Source: The Paper
Following Weima Automobile, Xiaopeng Automobile also fell into the "lock electricity" storm. Recently, Xiaopeng Automobile was complained by many car owners that after a OTA (car remote upgrade) at the end of last year, the mileage dropped significantly, and it was suspected that Xiaopeng Automobile had "locked the power" of the vehicle through OTA, and these owners were the first users of Xiaopeng P7.
It is reported that P7 is the second product of Xiaopeng Motors, which is divided into 8 models, including rear-drive endurance, rear-drive ultra-long endurance, high-performance version of four-wheel drive, NEDC mileage range range of 562 km - 706 km, subsidy price range of 229,990-34.99 million yuan, in the middle of 2020 began to gradually deliver.
Mr. Le, the owner of sichuan vehicle, told the surging news that he clearly felt a decline in battery life after the OTA of the vehicle at the end of last year. His vehicle is the Xiaopeng P7 568 4WD performance version, equipped with an 80.9-degree battery, a range of 568 km under NEDC (close to laboratory test standards) and 480 km under WLTP (closer to actual road conditions).
Mr. Le said that the vehicle has been used for one year and three months, and he has been following the official guidance to set a 90% power consumption mode that is beneficial to the health of the battery, that is, through the battery management system, the charge and discharge are limited to 90% of the actual capacity of the battery. "I almost emptyed the battery after charging the test, and could only charge 66.36 kWh. Originally, 90% of the 80.9 kWh electricity should be able to charge nearly 73 kWh. Moreover, this 66.36 kWh of electricity is displayed at the charging end, and counting the cable loss, I think it may be a few kilowatts of electricity. ”
From the perspective of cruising range, the apparent mileage of Mr. Le's vehicle originally 480 kilometers has also dropped to 430 kilometers, less than 90% of the original.
Courtesy of respondents
According to Mr. Le's relay of a car friend, the owner purchased the P7 670 endurance version, which also used an 80.9-degree capacity battery, and also encountered a significant decrease in mileage. The vehicle's previous WLTP range was 576 km, and now it is 513 km, a 11% reduction in cruising range.
At the same time, Mr. Le also said that he did not agree that this was the aging and decay of battery capacity with use, because the decline in battery capacity was a problem that suddenly occurred after the OTA upgrade.
The surging news reporter consulted the official customer service of Xiaopeng Automobile in this regard, and the other party said that if there is any doubt about the battery capacity, the owner can go to the store for free testing.
However, Mr. Le said that he and a number of car friends discovered the problem a few months ago and began to contact Xiaopeng to deal with it, and Xiaopeng and the sales store repeatedly stressed that there was no "locking power". However, when the owner proposed to the store to do battery testing, the store said that there was no related equipment.
On March 11, Mr. Le once again told the surging news that several car owners have entrusted stores to send batteries to the headquarters of Xiaopeng Automobile in Guangzhou for testing, hoping that the next step can get a reasonable explanation.
The so-called "locking power" refers to the limitation of the capacity of the car's power battery, and the upper and lower limits of the capacity are controlled by the battery management system to ensure that the battery can neither be full nor empty. Because "overcharge" and "overdischarge" have great harm to the power battery, "locking the power" is the behavior taken by the car company for the safety of the power battery.
Previously, some insiders in an interview with the surging news introduced that when the battery leaves the factory, the company will often limit a part of the capacity, but the discharge depth that is limited at the factory cannot be counted in the battery mileage.
The "locking power" mentioned by the above-mentioned car owners refers to the practice of updating the battery management system again after the owner buys the car to further compress the effective use capacity of the battery. For car owners, the biggest impact of "locking electricity" is the decline in vehicle mileage.
In fact, the owner's vehicle is "locked" is not a case. Previously, WM Motor, BAIC New Energy EX360 GAC Aean S, GAC Toyota iA5, Tesla Model S and other models have been exposed to the problem of "locking electricity".
For the problem of Xiaopeng Automobile's suspected "power locking", an industry insider told the surging news, "This time only the first batch of car owners encountered problems, different owners driving habits, driving mileage are different, but the battery capacity has a similar decline, which is not attenuation can be explained." With the current information, it may be related to the battery itself, it may also be incompatible with the software and hardware after the OTA, and of course, it may also be that the company has made adjustments for some reasons. In any case, the company should actively communicate with the owner and give the owner an explanation as soon as possible. ”