TECH INSIDER | MULLEN QIANTU K50
Rising fun
The Qianto K50 Chinese EV sports car will be
reworked, homologated, assembled and sold
in the US by Mullen Technologies
WORDS: GRAHAM HEEPS
In Brea, California,
Mullen Technologies has
begun the gap analysis
process to prepare the K50
for US homologation. Crash
performance is a prominent
area that will require
attention, with the K50
having been engineered to
Chinese and ECE standards,
but not US ones. But the
powertrain will receive some attention, too.
“We’re going to work with the Qiantu teams
to improve performance aspects,” reports
Frank McMahon, CTO and chief engineer at
Mullen Technologies. “That will likely involve
recalibration and some hardware changes, for
example to improve the 0-60mph acceleration
time.” In its current spec, the K50 will reach
60mph (96km/h) in 4.2 seconds.
Mullen also has ambitions to reduce the
car’s weight and increase its range through
improved battery technology. The company
says that its innovation in lithium batteries
would make the units 30% lighter than the
current models and would increase the range
of the vehicle.
Mullen’s battery technology is all new,
with only a portion of the BMS based on
30 // July 2019 // www.electrichybridvehicletechnology.com
1. The frame is made of
aluminum, with carbon
fi ber bodywork
2. Safety features include
a 360° surround view
camera system, displayed
on the center screen
The Qiantu K50 electric sports car
went on sale in China in August 2018.
Qiantu, which roughly translates as
‘shaping the road ahead’, has since sold
over 1,000 of the two-seaters, which boast an
NEDC range of 370km (230 miles) and will hit
200km/h (125mph). From 2020, it will also be
sold in the USA as the Qiantu K50 by Mullen,
assembled locally from a mixture of knockdown
kits and locally sourced parts to meet US
homologation requirements.
The K50 is built around a T-shaped, liquid
cooled and heated, 78kWh battery pack that
is assembled in-house by Qiantu subsidiary,
Watt Pack. The pack consists of two modules
in the tunnel and eight behind the rear seat,
providing a flat floor and 47/53 rear-biased
weight distribution. The modules are made up
of Li-ion (NCM chemistry) pouch cells supplied
by Shanghai Cenat New Energy Ltd. Level 2
or Level 3 charging is possible, with the latter
offering 45 minutes to 80% charge.
Drive comes from permanent-magnet,
synchronous motors front and rear, one per
axle, with torque vectoring. The motors are
sourced from Jing-Jin Electric Technologies
and total combined output is 435ps. The
powertrain was developed by Qiantu, which is a
subsidiary of automotive consultancy, CH-Auto.
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