Author | Zhang Kaijing
Edit | Deep
Source 丨 Radar Finance
The "chip door" that broke out at the end of 2021 by Great Wall Motors' Euler Good Cat will continue to ferment until the beginning of 2022.
Recently, the team of Wang Zhibin of Shanghai Minglun Law Firm reported to Radar Finance that more than 30 consumers have been entrusted to sue Great Wall Motors and its sales companies, and the number of entrusted clients is still increasing every day.
It is understood that starting in November 2021, consumers found that the chip used by great wall motors Euler Good Cat is not the Qualcomm octa-core chip it has always claimed, but the very old 2016 Intel quad-core chip, the computing power of the two is very different, and the Intel chip is not compatible with Android application software, the chip causes software to stutter, and the reversing image is slow, which causes great security risks and seriously endangers the health of consumers.
"This is a consumer fraud." Lawyer Wang Zhibin also pointed out that the chip model used by Euler Good Cat for export to the UK is Qualcomm 8155, and Euler Good Cat is suspected of discriminating against domestic consumers.
Radar Finance learned that the appeal made by many consumers is that Great Wall Motors and its affiliates refund the purchase price and compensate according to three times the purchase price.
Euler Good Cat ranks first in the "Model Complaint List"
According to public information, Euler is an electric vehicle brand founded by Great Wall Motors in 2018 and is positioned as a "feminine car brand".
At present, Euler's models include Euler good cat, Euler white cat, Euler black cat, etc., according to the company's latest release of sales data, Euler brand sales reached 135,000 vehicles in 2021, an increase of 140% year-on-year. Among them, from January to November 2021, the cumulative sales volume of Euler Good Cat was 39,418 units, ranking 11th in the sales list of new energy cars in the same period.
However, it is such a hot model, but it is high in the January-December 2021 model complaint list. According to the data of the car quality network, as of press time, the number of complaints about euler good cats by car owners in 2021 reached 2283 times, while the number of complaints about the second model in the above list was less than 2000, and the number of complaints about the third model was even less than 1000.
Among them, the typical problem of consumer complaints is sales fraud, which is inconsistent with the promotion. According to the complaint, Euler Good Cat claimed on its official website and sales promotional materials that its car machine system uses Qualcomm 8-core professional car specification chips, but the actual car uses the old Intel 4-core A3940 chip released in 2016.
"In the process of use after purchase, there are often problems such as slow start of reversing images, inaccurate radar distance, incompatible App software, system crash from time to time, and Bluetooth from time to time unable to connect." Consumers said.
In addition, consumers believe that the two chips have a huge difference in computing power, which will cause great safety risks, and in view of the importance and indivisibility of the car chip in the function and performance of the whole car, the staff of Great Wall Motors also admitted that the car machine and the chip are related to the electrical architecture or module of the whole vehicle, and cannot be replaced separately, which seriously damages the rights and interests of consumers.
After reports in November pointed out the problem, Euler's multiple explanations were not accepted by users, and the problem intensified as time went on.
In this regard, on December 6 last year, CCTV Finance and Economics made an investigative report on Euler's replacement of chips, pointing out that the brand side "stole the core", played word games or was suspected of consumer fraud.
Specifically, euler said in his response to the explanation, "This configuration was planned and was originally intended to be installed on future models, but Weichen was eager to report the good news to Her Royal Highness the Princess." Unexpectedly, it caused trouble to His Highness, and he was kind enough to do bad things. Or: "The intelligent service processing platform shown in the parameter configuration table contains a decentralized independent control architecture for Qualcomm, Intel, Renesas, and other chips." Among them, the Qualcomm chip in the parameter configuration table is the chip used in the remote control module. ”
However, CCTV financial reports show that the screenshot of euler's previous official website clearly indicates the use of Qualcomm's special vehicle processing chip.
Alleged to constitute malicious fraud, more than 30 consumers filed lawsuits
Under the pressure of public opinion, Great Wall Motors gave a compensation plan on December 9: it required Euler Good Cat to correct the parameter content of the official website, confirm this error, and add a lifetime warranty and a charging equity of 10,000 yuan on the basis of the previous 7200 upgrade rights package.
On December 29, some Euler good cat owners revealed that there has been a new development in the compensation plan: Euler Automobile's compensation for the previous 10,000 yuan charging rights and interests has now become "the first owner's 10,000 yuan charging rights can be discounted". That is, the first owner's RMB 10,000 charging rights are directly discounted, and the cash of RMB10,000 will be directly credited to the owner's account.
At the same time, the previous conditions of "free OTA upgrade of CarPlay system and Huawei HiCar function", "enjoying free entertainment traffic service for 2 years", and "enjoying the lifetime warranty of the first owner of the vehicle" have been extended.
Since its listing, Euler good cat sales of more than 40,000 yuan, according to this calculation, if Euler Car compensates all the owners who buy good cats, the cumulative payment will exceed 400 million yuan in cash.
But consumers are not satisfied with this.
"The defendant Great Wall Motors, as the seller and producer of the subject vehicle, knew that the chip used in the vehicle was an Intel chip, but claimed to use Qualcomm high-performance chip, which obviously constituted malicious fraud and constituted joint infringement, and according to the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law, the court was requested to order the defendant to refund the car purchase price paid to the plaintiff 112,900 yuan, and to pay three times the punitive damages totaling 338,700 yuan, for a total of 451,600 yuan." An indictment provided by a consumer shows.
In addition, according to the Measures for the Punishment of Acts Infringing on the Rights and Interests of Consumers, the sale of products or services by means of false or misleading product descriptions, commodity standards, physical samples, etc., is fraud.
At present, the sales price of Euler Good Cat ranges from 103,900 yuan to 160,900 yuan, and if all consumers take one refund and three losses, the price paid by the brand is between 16.6 billion yuan and 25.7 billion yuan. For comparison, Great Wall Motor's total net profit in 2020 was 5.362 billion yuan.
It is worth mentioning that lawyer Wang Zhibin said that Great Wall Motors also involves the issue of consumer discrimination. According to the new car new technology report, Euler good cat was exported to the UK in October, and the local price is about 200,000. But when consumers asked about the British Euler car customer service chip problem by email, the response was that the local Euler good cat chip model was Qualcomm 8155.
Radar Finance tried to contact the secretary of the board of directors of Great Wall Motors, and the staff said that the relevant events would be answered by the company's public relations, but after repeated calls to the public relations department of Great Wall Motors, no one answered.
Industry insiders believe that compared with the new forces of car manufacturing, although the Great Wall, as a traditional car company, occupies a certain advantage in the supply chain supporting system, there is still a gap between its Euler and the fist products of other car companies in terms of comprehensive product strength and market share. If the public opinion event cannot be resolved in time, whether it is Euler or the Great Wall, it will face a passive situation in the increasingly competitive market