Changan gets into the electric vehicle game with the help of the Chinese tech giant Huawei.
One of China’s largest auto conglomerates, Changan, has finally started to take the electric vehicle segment seriously. They recently unveiled a new vehicle, the Changan C385, and it’s built on a new platform that featured help from some other Chinese industry giants in the electronics and battery tech field. Although the vehicle is posed in some photos as if it is production-ready, it’s still under development.
This new platform is called CHN and the C stands for “Changan”, the H stands for “Huawei” and the N stands for Ningde Era, which is the Chinese name for CATL, a major battery producer. This is also not Huawei’s first step into the automotive world. Early in December, they made a deal with Seres to start a new car brand up called AITO.
The Changan C385’s design is pretty sharp. It looks a bit like a Tesla Model 3 but with more bling and perhaps a few Audi design cues. The rear light bar is especially distinct, with a unique built-in spoiler and a central fin element that extends down the middle to the rear bumper. There appears to be a centrally mounted foglamp, a fully panoramic glass roof, retractable door handles that sit flush against the body and a slight notchback appearance to the C385.
No photographs of the interior have been shown, but judging from the exterior, it will be quite a premium affair. There’ll also be loads of first-ever technologies. An automatic parking assistant allows the car to enter parking lots and park itself autonomously, as well as picking up its passengers when summoned.
In addition, a high-frequency pulse heating system for the battery allows the battery to get to peak efficient temperature quickly and this adds 40-70 kilometres of range to the C385.
Changan’s electric motor improvements promise more than 95% efficiency, improvements of about 3-5% in mechanical efficiency and 5-8% improvement in electromagnetic efficiency.
About Changan
Changan has over 35 years of experience building passenger vehicles and is considered one of the largest car manufacturers in China, probably the largest right behind SAIC.
