Hi4 has more power, economy, and road adaptability. The perfect 50:50 axle load distribution raises the vehicle's performance limit.

Simultaneously, the new Hi4 can accurately identify real-time road conditions via the iTVC intelligent torque vector control system, and intelligently and dynamically switch between three engines and nine modes to match a more suitable working mode. Great Wall Motors intends to fully popularise all series of new energy products with four-wheel drive by 2024.