The "R" brand, a high-end electric vehicle marque of SAIC, unveiled its 5G intelligent pure electric SUV MARVEL R on February 7, which is the world's first electric vehicle with 5G connectivity.

The new vehicle is available in standard and PRO versions, priced at RMB 219,800 ($33,990) and RMB 239,800 respectively after subsidies.

SAIC said that the car is the biggest application scenario of 5G, and the advantages of 5G technology of large bandwidth, low latency, and high speed will realize the seamless connection between car and car, car and cloud, car and people, and car and the surrounding environment.

The launch of MARVEL R means that 5G autonomous driving is starting to move from experimental to practical, the company said.

MARVEL R comes with a 12.3-inch screen as well as a 19.4-inch screen, and the system uses the new Banma VENUS.

MARVEL R is equipped with the "DingTalk" app and can support 300 people online at the same time to hold 720P high-definition video conferencing, the company said.

The upgraded car system has access to MR mixed reality interaction technology. With the support of 5G cloud computing capability, MARVEL R will use AR technology to enhance the near-vision distance, improve the accuracy of navigation and driving safety, and build a dynamic driving environment of over-vision vehicles, roads, and maps with the help of VR technology.

This means that MARVEL R has added an intelligent gesture interaction function based on touch, voice, global Face ID intelligent face start, and other interactive methods and users can open and close the sunroof with a wave of their hands.

MARVEL R is equipped with Mobileye Eye Q4H chip and Huawei 5G Balong 5000 chip, equipped with "R" brand self-developed 5G intelligent driving system.

This intelligent driving system adopts SAIC's unique "vision perception + radar perception + 5G V2X" perception system, including 11 vision perception hardware (2 front view cameras, 4 perimeter view cameras, 4 surround-view cameras, 1 live view camera) and 17 radar perception hardware (5 millimeter-wave radar, 12 ultrasonic radar).

MARVEL R can get 17 5G V2X application scenarios such as red light information push, stop-start guidance, speed guidance, intersection conflict avoidance, etc.

SAIC said that MARVEL R will continue to improve the ecology of intelligent traffic information service (V2I) and safety warning service (V2V) in the future to optimize the connection between car and people, car and car, and car and everything.

The battery energy density of MARVEL R is 180Wh/kg and the NEDC combined range is 505km.

The "R" brand's charging map already has access to 250,000 charging piles from several third-party charging pile operators and is expected to have access to over 300,000 charging piles by the end of 2021.

The "R" brand also plans to build its own charging network and has opened an exclusive parking and charging service area in Shanghai Hongqiao Airport.

The company plans to build 100 of its own charging stations in 2021 to provide exclusive parking and charging spaces for customers.

SAIC plans to start exporting the MARVEL R to overseas markets and enter the European market this year. The model will soon open pre-sales in several countries including Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Norway, and Denmark, the company said.

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(Source: SAIC)