Who can lead the arrival of the next era of vehicle charging? Perhaps only Huawei can.

Car charging has entered a new stage of development.

A Zunjie S800 owner is sitting in a restaurant. He opens his phone and clicks on "Vehicle Automatic Charging". At this moment, the Zunjie S800 parked in the underground garage starts and drives out, automatically begins to search for a charging spot without a driver. The vehicle successfully parks itself automatically and opens the charging cover.

Then, the integrated perception robot automatic charging system extends its robotic arm, accurately positions, and smoothly realizes unmanned automatic gun insertion. After starting the charging, the headlights project information such as the remaining battery power and the estimated charging time through projection. After the charging is completed, the gun is automatically unplugged, the payment is automatically made, and finally, the Zunjie S800 automatically parks out, without any human intervention throughout the process.

This scene that is infinitely close to a science fiction movie has become a reality. By clicking a button, the car can complete the entire charging process by itself. This is the most advanced charging technology at present and will also be a more mainstream method in the future.

The Evolution History of Charging for New Energy Vehicles

The new energy vehicle has been developed for several years, and the supporting technology of charging is also being iterated.

In terms of the charging speed that consumers are most concerned about, the vehicle itself has gradually completed the technological progress from the 400V low-voltage platform to the 800V high-voltage platform, which is the basis for a significant increase in charging speed.

The power of the charging pile has gradually developed from the initial 7kW slow charging to 20kW, 70kW fast charging, and then to 120kW, 240kW, and even 600kW super fast charging.

The application of the high-voltage electrical system, the increase in current capacity and charging power, have brought a qualitative change to the vehicle's energy replenishment: initially, it took an entire night to fully charge a vehicle, but now it only takes 10 minutes for a 500km range.

At the same time, the charging method has also undergone earth-shaking changes.

In the 1.0 era, the intelligent technology was not yet complete. Users needed to drive into the charging parking space by themselves and manually operate the charging steps after getting out of the car. The development of intelligent driving has brought charging into the 2.0 era. Most vehicles can easily achieve automatic parking into the parking space, but the charging gun cable is heavy, and the charging pile also requires the user to scan the code to start. Consumers still cannot avoid getting out of the car to operate.

The 3.0 era has solved this pain point. Vehicles have a powerful automatic parking function, combined with the automatic operation of the charging pile's robotic arm for charging, achieving a fully unmanned charging experience.

This is consistent with our imagination and planning for the future of automobiles.

An intelligent car that does not require an accelerator or a steering wheel, and whose interior space is completely open for users, needs to be equipped with highly intelligent charging equipment. However, it is not a simple matter for the charging method to leap from the current relatively "convenient" to "senseless" and "automated".

The Integration of Autonomous Driving and Robot Technology

In the same pace as the development of automobiles, the development trend of charging will be towards intelligence and unmanned operation, which requires manufacturers to possess multiple core capabilities.

The first is the intelligence of the vehicle. Since the 2.0 era of charging, automatic parking has been an important part of the charging experience. The 3.0 era puts higher requirements on automatic parking: the vehicle needs to have the ability to automatically find a charging spot.

The vehicle needs to be able to independently find the route to the charging station, avoid the flow of people and obstacles in the lane, identify whether the parking space is occupied, and finally park. This is a capability requirement close to the L4 level of unmanned driving.

From the models sold by Hongmeng Zhixing, we can already see such capabilities. In June 2024, the Zhijie S7 opened the unmanned valet parking function. This function has been able to support users to achieve unmanned automatic parking in some shopping mall parking lots.

To achieve unmanned charging, the intelligence of the charging equipment is also required.

The unmanned charging robot installed on the charging equipment first needs to have the ability to move autonomously in various complex environments. Secondly, the charging ports of different vehicles have different forms. The robot needs to identify different charging ports and the closed state of the charging ports, and accurately connect the charging gun.

In this process, the unmanned charging robot may also face difficult scenarios such as insufficient light.

The robot also needs to be highly intelligent, which requires multiple high-precision sensors, precise software algorithms, and accurate control systems to complete. From the unmanned charging video of the Zunjie S800, it can be seen that the Huawei unmanned charging robot is equipped with the laser radar and camera vision fusion technology, which greatly improves the robot's environmental understanding ability. The real-time opening and closing state of the charging port, the position of the surrounding obstacles, the movement trajectory of the robotic arm, and everything is in real-time monitoring and calculation.

However, having only sensors that can recognize the environment is not enough. A strong software and computing power is also required for the complete operation of the charging steps.

It is boldly guessed that this unmanned charging robot is also equipped with Huawei's self-developed chip and StarFlash technology. Huawei's self-developed chip provides a strong computing power foundation, making the movement trajectory of the robotic arm, the plugging and unplugging actions of the charging gun, and other operations more accurate and reliable.

StarFlash technology is Huawei's core wireless communication technology. This leading technology has six advantages: low latency, high speed, anti-interference, high reliability, high concurrency, and precise positioning. In a complex charging station environment, StarFlash technology can ensure faster and more stable information interaction between the charging pile and the vehicle.

From pursuing speed to pursuing experience, behind the evolution of the car charging method, the breakthroughs in autonomous driving technology and charging robot technology have made the vision a reality.

The penetration rate of new energy vehicles is continuously increasing, and the majority of consumers are gradually not satisfied with the old technologies that keep changing marketing rhetoric, and not satisfied with buying a homogenized, cost-effective car. This market indeed needs new technological stimuli.

As a new attempt to break through in the new energy vehicle field, the Zunjie S800 reflects Huawei's thinking on the new luxury. How to use technology to shape the luxury label of the new era and how to provide a new car usage experience? Unmanned automatic charging is such a breakthrough.

The imagination of unmanned charging actually started in 2015. Some technology companies proposed to help car owners save the process of manually operating the charging gun through a robotic arm. However, due to the limitations of the robotic arm materials, software, communication technology, etc., unmanned charging has always been just an imagination.

Relying on the deep empowerment of Huawei's strong technical strength, the Zunjie S800 has taken the lead in subverting the traditional charging method through the unmanned charging robot. As the masterpiece of Hongmeng Zhixing, the Zunjie S800 globally debuts the integrated perception charging robot, bringing an "unprecedented" energy replenishment experience, turning unmanned automatic charging from a "dream" into an experiential reality, adding a sense of freedom for high-end intelligent travel at any time and anywhere, and it is also an advancement in a lifestyle. It highlights the industry-leading position of the Zunjie S800 in the fields of intelligent driving and intelligent energy replenishment, and further strengthens the product perception as a benchmark for the era of China's ultra-luxury intelligent vehicles.