Text/Leju Finance Li Shanshan
On the occasion of FAW-Volkswagen's 30th birthday, it celebrated its birthday with the action of practicing green public welfare.
"Leading the construction of the system with green development is a long-term business philosophy that FAW-Volkswagen has adhered to." In March last year, pan Zhanfu, director, party secretary and general manager of FAW-Volkswagen, attended the event and delivered a speech at the second China Environment Foundation "Automotive Environmental Protection Innovation Leadership Program" led by FAW-Volkswagen. Between the words, full of confidence in FAW-Volkswagen's environmental protection concept.
However, the "punch in the face" came very quickly. At the same time as the environmental protection activities were held, a FAW-Volkswagen Tanyue owner filed a complaint on the car quality network, saying that because "particle traps are often blocked", fuel consumption has increased and power has weakened. Higher fuel consumption means higher energy consumption and higher pollutant emissions.
After this, Tanyue's complaint about "increased fuel consumption caused by clogging of particle traps" showed a multiplier trend. In 2021, Tanyue dominated the list of vehicle complaints for 7 consecutive months, which directly led consumers to shout Pan Zhanfu, "Don't let Tanyue complaints remain high for green development." ”
As a "regular customer" of the car quality network, the reputation of Volkswagen Tanyue has plummeted, and sales have also plummeted. According to the data, the cumulative sales volume of Tanyue in 2021 was 89,339 vehicles, down nearly 47% year-on-year. In the first month of 2022, the monthly sales volume was only 8106 units, down about 40% month-on-month.
"Sales King" becomes "Complaint King"
Tanyue is FAW-Volkswagen's first mid-size SUV, launched on October 22, 2018, and is called a "brother model" along with SAIC Volkswagen's Tiguan L.
With Volkswagen's strong "quality aura" and its own relatively young design style, Tanyue once sold more than 20,000 units in a single month for four consecutive months in the second half of 2019, becoming the sales champion of domestic medium-sized SUVs.
However, as its sales continue to grow, so does its complaint volume. As early as the end of 2019, many car owners of Tanyue complained about the problem that the lights of Tanyue were not on. Entering 2021, the number of complaints about the blockage of the Tanyue particle trap causing high fuel consumption of vehicles has soared, showing a doubling trend.
Since February 2021, Tanyue has dominated the list of vehicle complaints for seven consecutive months. According to the car quality network, in the list of vehicle complaints from January to December 2021, Tanyue ranked first.
Tanyue has changed from a former "sales king" to a "complaint king".
According to the vehicle quality network, a Qingdao Tanyue owner complained that after he bought a car in Qingdao 4S store in October 2020, there were many particle traps, resulting in abnormally high fuel consumption, more than 20 liters of fuel consumption per 100 kilometers in severe cases, and there were also automatic start-stop failures, engine jitter and acceleration weakness, and abnormal noises in the car.
In addition, due to the problem of particle catcher blockage, the vehicle needs to run at high speed regularly, which adds additional fuel consumption burden and psychological pressure to the owner, increases the driving safety hazard, and in the process of pulling high speed, repeated acceleration and deceleration seriously threatens the personal safety of the owner, and is almost rear-ended during the regeneration of a particle catcher.
The owner also said that when buying a car, the 4S point sales staff concealed the particle trap problem, did not tell the vehicle that it was not suitable for short-distance driving but only suitable for high speed, after the problem, he had repeatedly contacted the manufacturer's customer service and Qingdao 4S store, all of which prevaricated and did not admit the defect and did not solve the problem. In addition, in the process of car purchase, the sales staff also deliberately deceived the owner of the car to issue a low invoice, resulting in the low fare of the car, resulting in the owner of the car is difficult to use the landing price to apply for a refund and change of car.
Another Tanyue 2020 330TSI two-wheel drive luxury connected version pro owner complained that he bought a Tanyue SUV in 2021 and went to the 4S store in November of the same year to upgrade the particle capture system, when the 4S store employee promised that it would not be blocked after the upgrade.
However, when the owner was driving the vehicle after work on the evening of February 25, 2022, there was a continuous high idle speed and high fuel consumption, and it was found that the particle trap was blocked, and then the owner drove to the high speed for more than two hours, and the idle speed and fuel consumption fell down, and the vehicle returned to normal.
Complaints similar to this situation abound, and the 2020 Volkswagen Tanyue is the hardest hit area of complaints, and the data of the vehicle quality network shows that the number of complaints about the engine is as high as 4200.
The probe avoids the heavy and the light
In fact, Volkswagen's engine technology has always been praised, especially the Volkswagen EA888 is more known as a generation of divine machines, and some of the Tanyue models are equipped with the "divine machine" EA888 2.0T turbocharged engine, and the other part is equipped with a 1.4T turbo engine model EA211.
At the time of Tanyue's publicity, one of the selling points that accompanied the engine was a technology called "particle trapper".
It is understood that the particle trap is a kind of ceramic filter that is evolved from the flow-through three-effect catalytic converter and installed in the engine emission system, which can capture PM particles and attach them to the carrier.
FAW-Volkswagen said that PM particles captured by particle traps will be converted into carbon dioxide by secondary combustion before being discharged into the atmosphere, thereby reducing air pollution caused by the exhaust gas discharge process.
But in fact, not all PM particles can be converted. When the adsorbent reaches a certain level, the vehicle does not "run at high speed to burn particulate matter", which will cause the particle trap to block, that is, the vehicle fuel consumption in the actual performance increases and the power weakens.
Faw-Volkswagen will not hesitate to sacrifice the good reputation it has created in the past, and it must also adopt this method with obvious defects, because it meets the "National VIB" emission standards.
However, the original intention of the "China VI B" emission standard is to reduce the emission of pollutants and reduce the impact of exhaust gas on the environment. However, Volkswagen Tanyue "avoids the heavy and light", does not upgrade the engine, and focuses on the exhaust gas quality, which not only brings a poor driving experience to the owner, but also emphasizes pollution emissions and energy consumption, which runs counter to pan Zhanfu's "green development".
In the face of the problem of particle trap clogging, manufacturers have provided two solutions.
One is to let the vehicle maintain a certain high speed for tens of minutes, more than 80 kilometers per hour, using the high temperature of the exhaust, burning the blocked particles; another way is to force the particle trap regeneration operation in the 4S shop, that is, the vehicle hangs the neutral gear and presses the throttle on the spot to about 3000 rpm, about 30 minutes, so that the exhaust temperature of more than 800 ° C can burn part of the particles. But both options have been resisted by car owners.
Later, the official gave a solution of "upgrading the software and replacing the heat insulation", but to this day, the complaint about "the particle trap is blocked again after the upgrade" still exists.
"The 1% failure that may occur in the product is a 100% annoyance for the user." The unsatisfactory performance of Volkswagen Tanyue in the past year has not only affected the reputation of Volkswagen products, but also consumed the trust of many Volkswagen fans in the brand.