Author: Gao Hao
In China, if there are two evening melon seed drinks with the best sales, the first is the Spring Festival Gala, and the second is probably the "315" party.
However, unlike the Spring Festival Gala celebrated by Putian, no company is willing to be on the list of "315". As a bulk consumer goods car, product quality naturally attracts the most attention, "transmission failure", "oil emulsification", are classic old fan.
Held for more than 30 consecutive years, "315" is still the "315", but the car information has exploded, and the new energy vehicles that are crazy are challenging the status of fuel vehicles and impacting consumers with endless new problems.
In the past year, new energy vehicles have obviously shown a trend of increasing the number of complaints and increasingly loud voices. In September last year, the State Administration for Market Regulation said that the number of complaints and reports of new energy vehicles accepted by the market supervision department is increasing day by day, especially the recalls caused by defects such as power battery failure and insufficient braking power.
Obviously, with its own traffic + net red attributes, so that new energy vehicles will soon become the big hit of this year's "315".
OTA is a good thing, don't crook the monk chanting the sutra
Electric vehicles can only be upgraded through OTA software to increase power, and even unlock a few new features, this "update firmware is like a new car" experience, it sounds beautiful.
In 2012, Tesla subversively brought OTA into the automotive field, but at the same time, it was subverted by the already delicate relationship between car companies and car owners.
According to the State Administration for Market Regulation's Defective Product Management Center, in 2021, the number of new energy models recalled due to power battery defects exceeded 70,000.
Recently, WM EX5 car owners collectively complained, suspecting that enterprises through OTAs and other methods to "lock the battery", directly leading to the shrinkage of the mileage, and more rights protection users claimed to be "ready for comprehensive evidence" to call the car company but did not get a response.
Owners claim that after the latest OTA upgrade, a glaring unequal treaty has been added to the car: "If the software in your vehicle needs to be modified or upgraded, we may remotely update or modify your vehicle system without further notice to you or obtain your consent." ”
When it comes to the irrational use of OTAs, Tesla is also a "forerunner". In 2019, many Model S (old models before 2015) reported that after the vehicle system OTA upgraded the new system version, the battery capacity and range of the vehicle were significantly attenuated, "the charging power was limited, the battery unavailable capacity was increased, and the thermal management system intervened more actively."
However, Tesla's official changelog says nothing about it. An old Model S owner who has experienced "OTA downgrading" complained: "Information opacity is on the one hand, and what makes me inhale cooler is that Tesla accurately identified vehicles with hidden dangers and defects, but did not replace the battery for us, we simply became guinea pigs." ”
Whether limited by battery technology or design issues, "power locking" has become the consensus of many car companies to cover up the problem, and OTA is the lowest cost way to achieve this consensus.
The abuse of OTAs is far from just "locking the electricity", but also often becomes a fig leaf for car companies to catch up with the progress. A car friend in Shanghai said: "The whole vehicle OTA is simply a joke, the factory does not do a good job of the function, first draw a pie, let the user, etc., may not be able to upgrade successfully." ”
Such dissatisfaction is not unreasonable, the project has not landed, it has been packaged into the core selling point of the listing conference, the strong "catch-up" atmosphere makes people doubt the maturity of the functions that have been carried, and in the precision car, every design is closely related to the life safety of the driver.
While marveling at the ostrich behavior of car companies, consumers have no difference and no choice to become the overall recipients of car companies' behavior, which is obviously a more terrible hidden danger, this unfair relationship directly affects the rights and interests of consumers and even life safety, and it is also completely contrary to the theme of this year's "315" evening party, "Fair and Honest and Safe Consumption".
Don't be superstitious about self-driving, it's still only in movies
People have been looking forward to automatic driving in the movie scene, and now, automatic driving has not yet come, and more and more car companies are overly advocating "automatic driving". There are even executives of a certain company who openly demonstrate "driving" vehicles on the highway, and the public who do not know the truth frequently appear on the social version of the news with the example of personal danger.
In April last year, a Tesla Model S hit an obstacle while driving on a section of the Road in the United States and caused a fire, killing two people in the car, and the police concluded that the vehicle was in a driverless state at the time of the incident. Similar incidents have occurred frequently, and since 2016, NHTSA has mastered at least 30 Tesla Autopilot-induced accidents that have killed 11 people.
Even if Tesla frequently appears in the news because of self-driving accidents, even if Tesla's self-driving level is only in the middle and lower reaches of the industry, the unknown masses only pay attention to the word "full" in FSD (full self-drive), and many people pay a tragic price.
Based on the rating principles of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's "Automotive Driving Automation Classification", there is still a long way to go before the real principle of autonomous driving (no driver takes over) or the "automatic" in consumers' imagination. Car companies have diluted the most important attributes of efficient and safe mobile vehicles in the collective deviation and self-congratulation, which is exactly what consumers need most at this stage.
Under the new technology, the public's understanding should gradually mature under the correct guidance of the manufacturer rather than sinking deeper and deeper under the misleading. Humans are eager to explore the boundaries of autonomous driving capabilities, and until then, entrusting the safety of life to their own hands and feet is obviously a smarter choice.
Range 1000 km +? When is the false mark a head
The actual mileage of electric vehicles is simply a metaphysics, and in the mileage of 500 and 600 kilometers that car companies often have, only the numbers in the mouth of the owner of electric vehicles are the most real.
"30% off on high-speed endurance, 40% off directly in the northern winter", the owner of a model forum is full of helplessness but very representative, "before buying an electric car, I have some expectations in my heart, in fact, compared to the endurance discount, I prefer to get the real number from the official website and sales, rather than talking about the river."
According to the plan, by 2025, domestic new energy vehicles will use CLTC working conditions to test the mileage. Among the many test conditions of CLTC, NEDC, WLTP, and EPA, the actual reference value of CLTC is low.
Then before the implementation of more accurate working conditions standards, before there is a major breakthrough in battery technology, consumers can not only listen to the words of the factory, but should also widely collect the owner's reputation and then make a purchase decision.
Charging has not landed, and electric vehicles have become electric daddies
The endurance of the electric vehicle is virtual, and it is difficult to charge, which is simply "capped". A few days ago, the China Consumers Association released the "Spring Festival Consumer Rights Protection Public Opinion Analysis Report", naming the problem of "high-speed charging difficulties" and suggesting that "government enterprises work together to build and share public service supply products".
However, at this stage of installing charging piles, there is a general phenomenon of "final decision" of the property. Although the laying of charging piles involves many departments and has policy support, it does not involve for-profit properties, and the properties also bear the responsibility problem.
An electric vehicle owner around the author complained: "Bought an electric car for half a year, although there is a fixed parking space, but so far there is no own charging pile, the power grid people to see the face of the property, the property people for safety reasons, is not agreed, tired after a day of work also have to queue up to grab the public charging pile." The tram is indeed cheaper at the cost of money, but the cost of energy is too large, and if there is no indicator, I will not buy a tram. ”
This friend has his own parking space, no parking space + no electric charging pile is more fatal, in the situation of unable to make up for it, the attributes of electric vehicles as a means of transportation will be greatly reduced.
It can be seen that as an emerging thing, the rise of new energy vehicles is indeed fierce, but a variety of new challenges have also followed, and the problems mentioned above have been subjectively caused by enterprises and have objective conditions that are difficult to break through for a while.
Looking at the official/third-party and automotive quality websites, the problem of new energy vehicles is strange, and it is not an exaggeration to say that new energy vehicle companies have grown in the scolding. Although it is not known where new energy vehicles will go, at least on the way to finding problems and resolving disputes, consumers and car companies will not be alone.