Half a month ago, in the whirlpool of public opinion, Extreme Krypton opened a soul torture about ZEEKR 001 and began to face customers directly, in the eyes of the industry, this belated "desire to survive" seems to have another meaning. At the same time, traditional car companies also launched a large-scale recall plan.
According to the complaints accepted by the National Consumer Association, in 2021, the National Consumer Association accepted a total of 1,044,861 consumer complaints, an increase of 6.37% year-on-year, resolved 836,072 cases, with a complaint resolution rate of 80.02%, and recovered economic losses of 1,515.92 million yuan for consumers.
Among the specific product complaints, the top five complaints were food, clothing, automobiles and parts, communication products, and shoes, of which the number of complaints about automobiles and parts was 41,624, an increase of 19.28% year-on-year.
The increasing number of complaints is not only the improvement of consumer rights protection awareness, but also the embodiment of chaos in the automotive industry, but with the approaching of the "3·15" International Consumer Rights Day, the "desire to survive" of many car companies has also begun to return, some have rushed to open the appeasement mode for users before 3.15, and there are also large-scale recalls of "hot" models on the complaint list. But are these kung fu of one foot in the door still useful for today's consumers?
From January to February, the total number of recalled vehicles exceeded 1.5 million
According to the data of the State Administration for Market Supervision, from January to February this year, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued a total of 14 recall announcements, involving 13 car companies and 40 models, with a total of 1,588,741 recalled vehicles, and the total number of recalls exceeding 1.5 million in two months also reflects the nervous mentality of car companies to a certain extent.
The 13 car companies involved include FAW-Volkswagen, Porsche, Beijing Benz, Tesla, Mercedes-Benz (China), Chery, SAIC-GM-Wuling, FAW Toyota, GAC Toyota, FAW, Jiangsu Kowloon Motor, Dongfeng, and Changan Mazda.
Among them, the number of recalls by SAIC-GM-Wuling exceeded 600,000 vehicles, becoming the car company with the largest number of recalls in January-February 2022. According to the recall announcement, due to the oversized manufacturing size of manual transmission parts in some vehicles, resulting in insufficient gear retention, SAIC-GM-Wuling decided to recall some Wuling Hongguang S3 and new Wuling Hongguang S cars produced between July 10, 2017 and March 26, 2021, with a total of 609,779 vehicles, starting from March 10, 2022.
In second place in the number of recalls is FAW-Volkswagen, with a total of more than 400,000 vehicles recalled. According to the announcement, FAW-Volkswagen will recall some imported Audi A4 Avant, A4 Allroad, A5, A6 Avant, A6 Allroad, and other 18 Audi models, totaling 7,407 units. The reason for the recall was not stated.
At the same time, due to the safety hazards of the gateway control module, FAW-Volkswagen also filed a recall of some domestic Audi Q5Ls with production dates from March 1, 2018 to December 4, 2021, totaling 453,791 units.
The third largest number of recalls is also FAW's joint venture company, FAW Toyota. Due to the manufacturing problem of the engine ignition coil, the size of the 1-stage coil bracket inside some ignition coils was deviated, and in extreme cases, it may cause the vehicle to stop in driving, and FAW Toyota recalled part of the Corolla for the record, a total of 162,301 vehicles. Also recalled for the same reason is GAC Toyota. It is understood that GAC Toyota recalled a total of 161,614 Ralinks for the record.
In addition, due to the assembly of the transmission cooling tubing, there may be insufficient clamp clamping force or incorrect position, and the recall of some Arrizo 5 (Alizor 5/EX/GX), Tiggo 7, a total of 146,631 Chery.
In addition to the above five car companies recalling more than 100,000 car companies, Tesla recalled 26,047 vehicles, Mercedes-Benz recalled 111,69 vehicles, and the total recall of the remaining car companies in January and February was less than 10,000 vehicles.
Facing customers directly, OTAs cannot become "universal glue"
At the same time, with the gradual promotion and ownership of new energy vehicles, complaints related to new energy vehicles are also gradually increasing. According to the content published by the China Consumer Association, the main issues of consumer complaints can be divided into eight categories:
First, the new energy vehicle has safety problems, such as driving power interruption, spontaneous combustion of the car, failure of the automatic driving system, etc.;
Second, the battery quality problems are prominent, such as charging failures;
Third, the mileage shrinks, especially in the winter low temperature, the endurance loss is fast;
Fourth, do not fulfill the promise, such as the use of high-performance chips, but the actual situation is not the case, and the expiration of the new car is not delivered;
Fifth, the price change caused controversy, the consumer has just signed the contract and has not yet picked up the car, the purchased model will reduce the price, or launch the same price but higher performance configuration of the product, resulting in consumer dissatisfaction;
Sixth, car companies for the sale of models, free to modify the online promotional materials and instructions;
Seven, the supporting after-sales service system, maintenance outlets, maintenance technicians, etc. can not meet the needs of high-speed growth of new energy vehicles, affecting the consumer's experience and after-sales satisfaction;
Eighth, the issue of car data storage and provision has aroused widespread concern. With the improvement of the intelligence of new energy vehicles, relevant data is monopolized and refused to be provided by manufacturers, and disputes occur;
Among them, Just 11 months after its establishment, Extreme Krypton has received most of the above complaints, including unexplained price increases before delivery, replacement of motors, inexplicable reductions, the curtain is inconsistent with publicity, and after delivery, the car is stuck, Bluetooth failure, brake noise, navigation failure, electric door can not automatically avoid collisions, etc., so that Extreme Kr has been in controversy. As late as March 1, there were still car owners who hung Krypton on the complaint platform on the grounds that they could not pick up the car.
Under various voices, The official push of "Facing customers and treating them sincerely" article, optimized some functions through OTA, and also answered some questions. It is understood that after the latest version of ZEEKR OS 1.1.1 is upgraded, the logic of the use of the krypton automatic door and the optimization of seat memory have been improved, and the transparent car model (chassis) and steering assist display function have been added, and the problems of rugged screen, red shadow and image display blue after braking have been optimized.
"3.15" should not become a brand robbery for enterprises
However, as with the recall, it remains to be seen whether the OTA upgrades used by new energy vehicle companies can effectively solve the problems reported by users. Some insiders believe that "3·15" is approaching, many brands have begun to be nervous, this kind of temporary holding on to the Buddha's feet occurs every year, but due to the lack of follow-up penalties, it cannot fundamentally eliminate the occurrence of similar problems.
For example, at last year's "3.15" party, CCTV just exposed the problem of Zhengtong Automobile's illegal collection of face data, and in mid-December, Xiaopeng Automobile was fined 100,000 yuan by the Shanghai Xuhui District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau for the same problem.
It is worth noting that the fine occurred after the "Personal Information Protection Law of the People's Republic of China" implemented on November 1, which also caused some netizens to be dissatisfied, and then expressed disappointment in "3·15".
In this regard, a smart electric vehicle analyst said that many people say that they are disappointed in a car company, especially in 3·15, in fact, in the automotive field, we should admit a fact, that is, a particularly serious problem, has been very few, more is a variety of flaws, deficiencies, including Tesla, which has a high voice. For example, he also said: "For example, the gearbox problem of Ford and Infiniti is still very different from the nature of the false medical advertisements on the 360. ”
But more voices believe that the consequences of such deficiencies or false propaganda are the same. A vehicle with less than 2,000 parts, even if it is a trivial defect, may trigger the existence of life safety. Moreover, the original intention of the "3.15" Consumer Rights Day was to encourage consumers to legally protect their rights and interests. Car companies should not regard "3·15" as the brand robbery of enterprises, and urgently hold their feet at the juncture, but should treat "3·15" attitude into daily work every day.