More than 500 Porsche car owners collectively defend their rights: new car allocation, compensation plan suspected of "double standard"

Economic Observer Network reporter Wang Shuaiguo On April 25, The complaint platform Black Cat, a complaint platform under Sina Weibo, suddenly received a collective complaint from more than 60 Porsche car owners within 1 day. These complainants said that out of their trust in the manufacturer and the 4S store when purchasing the car, they accepted the manufacturer's delay in reloading due to chip shortage when the standard or optional electronic steering column was equipped, but recently they were told by the manufacturer and the 4S store that they would no longer provide the reload of the electronic steering column, and the official compensation method was only to provide 2300 yuan voucher - and it cost 30,000 yuan to install the electronic steering column separately in the 4S store.

According to a number of Porsche owners, there are currently more than 500 people in the rights protection group, and porsche sales staff have raised more than 20,000 new cars involving the above problems when communicating with 12315 staff.

"[The pick-up time of car owners who encountered the above problems] was mainly concentrated in the second half of last year, and this situation occurred in every porsche model. From about November last year to the present, the main models have been concentrated in the off-road vehicles, that is, Porsche's small Macan and medium-sized Cayenne, two off-road vehicles. Paramela, Taycan, and a small number of 911s may have been in this situation. A Porsche advocate Lei (pseudonym), who is more familiar with this incident, said that almost all luxury cars have electric adjustment functions as standard, but because some consumers do not understand the situation, it has led to the existence of concealment, fraud and other behaviors in 4S stores.

According to Zhang Lei, in February and March 2022, Porsche manufacturers announced in an internal email to all dealers that in the next period of time, all models or the vast majority of models of electronic steering column will be cancelled. "After everyone learned the news one after another, some 4S stores responded that they would not reload you, and then I would give you as many coupons as possible."

The Economic Observer Network reporter learned that Porsche's reduction problem is not only to replace the electronic steering column with a manual steering column, but also to start the reduction earlier. In addition, there are car owners who report that Porsche has problems such as differentiating between domestic and foreign consumers.

These allocation reductions and the existence of "double standards" are quietly changing the attitude of the market and consumers towards Porsche. Some car owners even believe that the substantial growth of Porsche's performance in 2021 is not unrelated to its allocation reduction and cost reduction. In addition, it is also worth paying attention to whether there is a correlation between Porsche's moves and its efforts to obtain higher listing valuations.

Promises that could not be fulfilled were alleged to be sales fraud

Li Wei (pseudonym), a Porsche owner in Beijing, told the Economic Observer Network reporter that in early December 2021, he spent about 1.29 million yuan to buy a 3.0T 2022 Porsche Cayenne at the Porsche store on Chang'an Avenue in Beijing, "At that time, the sales let me sign the (electronic steering column) reloading agreement, which was written on the follow-up to give us free reloading, and the 4S store gave 3500 yuan of sales vouchers as compensation for delayed reloading." ”

After this, Li Wei did not care about the reloading, until recently he suddenly found that some car owners broke the news on the Internet that Porsche would no longer reload electronic steering columns for car owners. So, after calling the official customer service number of Porsche China 400, he was told that the replacement of the electronic steering column was canceled.

Li Wei said: "The 4S store, including the manufacturer (about the cancellation of the reloading of the electronic steering column), did not have any notice. I personally feel that they (this behavior) is a contract fraud, the standard things, the things written, now clearly told that we can not make up. You want to compensate, it will only give you vouchers. ”

According to Li Wei, for the owners of the car who have already picked up the car, the compensation plan given by the Beijing Chang'an Avenue store is: 3500 yuan of deferred compensation coupons (which have been issued when the supplementary agreement was signed for the purchase of the car) and 2300 yuan of compensation for the forced cancellation of the electronic steering column installation. "They later gave us 11,500 vouchers to compensate after the meeting, and they also had to spend in their stores, and they could use his vouchers to buy clothes, cups, suitcases and other things in the store."

Sun Juan (pseudonym), owner of the 2021 Porsche Macan in Guangzhou, and Zi Yang (pseudonym), the advocate of the 2022 Porsche Cayenne in Fuzhou, also encountered the same problem.

Unlike the situation li Wei encountered, Sun Juan did not know when she bought the car that the electronic steering column installed on the new car was not the standard electronic steering column, but the manual steering column.

"Later, when we went to pick up the car, we had to sign those documents, and then he (the salesperson) took a contract and came out to us, that is, the car was missing the electric steering column, and the manufacturer would reload it for free." Sun Juan said that she picked up the car in September 2021, and has been waiting for 8 months now, during which she repeatedly asked the sales staff when they could reload the electric steering column, and the result has always been "wait and wait".

It was not until April 22, when Sun Juan said that she had learned about the relevant information through the Internet, that the sales staff said, "It is still under discussion, but the possibility of cancellation is relatively large, and then make some compensation." It is estimated that it will be completely resolved within 1 or 2 months."

"The official statement given at that time was to compensate for the voucher of 2300, but the specific compensation plan, the sales side has not told me." The compensation scheme of each local 4S store may be different, some are directly only giving you 2300, and some may be subsidized by the 4S store there, but how to subsidize can not subsidize the price of reinstallation (electric steering column). Sun Juan said.

Zhang Ziyang's electronic steering column is optional. "I spent $115,000 on a big luxury bag with its own electric steering column. Then the steering column is now canceled, after-sales said to compensate 2300 yuan to us, my steering column to the store to install more than 30,000 yuan, he will now lose more than 2000 yuan, I am definitely not willing. ”

What's more, some Porsche owners drove a new car for several months before they accidentally realized that their car was a manual steering column. Go back to the 4S shop to negotiate with the other party to admit this problem.

"Double standard" and more allocation reduction problems are exposed

In addition to the problem of electronic steering column, there are also car owners who broke the news that Porsche is suspected of treating domestic and foreign users differently. Specifically, Porsche's foreign official website has marked that "manual steering column is temporarily provided due to the lack of chips", but it is not mentioned on the Chinese official website.

For the cancellation of the reloading of the electronic steering column, there are also differences in porsche compensation for car owners at home and abroad. Some Porsche owners said that the official compensation of the United States was 500 US dollars, calculated according to the US dollar exchange rate, about 3100 yuan, and sent an email early to notify the owner; while the domestic car owner only lost 2300 yuan, and there was no notice.

At the same time, there are also car owners who reflect that in the two most basic models of cayenne, the brake caliper piston of the American version of cayenne is the front 6 and the back 4, and in China in 2019, it is also the first 6 and the back 4, but since last year, it has all become the front 4 and 2. In addition, the new Cayenne one-button window lift function and the on-board CD player also have a reduction in allocation. In terms of materials and craftsmanship, some painted buttons have become plastic, and some metal decorations have been removed. For some of these changes, Porsche officially said it was "for the sake of the environment".

For the above problems, the Economic Observer Network reporter asked the relevant person in charge of Porsche China for verification, and the official reply said that in July 2021, Porsche China authorized all Porsche centers across the country to actively inform customers affected by this on the issue of steering column, and then the Porsche centers gradually communicated with relevant customers in batches.

Since then, global semiconductor production capacity has not improved as previously expected. Porsche Headquarters, after much coordination, was unable to determine the estimated implementation time of the previous plan, so in March this year it was forced to make a decision to cancel the resumption of the steering column with electric adjustment function in some vehicles. This decision was mainly affected by the 2022 models, which were mainly delivered after November 2021. Porsche China immediately authorized Porsche Centres across the country to actively inform and communicate with relevant customers, and provided 2300 yuan of offspring vouchers to compensate for the inconvenience caused by the change of steering wheel position adjustment from electric to manual. Porsche China's authorized dealers also actively communicate with customers at the first time and give reasonable compensation as much as possible to explore solutions.

"We understand the feelings of our customers affected by this adjustment, and together with our Authorized Porsche dealers, we will actively respond to customer inquiries and negotiate reasonable solutions." At present, the shortage of semiconductor production capacity has a profound impact on the automotive industry, and Porsche is still evaluating its impact and actively looking for solutions to respond flexibly. We apologize again for the inconvenience caused to our customers". The above-mentioned Porsche personnel said.

As for the other reductions mentioned by Porsche owners, Porsche responded that as an imported car manufacturer, in the face of regulatory requirements and consumer preferences in different markets around the world, there will also be differences in the standard configuration and optional accessories of the vehicle in different markets. At the same time, Porsche will also provide a standard configuration combination that is more suitable for local consumer preferences according to changes in consumer preferences. As a result, some configurations differ from other markets, but many standard configurations are higher than other markets. "We will also adjust the local configuration to meet the changing and upgrading needs of consumers based on continuous tracking of consumer feedback."

Thickening profits in preparation for listing?

Porsche China's proposal not to restore the electric adjustment function of the steering column worth 30,000 yuan and only provide 2,300 yuan of offspring gold coupons has obviously failed to be accepted by most car owners.

But what causes people to wonder is why Porsche, which has a history of nearly a hundred years and maintains the identity of "German imported cars" in most markets, will secretly reduce the allocation in the important Chinese market, and also suspect "double standard"? Are there any other reasons beyond the known factors of chip shortage?

In the eyes of some Porsche owners, this may be related to Porsche's blind pursuit of high profit margins. Porsche's financial report for the 2021 fiscal year shows that despite multiple challenges such as the new crown pneumonia epidemic, chip supply shortages and rising raw material prices, Porsche has set a new record in operating income and profit. Specifically, in 2021, Porsche achieved operating income of 33.1 billion euros, an increase of 15% year-on-year, and sales profit of 5.3 billion euros, an increase of 27%. Meanwhile, Porsche reported a 16.0% return on sales in FY2021.

In terms of sales, in 2021, Porsche delivered 301915 new cars worldwide, an increase of 11% year-on-year; of which, the Chinese market delivered 95,671 new cars, an increase of 8% year-on-year, and global sales accounted for 31.69%, making the Chinese market the world's largest single market for the seventh consecutive year.

"In the global chip tension last year, some chips may have risen dozens of times, hundreds of times, and all raw materials are rising." I estimate that because of the epidemic, the cost of labor in Germany will also increase, and Porsche can achieve such a high growth in operating profits in this case, and I think it should be some effort in reducing allocation. Zhang Lei thinks.

According to Zhang Lei, perhaps in order to reduce tariffs, Porsche's cars still have cases of installation in Hong Kong. "I don't know much about whether this is a common phenomenon, that is, we communicate with friends in the group, including with friends at the customs to understand that Porsche last year a lot of cars buckled in the customs side, may be the configuration of the customs declaration and its actual configuration does not match, anyway is deducted for several months, many car owners have encountered this problem, the new car will arrive at the port after the customs can not pass, and then the car slowed down for several months."

Zhang Lei said: "(The new car was seized by the customs) is because of the configuration factor, or Porsche out of tax considerations, after all, the tax on the whole vehicle and the parts come in are not the same." As far as we know, Porsche is actually installed in the port of Shanghai. ”

In this regard, the above-mentioned Porsche person in charge said: "Since the second half of last year, in order to shorten the waiting time for order customers to pick up the car, we have taken proactive and flexible countermeasures. Porsche headquarters ships the vehicles to China first, while closely tracking the chips. After the relevant chips are in place, they are directly airlifted to the relevant ports in China, and the chips are installed in the port in accordance with the global unified technical solution. This measure minimizes vehicle delivery wait times. ”

2022 was an extraordinary year for Porsche. On February 22, Volkswagen announced that Porsche would be listed independently. According to the announcement, Porsche's plan to list independently is not only "ripe for decision-making", but volkswagen group has reached a framework agreement with Porsche Holdings on specific details.

At this critical juncture, Porsche wants to obtain a higher market valuation, and ensuring stable growth is one of its important tasks. Therefore, some car owners have questioned that Porsche may be reducing the cost of automobile manufacturing by reducing the number of allocations, thereby thickening corporate profits.

On April 14, Porsche released global delivery data for the first quarter of 2022: the company delivered a total of 68,426 new cars to customers around the world in the first quarter, down 5% year-on-year, of which the largest single sales market, China, deliveries fell sharply by 20%. In this regard, Detlev von Platen, a member of Porsche's board of directors responsible for sales and marketing, said that the repeated outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic in China and other places, superimposed on major challenges in supply chain and logistics, has made Porsche face a severe test.

Despite the objective factors, for Porsche, which is on the eve of listing, if the decline in sales in the Chinese market remains at a high level, it may adversely affect its listing and valuation.