Introduction: Tesla also plays "word games"? Of course it's not that simple.
Not long ago, South Korea's Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) pointed out that Tesla, the world's largest electric vehicle company, exaggerated the mileage of the product in promoting the Model 3, violating the country's Fair Labeling and Advertising Law. Sources say this could put Tesla at risk of a penalty of about 10 billion won.
Within a few days, Tesla revised the Model 3 product page on the South Korean official website. Some media found that in the introduction of the mileage part, the single charge range has been changed from the previous "more than" 528 kilometers, and has been changed to "most".
This is certainly not a "word game", and things are not so simple.
1) Compromise under a fine of 10 billion?
Almost at the same time, it can be found that the Model 3 order page of Tesla's Official Website in South Korea has also undergone subtle changes.
In mid-February, when Tesla was first exposed to the problem of endurance publicity, the Model 3's order details pop-up page only had a paragraph below to introduce the performance of the product. In the same period, tesla on the official website of the United States, the same model details pop-up window, the bottom of the paragraph about the purchase of cold weather advice, to the effect of "in order to get the best long-distance driving experience in the coldest environment, we recommend buying long-lasting or high-performance version of the Model 3."
During the period when the media reported that Tesla modified the content of the South Korean official website, clicking on the Model 3 product order page will have a strange phenomenon, and it will intermittently jump to the English page, and the content is exactly the same as the OFFICIAL WEBSITE of the United States.
In fact, since the Model 3 sold in South Korea is an imported model, this kind of temporary jump to the official website page of other countries is indeed a solution, but it is definitely not a good way.
Why do you say this, because Tesla, after this small "storm", restored the Model 3 subscription details pop-up page of the South Korean official website to the original Korean version, and never reproduced the situation of jumping to the English page, and at the same time, the suggestions about the cold environment at the bottom were also gone.
That is to say, Tesla itself admits that its model in the cold temperature, the actual endurance must not reach the nominal level, and on the official website of the United States, when introducing the mileage, there is no expression of "more than", but a decent "reach".
This allows the purchasing user to have a more reasonable expectation of the actual mileage of the vehicle, without any illusions.
In fact, under the cold weather pointed out by KFTC, the shrinking endurance of pure electric vehicles was originally a pain point for all users in cold climate areas around the world. For pure electric vehicle users, compared with the conventional mileage anxiety, the mileage in cold weather is really anxious.
As with smartphones, the activity of the battery itself decreases in low temperatures, resulting in a decrease in available power. In order to solve this problem, many vehicles will automatically start the battery heating system, and the heat source of this system will come from the power battery, and the final consequence of this superposition is the rapid decline in the remaining endurance on the dashboard.
Of course, if the driver and occupants of the car turn on the air conditioning and warm air at this time, the remaining endurance displayed will be more disturbing.
As a result, suppliers and car companies are spending great efforts to develop temperature control technology for power batteries, but before that, compared with accurately informing users of the actual endurance of products, some manufacturers still can't help but avoid the heavy through the way of "word games".
After all, after switching from NEDC to WLTC or CLTC standards, the endurance test of the vehicle has been continuously approaching the test standards of the actual car, squeezing off a lot of "water", and then marking the endurance results in different low-temperature climates, which will only be more miserable and even shake people's confidence in buying electric vehicles.
Therefore, to some extent, Tesla to the United States official website as the representative of the range of the introduction, may wish to be a new idea, although not directly frankly disclose the endurance of ordinary models at low temperatures, but it is clearly recommended that users who have needs to buy long battery life or high-performance models.
2) Behind the compromise, only arrogance remains
As of now, there has been no news that Tesla has been punished in South Korea for this, perhaps for Tesla with an annual net profit of up to $5.5 billion, the fine of 10 billion won is not much of a deal, and the market potential of the countries behind it is the key to its compromise.
Unfortunately, in the Chinese market, which accounted for more than 25% of its total global revenue last year, the product order details pop-up page is the same as the South Korean official website, and there is no advice on purchasing in a cold environment.
To be precise, 9 of Tesla's official websites in 40 countries and regions around the world do not carry this recommendation. Because they are all located in Asia and the Pacific Rim, Tesla can also throw the pot to the department team responsible for the maintenance of this part of the official website, after all, the remaining 31 official website pages in Europe, America and Africa, whether it is Chinese or English, are indispensable for the purchase of low-temperature environments.
Judging from the reaction on the Korean official website, people can see Tesla's compromise at the beginning, but unfortunately, in the end, especially looking at Tesla's two versions of the product description in the world, it is inevitable to feel its arrogant side.
Looking back on the past year, on the one hand, we can always see that some car owners complain that after the vehicle is bought, they can't reach the mileage mentioned when buying the car, and while people are accustomed to this, Tesla has also experienced a big storm of "brake doors" in the Chinese market.
According to the statistics of the Association of Automobile Associations, Tesla's delivery volume in China in 2021 reached 484,100 units, accounting for 51.71% of Tesla's 936,200 vehicles worldwide, which is Tesla's largest market and has no one. At the same time, Tesla's financial report also shows that China contributes considerable revenue and profit to Tesla. But for Tesla, which is not worried about selling for the time being, is this really not worth mentioning?
Behind the compromise, only arrogance remains, but there is no sincerity.