At the recently held Chengdu Auto Show, Dongfeng presented its third new energy vehicle (NEV) brand, named Nammi. The brand’s models will be built on the company’s dedicated platform that will also allow installation of the solid state batteries, which the car maker started testing a year ago. On that occasion, one of the leading Chinese automotive news outlets, Autohome, made an interview with Nammi’s general manager.
Nammi brand is defined as dedicated compact electric vehicle (EV) brand. The manufacturer will not make small or subcompact vehicles, said Dongfeng Nammi general manager, Chen Meng, during an interview at Chengdu Auto Show.
Nammi will not make smaller vehicles, because 2-door, 4-seat cheap city EVs are going off the stage, so the families buying their first car will look for something cheap and try with lower entry threshold EVs. Along with battery and EV technology developments in the past few years, the earliest models with two doors and four seats are basically gone and everybody is moving toward middle size EVs, said the GM adding that that is the reason why the brand’s first model has 2,660 mm wheelbase.
That is a big wheelbase, but since EVs and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles are not the same, we made a car body shorter, around four meters. This way, the space in the car is very big, but still easy to park. Of course, hub motor available on the company’s architecture as well as L2 ADAS also make parking easier, explained the GM saying that the official market entry is expected during Guangzhou Auto Show in November.
Hub motor is part of Dongfeng’s vehicle architecture named Quantum Architecture No. 3, which GM described as compact EV dedicated architecture is based on short front and rear suspension design that allows for big space. Besides the hub motor, it offers many other features that other cars of this size do not have, including super charging, large capacity batteries, 10-in-1 electric driving system (EDS), the first one in the world. The EDS has maximum output of 120 kW and 11 kWh/100 km consumption.
The solid state batteries are being tested in the demo trial as we speak, said the GM. The battery is being developed in partnership with Ganfeng Lithium. The demo GM is talking about started in January last year, when 50 Dongfeng Aeolus E70 vehicles carrying the battery started demo operation in four Chinese provinces. The vehicles gathered 350,000 km of data for the battery development. Based on the vavailable data, the battery pack capacity is 52.56 kWh and a weighs around 335 kg. The pack’s density is 157 Wh/kg.
Nammi 01 is small electric hatchback. Some netizens immediately began comparing this vehicle’s exterior design with the Smart #1, calling the 01 a copycat. However, the Dongfeng’s EV has different headlights and taillights. Other features of the Nammi 01 are retractable door handles, a floating roof, 17-inch wheels and short overhangs. Its dimensions are unknown.
Nammi 01’s interior offers a large floating screen, a floating two-spoke steering wheel and a small LCD instrument panel. The gear shifter of the Nammi 01 also sits behind the wheel. The center console and door cards of this vehicle are covered with leatherette. As for the center tunnel, it has a wireless phone charging pad.
Source: Autohome
