Wen 丨 Achen Editor 丨 Baijin
Source 丨Zhengjingshe(ID:zhengjingshe)
As a well-known luxury car brand, Mercedes-Benz has recently planted several heels.
On February 10, the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Bureau of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued the "Circular on the Infringement of the Legitimate Rights and Interests of Consumers by Mercedes-Benz Auto Finance Co., Ltd.", which pointed out that Mercedes-Benz Auto Finance infringed on consumers' right to know and the right to make independent choices, and there were hidden dangers in consumer information security risks.
Coincidentally, just three days ago, Mercedes-Benz was also severely punished in South Korea. On February 7, South Korea's antitrust regulator announced a fine of 20.2 billion won (about 107 million yuan) for Mercedes-Benz and its South Korean subsidiaries.
The reason for the fine was a false advertisement related to Mercedes-Benz's diesel passenger car emissions. The Korea Fair Trade Commission said Mercedes-Benz had installed illegal software on its vehicles to tamper with emissions test data. Statistics show that a total of 15 models have such software installed.
1
Mercedes-Benz EQC storm
In fact, as early as some time ago, mercedes-benz days began to be sad. Its electric vehicle model EQC released in the second half of 2019 has encountered the collective rights protection of car owners.
"Zhengjing Society" auto analysts combed and learned that in a joint statement, Mercedes-Benz EQC owners complained that the Mercedes-Benz EQC cars they purchased, in the process of use, there were one or more motor failures, after contacting the 4S shop for replacement, the motor will fail again, so the cycle repeats, there is no end in sight.
Some Mercedes-Benz EQC owners, after going to the maintenance point for testing, came to the conclusion that the "design is unreasonable".
Engineers involved in the dismantling said: Mercedes-Benz EQC's coolant interface, including electric drive system heat dissipation, cockpit air conditioning cooling and battery high temperature cooling system, up to 5 interface circuits, compared with fuel vehicles and other brands of electric vehicles are much more. This means that with more interfaces, the chance of coolant leakage increases, which in turn affects the operation of the motor.
Earlier, Zhang Xiang, a researcher at the Automotive Industry Innovation Research Center of North China University of Technology, also pointed out in an interview with the media: "The motor failure of Mercedes-Benz EQC is mainly due to design defects in the process of oil to electricity. ”
Since the motor of the EQC model is imported from Germany and needs to be sent from Germany to China, the owner of the car in some areas waits for the motor and repairs the motor for up to 35 days or more, which not only exceeds the maximum repair time limit of the national warranty, but also seriously affects their own lives.
At the same time, when many car owners asked the Mercedes-Benz 4S store to provide detailed work orders, motor failure reports, and the reason for replacing the motor, the Mercedes-Benz 4S store refused. At the same time, when some consumers purchase Mercedes-Benz EQC models, they ask sales staff whether there is a motor failure, etc., which is also denied by the Mercedes-Benz 4S store.
In response to this incident, Mercedes-Benz officials recently officially responded, claiming that most of the vehicles have been tested or repaired and put into normal use; a small number of vehicles have been repaired and are waiting for customers to pick up the car. At the same time, Mercedes-Benz also announced that it is studying customer feedback on the use of vehicles, and will develop specific product optimization programs based on this.
However, a considerable number of car owners believe that Mercedes-Benz's response is more perfunctory and insincere.
In fact, since the mercedes-Benz EQC was launched, its negative reviews have been continuous. On multiple automotive forums, posts about "Mercedes-Benz EQC burned out the motor" appeared frequently. In addition, about 80% of the complaints about the Mercedes-Benz EQC on the Internet are focused on core components such as motors and power batteries.
On the black cat complaint platform, some netizens also launched a condemnation of other problems with mercedes-Benz EQC models.
A netizen posted on the black cat complaint platform that Mercedes-Benz EQC advertised the actual endurance of 415 kilometers, but when used in the summer, the endurance was only about 360 kilometers; in the winter, the endurance fell to about 260 kilometers. Although the battery of electric vehicles has attenuated in the winter, the gap with the publicity is too large, and after being sent for inspection, it has not been reasonably explained by Mercedes-Benz.
2
It's not just EQC
Not only electric vehicles such as EQC, but also other models under mercedes-Benz have also encountered the rights of car owners several times. And the road to the protection of rights of these car owners is also extremely difficult, almost without exception.
"Zhengjingshe" auto analysts combed and learned that recently, the car director champion broke the news on Weibo, saying that the Mercedes-Benz GLK car he drove suddenly had a strange noise and lost power in high-speed driving, and after being inspected by the auto repair plant, it was caused by the fracture of the drive shaft.
According to a number of netizens, the model driven by Ren Champion was once recalled by Mercedes-Benz because of quality problems. However, the car owned by Ren Champion himself is not within the scope of the recall.
For this broken shaft incident, Ren Champion said: I hope Mercedes-Benz checks whether there is a quality problem, if it is not a Mercedes-Benz quality problem, he is willing to repair it at his own expense.
However, for this matter, Mercedes-Benz officials said: If there is a quality problem, you can contact the dealer and manufacturer. The 4S shop claimed that Ren Champion's car had passed the shelf life and was not within the scope of the recall, and the vehicle could be driven to the 4S shop for identification.
In response to such a response, the party Ren Champion expressed considerable dissatisfaction on Weibo and would continue to defend his rights.
As we all know, as early as 2019, Mercedes-Benz encountered a more serious public opinion crisis.
A woman in Xi'an, after spending 660,000 yuan to buy a Mercedes-Benz car, drove a 4S shop only one kilometer away and found that the engine of the new car leaked oil.
The woman immediately reflected the situation to the store, and after that, the Mercedes-Benz 4S store always delayed and prevaricated, promising to replace the engine for free, not for free.
In desperation, the lady sat on the hood of the car in the Mercedes-Benz 4S store, crying that she was too reasonable to be bullied, and was humiliated by the Mercedes-Benz side.
The rights protection video was posted on the Internet, and after the incident was fermented, it caused many netizens to be unfair. Many people have said: "The Mercedes-Benz, which did not recognize the account when I first went out, is simply a joke." ”
It wasn't until things got bigger and bigger, and finally alarmed the relevant regulatory authorities, that Mercedes-Benz lowered its noble head.
In the end, the market supervision department of Xi'an High-tech Zone determined that the engine of the car had a defect in assembly quality, which was a product quality problem; Xi'an Lizhixing Automobile Co., Ltd. had two illegal acts of selling goods that did not meet the requirements for ensuring personal and property safety, exaggerating and concealing information with major interests with consumers to mislead consumers, and was fined a total of 100 yuan in accordance with the law and confiscated from the national treasury.
It can be seen that the well-known luxury brand Mercedes-Benz, whether it is the product itself or after-sales service, seems to be somewhat unworthy of the name.
03
The twilight of the big guy
Mercedes-Benz, which is often complained about, has already written the decline on the sales data.
According to the statistics of the Association of Passenger Vehicles, in the 2021 China high-end car retail sales rankings, Mercedes-Benz E-Class and Mercedes-Benz C-Class models ranked fourth and fifth in the list with sales results of 141,000 and 130,000 respectively. However, compared to last year, sales of the two models fell by 9.3% and 14.8%, respectively.
In the statistics of the Association of Passenger Vehicles, in the retail sales ranking of China's high-end SUV in 2021, the Mercedes-Benz GRC and Mercedes-Benz GLB models ranked third and eighth in the list with sales of 136,000 units and 57,000 units respectively. Among them, Mercedes-Benz GLC sales fell by 17.7%, and Mercedes-Benz GLB sales rose by 4.9%.
After a hundred years of luxury brand Mercedes-Benz, the performance in the Chinese market is indeed not eye-catching. Compared with other competitors, mercedes-benz's decline is more obvious.
In the 2021 China high-end car retail sales rankings, BMW 5 Series and BMW 3 Series ranked first and second in the list with sales of 172,000 units and 170,000 units respectively. Compared with last year, sales of the two models increased by 8.3% and 12.1%, respectively.
In the 2021 full-year high-end SUV retail sales ranking, the veteran competitor BMW, with the BMW X3 model, obtained sales of 150,000 vehicles, an increase of 11.6% over last year, ranking second in the list.
At the same time, Tesla Model Y, Ideal ONE, and NIO ES6, the three models, ranked first, fifth and tenth in the list with sales of 170,000, 90,000 and 41,000 vehicles respectively. Among them, as a new car just launched last year, Tesla Model Y won the list championship as soon as it was listed, which can be described as a fearsome future.
In this way, whether it is an old luxury brand or a new car-making force that has just risen, they are launching an impact on the inherent market of Mercedes-Benz, which has brought a lot of pressure to it.
04
New energy dakan
In order to cope with the impact of other car companies, especially the pressure of new energy car companies, Mercedes-Benz has also sought changes in recent years.
In 2019, Mercedes-Benz launched the first electric vehicle, the Mercedes-Benz EQC, followed by EQA, EQB, EQS and other models.
In November 2020, the General Office of the State Council issued the "New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan", proposing that by 2025, China's new energy vehicle sales are expected to reach 5.3 million, and the number of new energy vehicles will reach about 20 million.
Not only China, but also many countries in the world today are vigorously promoting the development of new energy vehicles. Therefore, Mercedes-Benz, which chose to force the new energy vehicle market, seems to have done the right thing this time.
However, compared with some other car companies, Mercedes-Benz's exploration in the field of new energy is not only a little slow, but also seems to be not stable.
For example, the launch of a number of electric models such as Mercedes-Benz EQC has not only been complained about by consumers that the pricing is too high, but also its product quality and after-sales service seem to be difficult to compliment.
In fact, the reason why Mercedes-Benz can't do new energy vehicles well is precisely because in the era of fuel vehicles, Mercedes-Benz's life is too good.
As the inventor of the car, Mercedes-Benz has always been a high-end, atmospheric, luxurious image to show people, for a long time, Mercedes-Benz car fans are numerous, the product is not worried about selling.
However, the development of the new energy automobile industry has not only brought new products, but also brought new ideas. In the face of new things, Mercedes-Benz, whether it is the product itself or the marketing method, is somewhat outdated.
As a well-known luxury brand, if Mercedes-Benz only blindly lists its own high-end, without strictly controlling the quality, its product competitiveness will decline year by year.
At the moment when the wave of new energy vehicles is higher than the wave, if Mercedes-Benz still sticks to its traditional routine, but does not make complete changes, the market it has will become smaller and smaller; the road to new energy vehicles will become more and more difficult. 【Produced by "Zhengjing Society"】
Editor-in-charge | Tang Weiping, Editor| Duhai Baijin, proofreading| Ranran
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