Recently, a "yin and yang contract" has made a lot of noise, once again pushing Xiaopeng Automobile to the cusp of the storm.
As a new force in car manufacturing, Xiaopeng Automobile should impress consumers with "trust" and "quality", rather than relying on "playing clever" to exploit legal loopholes.
In fact, the capital market has not been very optimistic about Xiaopeng Motors since December, even if the delivery volume from January to November 2021 (82155 units) exceeded the Weilai (80940 units) and Ideal Automobile (76404 units) in the same period, but the stock price still fell, from the closing price of 55 yuan / share on November 30 fell by 7.02% to the closing price of 51.14 yuan / share on December 1. Since then, it has maintained a downward trend, closing at 46.83 yuan / share as of December 13, and the market value has "evaporated" 14 billion yuan in just 2 weeks.
Source: Wind Financial Terminal (Xiaopeng Automobile Daily Candlestick Chart)
"Yin and Yang contract" attracted attention, Xiaopeng Automobile acquiesced?
According to media reports, at the beginning of October this year, Mr. Chen, a consumer in Nanjing, took a fancy to a Xiaopeng P7, negotiated the price with the sales staff and paid a deposit of 5,000 yuan and signed a car purchase agreement, and the two sides signed and sealed each other to confirm. However, the next month, when Mr. Chen was ready to pick up the car, he was told by the 4S shop that he needed to pay an additional 7,000 yuan to pick up the car, and Mr. Chen did not know about it in advance, and the previous sales staff never answered the phone.
Source: Xiaopeng Motors official website.
In this regard, the store sales supervisor responded that it was because it involved the problem of state subsidies, and said that adding money to pick up the car involved in the problem of state subsidies, if the price of the whole vehicle exceeded 300,000, it would not be able to get the state subsidy, so the car was sold first to do a low contract price, the price was controlled below 300,000, and then the price was made up, in fact, the money paid by the owner was the original car payment, and did not overcharge money.
At present, in China, the national new energy subsidy policy is to enjoy subsidies for pure electric vehicles with a price of no more than 300,000 yuan before subsidies: models with a cruising range greater than or equal to 300km and less than 400km are subsidized by 13,000 yuan, and models with a cruising range greater than or equal to 400km are subsidized by 18,000 yuan; while those with a price of more than 300,000 yuan before subsidies do not enjoy subsidies.
It is worth mentioning that the store's sales supervisor said that the cost will be paid when delivered, which is a unified operation. This means that Mr. Chen is not alone.
At this time, many netizens questioned whether this was to use the "yin and yang contract" to defraud the state of new energy subsidies, but did not get a response from Xiaopeng Motors.
Subsequently, the official response of Xiaopeng Automobile said that the clerk did not understand the relevant promotional activities in November, and the relevant personnel did not explain the relevant policies clearly, which was a management error of the company, and the follow-up Xiaopeng would fulfill the commitment of the contract. In order to facilitate the order, the store staff of Nanjing Jingfeng Store reflected the relevant rights and interests in the vehicle sales contract signed by the customer in advance without the customer's confirmation of the purchase of the boutique package. When the customer picked up the car, the clerk asked the customer to pay the price of the boutique package, and the customer said that he had not agreed to purchase the boutique package, but asked to enjoy the relevant rights and interests in accordance with the signed sales contract, resulting in a dispute. In this regard, Xiaopeng Automobile sincerely apologized for the inconvenience and trouble caused to the customer. In the future, Xiaopeng Automobile will standardize the store sales and delivery process, strengthen the training of store personnel's professional knowledge, and bring better services to users from the sales end and delivery end.
Xiaopeng Automobile also said that the highest model of Xiaopeng P7 (except for the Pengyi version) (670E), the official guidance price before subsidies is 299,400 yuan, which does not exist and is not necessary, and it is low to obtain state subsidies. However, according to relevant reports, after the 670E was equipped with the "Smart Music Cockpit Enhancement Suite", the official website showed that the price was 317,400 yuan, which obviously exceeded the subsidy line of 300,000 yuan, and there was a pop-up of the subsidy range below. But what is the reason for the official response to the "non-existence", Xiaopeng did not respond.
It is worth noting that the follow-up incident was hastily caused by "management mistakes", but Xiaopeng Motors' response did not see any positive explanation for whether it was suspected of defrauding state subsidies.
The reason why netizens questioned "cheating compensation" is because China, as a country with a relatively fast development rate of new energy vehicles, has also introduced corresponding subsidy policies to respond to and support the development of the new energy automobile industry.
Since the beginning of the "Ten Cities and Thousand Vehicles" project in 2009, policy subsidies have been provided for new energy vehicles; in 2013, China introduced relevant regulations on subsidies for hybrid and pure electric vehicles, passenger cars can enjoy 35,000-60,000 subsidies, and buses can enjoy 250,000-500,000 subsidies according to length; the "carbon neutrality" and "carbon peak" proposed by the two sessions in 2020 will directly push the new energy vehicle policy subsidies to the climax.
In the face of such attractive subsidies, many car companies have moved the bad idea of "cheating and supplementing" and seeking subsidies through corresponding means to obtain profits. In the centralized inspection in 2016, the Ministry of Finance notified four enterprises, Named Suzhou Golden Dragon Bus, Henan Shaolin Bus, Chery Wanda Bus and Shenzhen Wuzhou Dragon Bus, involving a total of nearly 1 billion yuan, of which Suzhou Golden Dragon alone defrauded more than 500 million yuan.
Source: Official website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
"Fraudulent compensation" and "delayed delivery" have become the new labels of Xiaopeng Automobile
In addition to the "deception", Xiaopeng Automobile has complained continuously.
According to the official website of Black Cat Complaint, Xiaopeng Automobile was involved in up to 258 complaints, mainly due to complaints caused by delayed delivery.
Source: Black Cat Complaints official website
The general saying of Xiaopeng sales is a 6 to 8 weeks delivery period, between the reality of the shortage of auto parts, consumers will generally accept a waiting period of one or two months, but in fact, waiting for 20 weeks and not being able to pick up the car is not a minority.
According to relevant media reports, under the continuous fermentation of the "fraudulent compensation" incident, the owners of Xiaopeng who could not pick up the car on time almost simultaneously published articles such as "Xiaopeng Scheduled Car Owners Do Not Match Cars to Xiaopeng P7 480 Models, Disguised Price Increases, and Malicious Publicity Joint Statement" (hereinafter referred to as the "Joint Statement").
It mentioned: "We ordered Xiaopeng Automobile from September to November, the APP and the sales staff agreed that 6-8 weeks of car matching, but now has exceeded the delivery time and has not been equipped with a car, and the 670 model is ordered to be a second with the phenomenon, the official does not give any explanation, there is a disguised price increase, malicious publicity and other behaviors." ”
Attached to the joint statement is also the "official email to the sales staff", which contains the response plan for the delayed delivery of P7 480, including the active communication between the sales and the customer (3 options), the delivery students do not need to take the initiative to contact the customer, and only need to respond to the customer's questions according to the requirements (2 requirements).
For the delay in the delivery of the 480 model, Xiaopeng's official statement is that the industry is currently affected by the epidemic, and the industry is facing an extreme shortage of lithium iron phosphate battery supply, which has also brought a great impact on the production of xiaopeng P7 480E/N models. According to the latest scheduling plan, Xiaopeng sorted out the customers who are expected to have the risk of overdue, contacted the customers one-on-one through the sales staff, informed the latest delivery forecast cycle (the latest in late February to complete the car), and at the same time understood the customer needs, assisted the customers in need to complete the procedures for reassignment or cancellation, and expressed sincere apologies.
The attentive reader may find that the 480 model and the 670 model are not the same, and only the reasons for the delay in the delivery of the 480 model are given here, is the same as the 670 model?
The answer, of course, is different. It is reported that the battery type of the 480 model is a liquid-cooled constant temperature lithium iron phosphate battery pack, while the owner of the 670 model mentioned by the owner of the joint statement has a liquid-cooled constant temperature ternary lithium battery pack.
The above official claims have not been confirmed at present. However, it can be confirmed that consumers are already strongly dissatisfied with the handling attitude of Xiaopeng Motors.
Under the blessing of "reduced allocation delivery", where does Xiaopeng go in the fourth quarter
But it is undeniable that as one of China's leading intelligent electric vehicle companies, Xiaopeng Motors is at the forefront of new car-making forces.
Throughout 2021, the sales ranking of many new energy automobile companies can be described as earth-shaking, taking turns to sit in the country. In the first half of the year, WEILAI led the way with sales of 20,100 units and 21,900 vehicles, far exceeding Xiaopeng's 13,300 vehicles, 17,400 vehicles and the ideal 12,600 and 17,600 vehicles; and the third quarter Ideal Automobile came later, leading the new energy automobile industry; but from the latest release of Sales in October and November, Xiaopeng is in a leading position, and it may be Xiaopeng's turn in the fourth quarter.
At this time, many netizens have said that this is the "reduction of allocation delivery" to play a role?
Previously, on October 26, Xiaopeng Automobile had announced that it would give priority to the delivery of models lacking millimeter-wave radar, and then reload after the subsequent chips arrived. It is understood that the reduced delivery models include the third mass production new car of Xiaopeng that has just been listed, the Xiaopeng P5.
For car owners affected by the chip shortage, Xiaopeng Automobile is not ignored, but provides two alternative solutions: one is to wait for the car to be picked up, do not have rights, and deliver in order; the other is to choose the delivery plan for the replacement radar after the pick-up, Xiaopeng Automobile is expected to start the radar reload in batches from March 31, 2022, and give away XPILOT (3.0/3.5) software for free to this part of the owners.
In addition, the above two options need to be decided before 24:00 on November 2, 2021, and those who do not choose after the deadline are deemed to be the default first option, that is, choose to wait for pick-up in order. In addition, Xiaopeng Automobile also pointed out that if the owner has the willingness to modify the configuration, then it is necessary to re-sign the car purchase contract and deliver it in accordance with the rules.
Of course, under the crisis of "lack of core", Xiaopeng Automobile launched a "reduction and delivery" is a good way.
In order to build a long-term business and subvert the pattern of "Wei Xiaoli", how Xiaopeng Automobile can re-"capture" the hearts of consumers has become a problem that must be considered in the next step.