Introduction | a small part of a car "broke"
Just after December, let's look at the list of car recalls for the last month of last year.
According to the State Administration for Market Regulation, in December 2021, 1,298,170 domestic passenger cars were recalled, up 5.2% year-on-year and 462% month-on-month. In 2021, a total of 8.7337 million passenger cars were recalled, up 31.9% year-on-year.
This is the third monthly recall of more than one million vehicles in 2021, the first two being 2.77 million in March and 2.06 million in July. It seems that at the last sprint, not only the sales of cars are amazing, but the recall is also "keeping pace with the times".
In December, there were 24 recalls involving 20 brands, covering domestic/imported vehicles, joint venture brands/independent brands, ordinary brands/luxury brands/ultra-luxury brands, and fuel vehicles/electric vehicles. What a year-end family portrait.
In terms of the scale of the recall, the top three brands are, in order: Toyota, Tesla and Lexus.
Toyota topped the list in December with 770,758 recalls, accounting for 59.4 percent, involving the Camry, Veranda, Asia Dragon, Yize, C-HR, and RAV4.
The reason for the recall is that the internal components of the engine exhaust gas recirculation valve (EGR valve) may be corroded by the higher concentration of chlorine in the fuel, resulting in poor valve movement. It may cause the engine to run poorly, and in extreme cases, the vehicle will be turned off at low speed, which is a safety hazard.
EGR valve is an important control component of automotive engines, and the parts are small but very useful. Usually located to the right of the intake manifold, near the throttle body, it is connected to it by a short metal tube leading to the exhaust manifold. Its role is to control the amount of exhaust gas entering the intake manifold, so that a certain amount of exhaust gas flows into the intake manifold for recirculation.
It is not an exaggeration to say that Toyota "lost a lot of money because of a small part" that triggered such a large recall because of such a "small part".
And this, there are precursors.
On December 7, Toyota publicly stated that it would use wear or defective parts from suppliers without affecting the performance and safety of the vehicle. The reason for this move is to alleviate the problem of chip shortages and rising material costs, so as to achieve the expected production.
It's just that the punch in the face seems to come too quickly. It was only three days before Toyota's recall occurred. It seems that some money really can't be saved.
In addition, Toyota's recall is not alone, with more than 200,000 vehicles launched in June and July 2021.
Lexus and Toyota brands are in the same recall, recalling 127,496 vehicles in December, accounting for 9.8%, ranking third. Involves the ES and US series, also because of the EGR valve. This makes Lexus, which was originally poorly sold, even worse.
Tesla recalled 221,340 vehicles in December, accounting for 17.1%, ranking second, involving domestic Model 3, Model Y and imported Model 3 and Model S.
Tesla launched two recalls in December:
The first was the recall of 21,599 Model Ys on December 3 due to the potential for suspension shedding;
The second was december 31, with recalls of 19,697 imported Model S, 35,836 imported Model 3 and 144,208 domestic Model 3 for different reasons.
Model S is due to the front trunk latch assembly may not be aligned, resulting in the front compartment cover secondary latch can not be combined, may cause the front cover of the Model S to open unexpectedly, thereby obstructing the driver's line of sight; Model 3 is the rear trunk cover when on and off, may cause wear on and off the rear camera harness, over time may lead to the rear camera failure, such as the rear view image can not be displayed.
And this recall appeared not only in China, but also in the United States earlier. On December 30, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Tesla recalled 119,009 Model Ss due to front cover latch problems and 356,309 Model 3s due to rear camera wiring harness problems.
This is a simultaneous recall between China and the United States, give it a thumbs up.
Regarding Tesla's quality control, Chinese and American consumers have reached a high degree of consistency, such as "Consumer Reports": "2022 Reliability Ranking Released: Lexus Wins the Championship, Tesla Lincoln Bottom".
Despite this, Tesla is still "not applauding but calling for seats." According to the data, Tesla's global deliveries in 2021 are approaching the 1 million mark, reaching 936,200 units, a surge of 87.2% over 2020.
Domestic sales have not yet been officially released, its cumulative volume in China from January to November has exceeded 250,000 vehicles, and it has recently been rumored that Tesla's sales in China exceeded 70,000 vehicles in December, if calculated according to this calculation, Tesla's sales in China in 2021 will reach more than 320,000 vehicles.
Compared with Toyota, Tesla and Lexus, the recalls of other brands are relatively small, all of which are under 100,000 units.
BMW, Volkswagen, Infiniti, Ford and Nissan ranked fourth to eighth in order, with recalls ranging from 10,000 to 100,000.
BMW recalled 74,821 domestically produced 3 Series, iX3, imported 1 Series and 3 Series, focusing on "incorrect description of wading tips".
Volkswagen recalled 32,179 imported Beetle, Scirocour, Golf, Sharon, Tourwei and Weilan, focusing on the problem of "fire hazard caused by loose bolts in the engine".
Infiniti recalled 27,133 QX60 hybrids and Nissan recalled 11,822 new Loulan HEVs, all of which were "driven by power or interruption" hazards, and Ford recalled 15,497 Forrises for "hood risk of being lifted."
Other brand recalls are below 10,000 vehicles, so I will not introduce them one by one.
Car gathering summary
Dear readers, is your car on the recall list? If so, please pay attention to the recall information.