Under the COVID-19 epidemic, healthy cars have received unprecedented attention. In fact, healthy cars have always been the research direction of the automobile industry, especially after the nationwide smog in recent years, the in-vehicle air purification system with PM2.5 filter device has almost become the standard when getting off and putting on new models, and it has also become one of the main gimmicks of new car promotion. From the effect point of view, vehicles with air purification system can purify particulate matter in the air and biological pollution such as COVID-19. However, after many interviews, Auto-First found that the indoor air quality standards in the industry are mostly the control and evaluation standards of chemical pollutants, and there is no clear biological pollution standard like that in COVID-19, which can be said to be a blank.
At present, the methods for automobile enterprises to improve the air quality inside the car mainly depend on upgrading the filter element or installing the negative ion generator, besides selecting environmentally friendly materials to manufacture the car itself. However, according to their actual situation, major automobile brands have their own characteristics in air purification systems.
Volvo is the first car brand to advocate the concept of healthy cars, and most of its products are equipped with Volvo CLEANZONE to clean the cockpit. CLEANZONE clean cockpit includes AAC double-effect enhanced air purification system, IAQS intelligent air circulation control system, CZIS active cockpit pre-purification system and AQI air quality real-time monitoring system.
Now is the epidemic period in COVID-19, and novel coronavirus is mainly spread by droplets or solid particles in the air. Volvo has a great function called AAC, which can clean the cockpit. It uses high-efficiency filter element and electrostatic technology to filter the air in the car, which can block most harmful particles and isolate the particles that adsorb virus as far as possible outside the passenger compartment, which can greatly reduce the risk of infection of people in the car.
Geely Automobile will launch a brand-new British TX taxi this year, which will completely seal the cockpit and passenger compartment with a fully enclosed partition device to avoid mutual penetration between the two compartments. In order to ensure the normal communication between passengers and drivers, the car is equipped with a one-button intercom function, and the communication between them can be made barrier-free by pressing the switch with one button.
British TX proprietary air conditioning air intake technology can realize air purification in passenger compartment. By isolating dust, pollen and fine particles, the air inside the car can be purified. Coupled with the real-time monitoring function of PM2.5, passengers can know the air quality inside the car like the back of their hands. For the concept of "all-round healthy car", the all-round healthy version of TX in the United Kingdom has also added air conditioning sterilization technology, through which bacteria in the passenger compartment can be removed, and the health coefficient can be increased while ensuring freshness.
SAIC passenger cars of Roewe and MG brands have been equipped with N95 standard high-efficiency automotive air conditioning filter as standard. The filter screen realizes the double protection of mechanical barrier and secondary capture of bacteria, dust, droplet nuclei and other particles, especially for droplet nuclei carrying coronavirus, the filtering efficiency is over 95%, which is equivalent to wearing a large N95 mask on the vehicle.
It is not enough to isolate the germs outside the car, but also to kill the potential health threats inside the car. Roewe and MG models are also equipped with negative ion generators and antibacterial and antiallergic functional layers. The negative ion generator can rapidly reduce bacteria in the air within one hour through three steps of closed adsorption, structural destruction and sterilization and purification, and the sterilization rate is over 85%. The 24-hour bacteriostatic rate of the antibacterial and antiallergic functional layer exceeds 99%. Before going out, the user only needs to remotely turn on the air conditioner with the mobile phone, and the three layers of protection of the filter screen, the generator and the functional layer will be started immediately, effectively filtering and killing germs, and the sterilization rate can reach 99.5% within 1 hour, achieving "N99" air quality.
Recently, GAC New Energy announced that it has successfully developed an anti-virus healthy cockpit with "Aian filtering and anti-virus", which has double guarantees of "Super N95 filtering and anti-virus" and "remote one-click anti-virus". The cabin air conditioning filter element adopts HEPA-class international top-grade filter element, which can effectively isolate virus attached particles, and the isolation and defense efficiency of fine particles is as high as 97%, which is better than N95 mask, which is equivalent to installing a biochemical gas mask for automobile ventilation system. At the same time, users can remotely start the disinfection mode with one button through the mobile phone APP. The negative oxygen ion filtration system will quickly settle the particles and aerosols attached to the virus, while the unique heat pump air conditioning system can sterilize at a high temperature of 60 C without residue.
Tesla's "biochemical defense mode" has recently become a hot topic. Its main function is actually a function derived from air conditioning filter element, and its special feature is that it is equipped with HEPA filtration system. HEPA filter has excellent filtering effect on particles with diameters below 0. 1μm and above 0.3μm, and the filtering effect of particles with diameters of 0. 1μm-0.3μm depends on the filter grade, while the diameter of general coronavirus is 0.08-0. 12 μ m. ..
In addition, the Tesla model is better sealed, and the biochemical defense mode will use the fan to run quickly to establish an appropriate positive pressure in the closed compartment, which is just the opposite of the negative pressure rescue function. ? As we know, negative pressure ambulance means that the air pressure inside the car is lower than the air pressure outside the car, and the fresh air outside the car is forcibly sent into the car, flowing from the clean area (medical area) to the polluted area (patient area), and then being disinfected and filtered before being discharged from the car, thus establishing an air circulation path. ? Tesla's biochemical defense mode establishes a positive pressure environment in the car to prevent toxic air from entering the car. Theoretically, it has a certain effect on resisting external biochemical attacks.
In fact, HEPA is not unique to Tesla, and it will be used from civil airliners to home air purifiers. Geely's AQS system, BYD's PM2.5 green cleaning system and Volvo's IASQ system are all similar things, and most of them are equipped with HEPA filters.
Undeniably, under the epidemic situation in COVID-19, some cars with air purification function in the market have played a certain role in epidemic prevention. Geely, Guangzhou Automobile and other automobile manufacturers even announced that they would invest heavily in developing all-round healthy cars, which gave us new expectations for the future health level of cars.
With the upgrading of automobile consumption in China and consumers' concern about health problems, China is also one of the first countries to study the relationship between pollutants in cars and human health. As early as 20 18, China Automotive Engineering Research Institute released a set of China Automobile Health Index (C-AHI) evaluation system, and began to evaluate the air quality of new cars in the market by star rating. The evaluation system mainly includes three evaluation items of volatile organic compounds (VOC), odor intensity (VOI) and electromagnetic radiation (EMR), and two observation items of particulate matter (PM2.5, etc.). ) and allergenicity evaluation (VAR). Although the evaluation index involves the study of chemical pollutants related to the health of drivers and passengers, it does not involve the purification and filtration standards of biological pollution such as viruses.
In an interview with Auto-First, Guangsheng Song, director of the National Indoor Interior Environment and Environmental Protection Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Center and secretary-general of the Interior Environment Professional Committee of China Environmental Protection Federation, said that the current indoor air quality testing standards are only for chemical pollutants and odors, but there is no testing standard for biological pollution such as viruses. "In fact, biological pollution is difficult to detect. At present, it is difficult for automobile manufacturers to filter viruses by upgrading filter elements or installing negative ion generators. It is hard to say how much it can play from a quantitative point of view. "
Guangsheng Song said that the COVID-19 epidemic has undoubtedly raised people's concern about the health inside the car to a new height, but it is far from simple to realize the "all-round healthy car" by upgrading filter elements and installing negative ion generators. "It may be considered from many aspects such as automobile design, manufacturing, and selection of antibacterial materials. When the car is driving at high speed, even if the compartment is closed and the internal circulation is turned on, the outside air can still enter the compartment. How to disinfect in this case? In addition to the necessary equipment, the use of voice control, reducing hand contact and other details must be taken into account. "
An industry insider who asked not to be named said that at present, major car companies promote their cars as mobile N95 masks, mostly marketing gimmicks. At present, the research on healthy cars not only includes volatile organic compounds (VOC) and odor intensity (VOI), but also extends to the research on bacteria. For example, cars are left in a humid environment for a long time. For viruses like novel coronavirus, how to inhibit the production of bacteria has not been considered. This is actually an opportunity for China automobile to upgrade in the field of health science and technology.
A number of industry experts, including Guangsheng Song, said that relevant state departments should take the lead in establishing the standards for all-round healthy cars as soon as possible. However, the establishment of industry standards requires not only the efforts of the automobile industry, but also the participation of experts in the medical and health fields. This is a systematic project. But in any case, we are delighted to see that some car companies have started to act, and there is no doubt that all-round healthy cars will become the general trend of industry development.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.