In 2021, the sales volume of new energy vehicles in mainland China reached 3.521 million units, an increase of 1.6 times year-on-year, ranking first in the world for seven consecutive years. Among them, the sales volume of new energy passenger cars was 3.334 million units, an increase of 167.5% year-on-year. In the past five years, the number of newly registered new energy vehicles has increased from 650,000 in 2017 to 2.95 million in 2021, showing a significant rapid growth trend.
By the end of 2021, the number of new energy vehicles in the country reached 7.84 million, accounting for 2.60% of the total number of vehicles, an increase of 59.25% compared with the previous year, accounting for about half of the global new energy vehicle ownership; while the number of pure electric vehicles was 6.4 million, accounting for 81.63% of the total number of new energy vehicles. It is understood that there are 79 cities with more than one million cars in the country, an increase of 9 year-on-year. More than 2 million vehicles in 35 cities and more than 3 million vehicles in 20 cities, including more than 5 million in Beijing, Chengdu and Chongqing, and more than 4 million in Suzhou, Shanghai, Zhengzhou and Xi'an.
On the large side, the significant increase in the ownership of new energy vehicles and the supporting infrastructure construction have not only stimulated the development of the economy, but also helped to complete the goal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. But there are two sides to everything, and the number of ownership goes up, and with it, the number of consumer complaints also rises.
The number of complaints has risen sharply
Just at the end of January, the China Consumers Association sorted out and released the situation of accepting complaints in 2021, and the number of complaints about automobiles and auto parts was 41,624, accounting for 3.98% of the complaints about goods, an increase of 19.28% year-on-year, of which consumers of new energy vehicles were the majority. Specifically, the main problems of consumer complaints about new energy vehicles focus on safety; false publicity; frequent price changes; after-sales service system; data storage, provision, etc., of which safety issues are the most concerned.
When it comes to car safety issues, basically every consumer will think that this should be the least that car companies should do, but from the actual use of the car process of consumers, they will encounter problems such as driving interruption, spontaneous combustion, failure of the automatic driving system, etc., which will cause property losses at light and hurt lives, which is most evident in the sensational Tesla female owner Shanghai Auto Show on-site rights protection incident, which was also dominated by several major social platform hot search lists for a long time, becoming a rights protection event that aroused the attention of the whole society.
In addition, as one of the most important components of new energy vehicles, the quality of batteries is also the focus of consumer attention, such as charging failure, battery smoke, battery spontaneous combustion, etc. In July last year, an electric car owned by Ms. Song of Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, spontaneously combusted while charging, and Ms. Song believed that there was a quality problem with the electric vehicle sold by the 4S store and demanded compensation.
On the black cat complaint platform, there have also been car owners who have recently complained collectively about WM "to reduce the battery life to cover up the battery quality defects", resulting in a reduction in the mileage. Since the complaint in May 2021, WM has not responded, and the owner of the rights protection hopes that WM will dock as soon as possible, publicly apologize and replace the battery.
False publicity is another problem with the relatively large number of consumer complaints. In the actual use of the car process, the mileage is false, can not reach the manufacturer's publicity value, especially in the winter low temperature under the problem of fast endurance loss is the current new energy vehicles facing the common problem, is indeed the current bottleneck facing the development of battery technology, this part of the proportion of complaints is relatively large can be understood. In September 2021, Mr. Zhang of Hubei complained that a certain brand of new energy vehicles he spent 200,000 yuan to buy claimed to be charged once and had a range of 510 kilometers, but the actual mileage when used was only 300 kilometers.
In addition to the false mileage, the actual configuration is not in line with the publicity configuration is also one of the times with a large number of complaints, of which the most concerned is the Great Wall Euler good cat chip door incident. The incident is simply that the owner of an Euler good cat in Shanghai reported that when he used the coffee intelligent car control system equipped with the car, he found that the built-in chip used Intel's quad-core chip, and the official configuration table indicated that the Qualcomm octa-core chip was used, which was equivalent to buying a "reduced allocation car".
Similarly, in September last year, Ms. Wang of Suzhou booked a pure electric car, the brake type is mechanical brake, Ms. Wang paid a deposit, and also signed a vehicle pre-sale contract with the 4S store, but the delivery date column in the contract is blank. A month later, Ms. Wang contacted the 4S store to deliver the final payment and pick up the car, but the 4S shop told Ms. Wang that due to the manufacturer's adjustment of production, the model ordered by it had been discontinued and was now upgraded to an electronic handbrake, and only cyan, but the upgraded model needed to add an additional 3,000 yuan to pick up the car.
Similar to the above-mentioned consumer complaints, in addition to the problems encountered by consumers before buying a car and in the process of using the car, there are also related problems in after-sales, such as the maintenance outlets of new energy vehicle companies, maintenance technicians, etc. can not meet the needs of high-speed growth of new energy vehicles, affecting consumer experience and after-sales satisfaction.
It is also worth noting that the degree of intelligence of new energy vehicles is getting higher and higher, involving the data problems of car owners, such as personal information, driving routes, driving habits, etc. From the current point of view, this type of data is currently mainly controlled by manufacturers, resulting in refusal to provide situations, resulting in consumer complaints.
Looking carefully, the reason for the significant increase in the number of consumer complaints about new energy vehicles is mainly that its own structure is quite different from that of traditional fuel vehicles, such as batteries, motors, electronic controls, car engine systems, charging, automatic driving functions, etc. Therefore, consumers' driving habits, after-sales maintenance and maintenance have new changes, which also requires new policies to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
The "New Three Guarantees Policy" was implemented
In fact, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the "Provisions on the Responsibility for Repair and Replacement of Household Automobile Products", that is, the "New Three Guarantees Regulations", which was officially implemented on January 1 this year. It should be pointed out that on the basis of the "three guarantees provisions" implemented in 2013, the regulations have been substantially revised to expand the scope of adjustment of the three guarantees for household cars.
Compared with the previous version of the "Three Guarantees Provisions", the adjustment of the new regulations is mainly reflected in the stricter three guarantees liability requirements for operators; expanding the scope of adjustment of the three guarantees for household cars; and improving the three dimensions of the relevant regulatory system.
First of all, the "New Three Guarantees Regulations" require that if there is a need to replace the engine, transmission, power battery, driving drive motor or its main components due to quality problems, the car should be returned and replaced free of charge within 7 days from the validity period of the three guarantees, and it is clear that when returning or changing the car, the consumer should be compensated for the vehicle registration fee, installation and decoration fee, service fee, etc.; reduce the use compensation coefficient, and reduce the use compensation fee paid by consumers in the process of returning and changing the car The power battery capacity attenuation limit of the new energy vehicle is clearly marked on the three-pack voucher. It is worth noting that the validity date of the three guarantees has been changed from the original invoice time to the delivery time
Secondly, the quality problems of special components such as power batteries and drive motors of electric vehicles are included in the three-guarantee return and replacement clauses; the main components of household vehicle pollution control devices are included in the major quality problems of return and replacement clauses.
Finally, it is necessary to strengthen the quality responsibility of producers, requiring OEMs not to deliberately delay or refuse the assistance and recovery proposed by sellers and repairers without legitimate reasons; to increase penalties for operators who deliberately delay or refuse to assume the responsibility of the three guarantees without legitimate reasons.
The implementation of the "New Three Guarantees Provisions" not only strengthens the protection of consumers' rights and interests, but also promotes the development of the new energy automobile industry from another aspect.
How to reduce the number of consumer complaints?
In the face of the rising number of consumer complaints about new energy vehicles, in addition to policy support, the most important thing is to solve the problem of new energy vehicle operators. In the view of the China Consumer Association, operators can only solve the problem by paying attention to product safety, truthfully and comprehensively informing the product situation, implementing the obligation to deliver qualified products, ensuring the right to know consumer data, and doing a good job in after-sales service.
Consumers' most concerned points for new energy vehicles are nothing more than safety, knowledge, after-sales service, etc., which requires manufacturers to pay close attention to product safety, strictly control product quality, especially the data security, network security, software upgrades, functional safety of intelligent networked vehicles, and strengthen the risk notification and quality control of auxiliary driving.
In addition, we will truthfully and comprehensively inform consumers of the product situation, reasonably stipulate the rights and responsibilities of manufacturers, distributors and consumers, do not exaggerate or falsely publicize, and implement the obligation to deliver qualified products, assume contractual responsibilities, and fulfill commitments.
Automobile data can be said to be an important certificate of consumer rights protection, and consumers have the right to know, consult and obtain raw data related to themselves without tampering.
In terms of after-sales service, we humbly listen to the opinions of consumers, face up to our own problems, actively and properly handle relevant complaints, and put an end to delay, bullying, coercion and intimidation. It is worth mentioning that the new three guarantees of automobile regulations have been officially implemented, and automobile operators should conscientiously study the new regulations, update the three-guarantee policy in a timely manner, strengthen staff training, and implement the three-guarantee regulations in place.
If the manufacturer can strictly follow the above measures, it will not only benefit consumers, but also improve consumer satisfaction with the manufacturer, which is a major benefit for both sides.
Written in the end: According to the Association of Passenger Transporters, the cumulative sales of new energy vehicles in China this year are expected to exceed 6 million, with a penetration rate of about 22%, and what is visible to the naked eye is that the market size of the new energy automobile industry is expanding year by year, and by 2025, the leakage rate of new energy vehicles will reach 25%. In the face of such a huge market, in addition to finding ways to improve the market share of its own products, the main engine factory should also pay more attention to the rights and interests of consumers, if a brand owner rights protection incident is not uncommon, not only the brand image has been hit, but also for the overall development of new energy vehicles will also have an impact, do not because of the completion of sales targets, and ignore the reasonable rights and interests of consumers.