For many new car manufacturers, 2022 is regarded as the year of outbreak.
While most car companies are constantly fighting for sales, some "new force" car owners are constantly running for their legitimate rights and interests.
On January 10, 173 car owners sent a joint lawyer's letter to WM, asking WM to stop false publicity. According to the owner's report, WM drove the owner to the store with "free inspection of vehicles and gift of 200 yuan Jingdong card" as bait, but in fact, it was quietly "locked" through the remote upgrade of OTA.
Wei carriage owner: to use free as bait, the car was secretly "locked"
Some car owners said that at the end of last year, they received a message from WM, preparing an official gift package, a comprehensive vehicle inspection and a 200 yuan JD card for 18,888 lucky users.
He thought he was a lucky owner, but after maintenance, he found that his car was quite different from before.
After participating in this event, when the power reaches 99%, the vehicle shows a voltage of 396V, which is about 10V less than the previous voltage in the same stage. This is completely consistent with the characteristics of the vehicles that were "locked" by the owners of the WM rights protection group.
According to the experience of the owner of the "locked power", when charging to 97%, if the power battery voltage is displayed to be less than 400V; when the charge reaches 99%, the voltage is displayed to be less than 406V, it is "locked".
After being "locked", the most obvious feeling is the plummeting of endurance.
Some car owners reflect that after the WM EX5 was "locked", the official 400 km endurance in the winter can only reach about 160-180 km, which is equivalent to nearly 40% off; especially when running long distances, the battery is no longer displayed when about 6% of the power is left, and when the power is displayed at 3%, the power drops significantly, and finally even if the acceleration is stepped on to the end, it can only reach 47km/h.
In fact, WM has been recalling car owners in various ways to upgrade OTA, according to the owner of Weima car feedback to e car, since last May, there have been owners who have been notified to enter the store in the form of free maintenance, and some owners were secretly upgraded when they were notified of the new power supply function last June. More car owners said that their cars were upgraded remotely around the Spring Festival in the early morning, and this process did not require any user operation, which was carried out secretly by WM without notifying the owners.
This is also one of the reasons why WM Motors makes consumers angry. In the lawyer's letter, the owner of the car clearly gave WM Motor a period of 7 natural days, if WM Motor still does not respond, still does not correct, or rejects the reasonable appeal of the owner without a legitimate reason, the owner of the rights protection will issue a statement of rights protection through the network media or authoritative media, and submit complaint materials to the departments of industrial and commercial administration, quality and technical supervision, consumer association, commodity inspection and other departments to reflect the violations of laws and regulations related to WM Motor.
So, what exactly is "locking the electricity"?
The so-called locking power refers to the way of rewriting the battery management system to reduce the voltage range of the battery, so that the upper limit of charging and the charging speed are reduced, thereby improving the safety of the battery to a certain extent and reducing the risk of spontaneous combustion.
Regarding the "electricity locking" behavior, the state has long had relevant norms. In June 2021, the State Administration for Market Regulation once again issued the Supplementary Notice on the Filing of Remote Upgrade (OTA) Technology Recalls of Automobiles, which regulates the OTA service process of car companies, mentioning that it is necessary to avoid car companies from locking up the electricity privately and solving vehicle problems, and that car OTA upgrade companies need to file for the record. WM's approach is clearly not in line with the relevant regulations of the state.
In fact, a large part of the reason why WM has carried out OTA upgrades is due to its excessively frequent spontaneous combustion accidents.
Frequent complaints WM is in a deep crisis of trust
In fact, as early as 2020, WM Motors had a series of spontaneous combustion accidents, and within more than a month, 4 WM cars spontaneously combusted; the most recent one occurred on February 10 this year, when a WM EX series in Sanya, Hainan Province, caught fire.
In addition, on December 20, 2021, a WM EX5 in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, caught fire at a charging station; On December 22 and 24, in Sanya and Haikou, Hainan, the same type of vehicle spontaneously ignited on the side of the road and near residential buildings, respectively; three fires in five days, such an accident speed, it is difficult not to blame the cause on product problems. Previously, in September and October 2020, WM Motors also had a similar "four consecutive burns". These spontaneous combustion accidents all point to battery problems. Among them, the official investigation conclusions of Shaowu City also prove this.
Due to the frequent spontaneous combustion accidents, WM Motor recalled 1,282 problem cars in October 2020. The recall announcement also determined that the problem was in the battery: due to the impurities mixed in the production process by the battery supplier, the power battery produced abnormal lithium evolution, which may lead to a short circuit in the battery in extreme cases, causing the power battery to lose thermal control and generate the risk of fire, which is a safety hazard.
According to the official website of Black Cat Complaint, due to the huge safety risks of the battery, the infringement of the user's right to know, and the cover-up of quality defects by reducing the endurance, Weima is being complained about by a large number of car owners. The complaint is WM EX5, the model is the 2018 WM EX5 new energy Pro 400, the complaint requires compensation, service improvement, apology, refund, penalty, recall of goods, etc., the amount involved in the lawsuit is 167640 yuan.
According to the analysis of professionals, the overcharge of power batteries is prone to thermal runaway, which in turn triggers the spontaneous combustion explosion of the battery. If the car company "locks the power" in advance, it can eliminate the overcharge of the battery and improve the safety of new energy vehicles "to a certain extent".
But by "locking the electricity", can the safety of WM electric vehicles be ensured? No one gave a positive answer, not to mention that WM's "power locking" behavior did not meet the relevant national process regulations.
OTA upgrades should return to their roots
In fact, with the gradual popularization of automotive OTAs, car companies and consumers have benefited. On the one hand, car companies can maintain and upgrade vehicles through OTAs, which can save a lot of offline costs; on the other hand, consumers can continue to enjoy the new functions of vehicles through OTA upgrades. However, it is undeniable that in the process of OTA upgrade by car companies, consumers have actually been in a passive position, and the time node and upgrade content of OTA upgrades are in the hands of car companies, which also causes information asymmetry and other situations, and it is easy to produce some contradictions and disputes between car companies and consumers.
Taking this OTA upgrade in the case of consumers not being informed as an example, if the car company clearly informs the owner of the premise that the mileage will decline after the upgrade, the safety has been further improved, perhaps some car owners will still choose to upgrade for safety reasons, of course, the result may not be as good as the car company expected, but at least it will win the trust of this part of the owner, and the pros and cons of this need to be measured by the car company itself.
Another indisputable fact is that before the "new powers," OTA was a rarely mentioned term.
In the field of traditional cars, OTA is the basic function of smart cars that distinguish them from traditional cars. Traditional car companies are more concerned about the safety of the car as a tool for life, compared to some bells and whistles, safety is the top priority of smart cars, and it is not possible to upgrade remotely.
However, with the continuous development of "new forces" and scientific and technological progress, the frequency of car OTA upgrades will also become more intensive, if car companies are half hidden for OTA upgrade services, then consumers will be more confused in the face of many upgrade versions, so that the trust of car companies will also be reduced, for car companies, this is not a wise choice.
From the current point of view, upgrading the OTA to legal compliance and upgrading it without clearly informing consumers is the basic quality that a car company should have.
Write at the end:
In fact, as the early emerging car company in the "new forces", it is not without highlight moments.
From the trial assembly of the first mass production car of WM EX5 on March 28, 2018, to the listing and delivery on September 28, 2018, WM Motor took the lead in breaking the PPT car manufacturing doubts. In 2019, WM Sold 16,900 units. In the same year, NIO delivered 20,600 units and Xiaopeng Automobile sold 16,700 units. Among the new forces of mainland car manufacturing, WM Motors ranks second, and the sales gap with the first place Weilai Automobile is only 3700 vehicles.
In 2020, WM began to decline. By the end of 2020, the sales volume of WM Motors slipped from the second to the fourth position, and the growth rate was less than half of that of the head car companies.
For a successful car company, such a momentum is obviously illogical, and the top priority of WM should not be to cover up the hidden dangers of the product to "patch", but should be strictly controlled at the source of the product, only in this way, in the second half of the competition of the new forces, to recover the lost territory.