BYD "spontaneous combustion door"

Text/Leju Finance Li Shanshan

"Completely erase the word 'spontaneous combustion' from the dictionary of new energy vehicles." In 2020, BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu issued such a bold statement at the blade battery conference.

However, the "spontaneous combustion" was not erased, and the face punch came very quickly. Since then, BYD's various new energy models have continuous spontaneous combustion accidents.

Recently, another spontaneous combustion incident has pushed BYD to the cusp of public opinion. A video circulating on the Internet showed a BYD Qin PLUS DM-i model in Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, burning on the road, and the fire was fierce.

From the video, it can be found that the fire is mainly concentrated in the cab and rear seat, and the front windshield has fallen off, and almost the upper half of the body is caught in the fire, but the front hood and chassis of the car are not affected by the fire.

At the same time, another video also went viral on the Internet. The video shows a charred vehicle placed in a clearing, revealing a skeleton, while next to the vehicle is the remains of a suspected driver who was killed.

But then some professionals pointed out that the latter video is obviously not a BYD product, because the location of the charging port is completely different.

On February 14, BYD officials responded to the fire, saying that there was indeed a BYD vehicle fire in Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, but it did not cause casualties, and during the fire, the vehicle battery did not burn, and in response to the rumors that the owner of the car had died on the Internet and false information such as cut videos and malicious associations, the police would be dealt with.

For the specific cause of the fire, BYD has not responded, as to whether the product quality or human factors caused the fire, it still needs to wait for further official notification.

Blade battery myth shattered

It is reported that the BYD Qin PLUS DM-i in this accident was officially listed on March 8, 2021, and the current price is 108,880-14.88 million yuan, which is BYD's current main sales responsibility, with cumulative sales of 110,900 vehicles in 2021, accounting for one-fifth of BYD's total sales in 2021.

The reason why this model is hot, on the one hand, is because it relies on DM-i super hybrid technology, bringing a subversive experience to Qin PLUS DM-i, reducing dimensions to hit the same level of traditional fuel vehicles; on the other hand, BYD's rapid take-off killer is equipped with a "blade battery", so the blade battery equipped with Qin DM-i is also a highlight of much attention.

It is understood that the blade battery is BYD's innovative product in the field of power batteries, and it is also the core competitiveness of the company in the past two years. Blade batteries have the advantages of super strength, super endurance, super life and super power, which is the cornerstone of BYD's continuous sales leadership.

In April last year, BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu announced the official launch of battery acupuncture testing as a corporate standard. The acupuncture experiment, which uses a test steel needle to pierce the power battery, to simulate the large area short circuit phenomenon inside the battery cell to test the safety performance of the power battery, has become the most stringent battery safety detection method recognized by the industry.

In the needle punch test, the blade battery does not fire, smoke, or explode, and the surface temperature is only 30-60 ° C. In contrast, the ternary lithium battery in the steel needle after the rapid expansion of the shell, and then instantaneous fire explosion, the surface temperature of more than 500 ° C; the traditional lithium iron phosphate battery although not fire explosion, but still appear smoke, surface temperature 200 ° C -400 ° C.

It can be seen that the safety of blade batteries is far more than that of traditional power batteries. Since BYD launched blade batteries in early 2020, BYD's electric vehicles seem to be protected by the slogan of "never catch fire" and have become the conscience technology in the hearts of users for a while.

However, BYD, which is "absolutely safe" in publicity and marketing, has "overturned". In July 2021, during a crash test conducted by the media, BYD Han EV conducted a head-to-head collision test with the BAIC Polar Fox Alpha S. Unexpectedly, after a complete power outage and 48 hours of standing, the BYDHan EV equipped with blade batteries spontaneously combusted.

In this regard, BYD said that spontaneous combustion and battery is not related, but because the coolant used by the BYD EV participating in the test is red and will conduct electricity, while the original coolant is purple and will not conduct electricity, and the coolant of the vehicle participating in the test is replaced, and the coolant leaks after the collision, causing a short circuit in the line and causing spontaneous combustion.

But the color of the coolant is not worth investigating, after all, the fire is a fact, BYD's crash test fire accident has a great impact on the safety of its products.

Deep in the "spontaneous combustion door"

In addition to the safety marketing "overturning", BYD has also had many spontaneous combustion accidents.

In January, a video of a fire in a BYD dolphin was circulated on the Internet. Judging from the live video, the fire was large and accompanied by a cracking sound. The accident did not cause casualties, and the specific cause of the fire has yet to be officially confirmed.

The reason for the fire of THE BYD dolphins has not yet been clarified, and another by-one car under BYD has reported spontaneous combustion in the same month.

It is reported that the spontaneous combustion vehicle is a BYD Tang DM-i faulty car in Shanghai, which is suspected of catching fire on the way towing. The car is equipped with a plug-in hybrid system consisting of a 1.5T engine, an electric motor, and a lithium iron phosphate blade battery, and is available in two endurance versions of 52 km and 112 km. The reason for the fire in the car, BYD officials did not explain.

In November last year, a BYD Qin Pro EV with a Beijing license plate started a smoke and fire in an underground garage in Beijing. It is reported that at that time, the owner of the car had not yet gotten off the car, suddenly felt that the sound was not right, immediately picked up the child and got out of the car to escape, there were no casualties, and the fire was extinguished in time, and no explosion occurred.

Judging from the photos of the scene, there is a large amount of white smoke coming out near the vehicle, and there is a clear fire point at the bottom. Another photo shows that the BYD Qin Pro EV after being extinguished was so badly damaged that it had no value for repair.

In addition, there were two bydie spontaneous combustion incidents in two days in August 2021. On August 6, a BYD Han EV spontaneously combusted on the side of the road; on the afternoon of August 7, the BYD D1, a ride-hailing car jointly developed by BYD and Didi, suddenly caught fire in Kunshan, Suzhou, and the fire site was in the front cabin position, and the front hatch seemed to be burned through.

For the first spontaneous combustion incident, BYD Automobile Sales Company said in the "Communication Retraction Letter" that the accident was caused by improper driving, not due to the quality of the vehicle itself. The second spontaneous combustion incident was that the truck in front of it dropped a large iron block, because the vehicle was driving faster, the accident vehicle could not avoid it, resulting in a collision between the vehicle and the large iron block, causing the front cabin of the vehicle to start to catch fire.

Starting from the second half of 2021, BYD's new energy vehicle sales showed a steady growth trend. In January 2022, BYD New Energy handed over a single monthly sales of 93,168 vehicles, an increase of 361.73% year-on-year.

Behind the hot sales of BYD's new energy vehicles, there are frequent spontaneous combustion accidents, and its declared slogan of "never catch fire" has not been put into practice, and safety is still a problem that needs to be solved.

The industry reshuffle intensified

In the new energy automobile industry into the stage of white-hot competition, spontaneous combustion such a negative event is likely to lead to the risk of brand fall behind, even the hot-selling BYD may not be an exception, the eye-catching results are only temporary, if you do not solve the safety problem in time, the future will be a great hidden danger.

On January 11, the sales data of New Energy Vehicles in China in 2021 was officially released. According to the data of the Federation of Passenger Vehicles, the retail sales of new energy passenger cars in China in 2021 were 2.989 million units, up 169.1% year-on-year. Among them, "Wei Xiaoli" has entered the top ten, and Weima, which is also a new car-making force, has not even appeared in the top fifteen.

It is reported that in 2019, Weima is still the second place in the sales volume of new forces, ranking second only to Weilai. Today, Weima has not only not squeezed into the Top3, but even slipped to the tail of the second-tier camp of the new forces. One of the important reasons for the decline in sales is the crisis of trust caused by frequent spontaneous combustion.

And entering the top ten of the "Wei Xiaoli" is not absolutely safe. According to the data of the Association, the top five car companies in China's new energy vehicle sales in 2021 are BYD Automobile, SAIC-GM-Wuling, Tesla China, Great Wall Motor, and GAC Eian, with sales of 584,000 units, 431,000 vehicles, 320,000 vehicles, 133,000 vehicles and 120,000 units respectively.

In terms of sales, the total sales volume of the three new car-making forces of "Wei Xiaoli" in January is less than tesla's sales in China.

It is true that new energy vehicles will become the trend of the future development of the automotive industry, in this development process, there are not many problems, such as battery failure, endurance attenuation, intelligent system failure, etc., and new energy vehicle fire accidents have become very common in this context.

But at the same time, the new energy automobile industry is currently undergoing a major reshuffle, a little careless may be eliminated by the market, and spontaneous combustion accidents will bring huge trauma in the process of competition of new energy vehicle brands.

Today's new energy car companies, in addition to the first new forces to enter the game, the first camp has BYD, Tesla two strong hands; down there are Volkswagen, SAIC, BMW and other traditional car companies to enter the game; later there are xiaomi, Baidu, ByteDance and other cross-border players have entered the game. But in the future, new energy vehicles will eventually leave only a few giants, and the last laugh can only be recognized.

Source: Leju Finance