"WM Motors has not yet responded"
Mr. Ye, the owner of Wenzhou, broke the news on the black cat complaint platform that in December 2021, he received a benefit from WM Motor, and the car company invited the owner to conduct a comprehensive vehicle inspection and give away a Jingdong card worth 200 yuan. After that, Mr. Ye drove to the local 4S store to enjoy this benefit. However, what he never expected was that after enjoying this benefit, Mr. Ye accidentally discovered the truth about the shrinking endurance of WM Motors.
Mr. Ye told the special search reporter that he bought the WM new energy vehicle with the model EX5 Pro400 in 2018. Since driving for three years, there have been no major failures, the only problem is that when fully charged, it is found that the mileage is getting less and less every year. Until December 2021, Mr. Ye received a notice of the New Year's preferential treatment event: a comprehensive vehicle inspection and a 200 yuan Jingdong shopping card. Mr. Ye thought that during the Spring Festival, the car would be used frequently, and WM Motor could conduct a free full vehicle inspection of the vehicle before the Spring Festival, at least to find out whether the vehicle had hidden faults. So, Mr. Ye, who didn't think much about it, drove to the local Weima 4S store.
However, the day after the whole car was inspected, Mr. Ye found something strange when charging the vehicle. According to Mr. Ye, in the past, each full charge required at least 56 kWh of electricity, and the battery voltage was above 400V, but this time the full charge only used more than 40 kWh of electricity, and the battery voltage was only 396V, and the dashboard showed that the endurance advertised as 400 km was only about 180 km now.
To this end, Mr. Ye telephoned the 4S shop, and the reply was that the vehicle had been upgraded to the system, and after driving for a period of time, the battery voltage would return to its original value. After driving for a period of time according to the recommendations of the 4S shop, Mr. Ye found that the voltage value of each charge was 396V, and the charge could only be charged to 99%. Later, Mr. Ye searched on the Internet and found that many Wei horse-drawn carriage owners also encountered the same problem, and some car owners attributed the reason for this problem to the fact that the WM automobile manufacturer had locked the vehicle.
Locking refers to the locking of the vehicle SOC (battery charge state), which can limit the charging and discharging of the battery, thereby changing the battery capacity and charging and discharging speed.
Car owners speculate that the purpose of WM automobile manufacturers is to prevent spontaneous combustion caused by thermal runaway battery caused by overcharge and over-discharge by locking the electricity. Because just last year, WM cars had several spontaneous combustion accidents.
In addition, Mr. Ye and the owners suspect that the reason why WM Motors did not inform the owner and locked the power without authorization was that they were worried that the batteries they carried had safety hazards. At present, due to the locking of the vehicle, the original advertised mileage has been reduced by more than half, Mr. Ye and the owners asked WM automobile manufacturers to give solutions, but WM Motors believes that the owner's own improper use has led to a shrinkage in battery life.
Because WM Motors does not believe that it is at fault, on January 10, 2022, 173 owners of WM EX5 across the country jointly complained that the actual mileage of WM Motors was seriously inconsistent with the publicity, and in order to cover up the safety hazards of their own batteries, they used concealment and deception to reduce battery capacity.
In order to understand the situation, the special search reporter also contacted the WM automobile manufacturer, and the customer service staff said that there would be a special person to reply. However, as of press time, it has not received a response from WM Motors.
In response to the WM Motor Locking Incident, Lin Bing, a lawyer at Beijing Jingshi (Shenzhen) Law Firm, believes that if Mr. Ye's complaint is true, the fact that WM's officials have changed the car configuration without authorization can be established, and the automobile manufacturer should bear the responsibility of infringing on the consumer's right to know and the burden of proof for product defects. According to paragraph 3 of article 23 of the Law on the Protection of The Rights and Interests of Consumers, "where a consumer discovers a defect within six months from the date of receipt of the goods or services such as motor vehicles, computers, televisions, refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, etc. provided by the proprietor to durable goods, or services such as decoration and decoration, the proprietor shall bear the burden of proof for the defect." "The quality and performance of motor vehicles, especially electric vehicles, as well as the corresponding annual inspection and other services, the technical requirements are high, the owner is difficult to grasp and confirm, for this type of product and service, can not only rely on the WM side to believe that the owner of the fault to determine, but WM side should bear the corresponding burden of proof, to prove that it is indeed because of the improper operation of the owner of the car to lead to shrinkage, otherwise, the corresponding consequences by the vehicle producer to bear."
According to the information, the company of WM Automobile is WM Smart Mobility Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. The project has just completed its Round of D2 financing on December 1, 2021, with a financing amount of $152 million.
(Note: The deadline for this report is February 11, 2022, due to the appropriate delay in the review process)