In the case of a shortage of auto parts and high manufacturing costs, car companies usually have two choices - price increase or allocation reduction. However, car companies are more willing to choose to "quietly enter the village, do not shoot guns", and protect corporate profits by "quietly" reducing allocation.
Ford reduced model
But the paper package can not hold the fire, when the car company's secret reduction is exposed, the damage is ultimately its own brand image. The smart thing to do is to put ugly words in front of you and inform the outside world of the peculiarities of the situation in advance.
According to the news on March 14, Ford announced that it will deliver a part of the new car reduction to users, which are not equipped with chips that drive non-safety functions, but Ford promises to replace the missing chips for users after a year. Ford also made it clear that the absence of such chips will not affect the driving safety of the vehicle, but will only affect some of the additional functions of the vehicle.
Automobile reduction into regular operation of car companies
In fact, car reduction has become a routine operation of car companies, and we should say that we have seen strange operations in the open and covert operations of car companies. Before Ford, toyota, Geely Lynk & co and even Tesla and other models have been reduced.
Toyota
In December, Toyota made it clear that it was "willing to use weared or defective parts from suppliers without compromising the performance and safety of the vehicle." "A "defective part" is a component that does not have problems with use or product defects, but that has minor wear or scratches. In the past, Toyota did not allow the use of such parts, but in the case of a shortage of auto parts, Toyota's move was also forced to be helpless.
Electric car giant Tesla has also reduced the allocation of its models. The matter was revealed in February, when an internal letter showed that the Model 3 and Model Y produced by Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory would remove one of the two electronic control units in the bogie. Tesla engineers explained that one of the electronic control units was spare and seemed a bit redundant.
Tesla Model Y/3
However, Tesla's reduction is far less than the impact of the Model Y recall. Last December, Tesla announced a recall of 21,599 domestically produced Model Y electric vehicles. Before the recall notice was issued, model Y car owners in China had already been "recruited". Some car owners reported that when their Model Y was driving at low speeds, the front suspension would suddenly fall off and make a violent sound. If it is in a low-speed state, the consequences can be imagined.
Strictly speaking, the Model Y recall does not involve a reduction. However, the investigation afterwards showed that Tesla used only the steering knuckle of the Model Y model on the Model Y, and the probability of defects was about 0.2%-1.0%, while the Model 3, which was lower than the Model Y positioning, used a better quality steering knuckle, which was unreasonable, and Tesla was obviously squeezing the cost. Therefore, the Model Y large-scale recall and the reduction also have a certain relationship.
Related stories
Among independent brands, there are also many cases of secret allocation reduction. Part of the reason why many car owners choose domestic cars is that their configuration is more abundant than that of joint venture cars of the same level. And when the owner of the car comes back and finds that the car is "not on the right board", how depressed and depressed.
In January this year, Lynk & Co 01 was complained by car owners about suspected allocation reduction and false publicity to the China Net Auto Quality Complaint Platform. Here's the thing: when Lynk & Co 01 was released in December 2020, the official said that the car reached 73.2% of the comprehensive high-strength steel plate utilization rate, and its roof beams were made of ultra-high-strength steel. But a few months later, the sharp-eyed owner found that the "ultra-high-strength steel" in the promotional map of the Lynk & Co 01 had been changed to "high-strength steel", and the strength of the top of the body was completely different in just one word.
In fact, in recent years, the number of car allocation reductions has increased. For example, suspension, as part of the "chassis" of one of the three major parts of the car, many Japanese cars have made great efforts to reduce the allocation. From the perspective of the owner, which parts of the car can be reduced and which cannot be reduced, we need to clarify.
What can be reduced and what cannot be reduced?
The first is the configuration of the car that we may not use for a lifetime, such as the original navigation system, the paddle shifter, etc. At present, the navigation of many cars (especially fuel vehicles) is not easy to use, so car owners prefer to use mobile phones to navigate. Configurations such as paddle shifters are usually listed as additional configurations, and are rarely seen in some models. In general, this type of configuration will not be reduced. As a car owner, I can not use, your car company can not not give, unless the car is remodeled.
Automotive chips
In automobiles, especially electric vehicles, chips and radar sensors are an indispensable component that cannot be reduced. Many car companies, such as Ford, Xiaopeng, Weilai, etc., have promised to reload missing chips or sensors after delivery. Some parts related to driving safety are indispensable, such as a sufficient number of airbags, strong enough rear impact beams, etc. affect the safety of the car. Previously, Volkswagen was exposed to have been "crusaded" by car owners after the anti-collision beam was reduced.
In addition, although the endurance virtual standard is not a reduction, if the virtual standard is serious, the damage is the user experience, and the reduction is no different.
Is it possible that the car will be reduced at the 315 party?
At last year's 315 party, BMW, Changan Ford, Infiniti and other car companies were "nominated", and the criticism was mainly on the problem of stealing cameras and rusting gearboxes. According to the situation this year, secret allocation reduction, endurance false labels, and false publicity will probably become an important "theme" at the party.
315 Gala
Car downsizing is often associated with false propaganda, and such things abound in the automotive industry.
In October last year, after the third day of delivery, Extreme Kr 001 encountered the rights of car owners, and a large number of car owners incarnated as "brothers who return money", because there was a big gap between the EC canopy and the publicity map selected by Extreme Kr 001.
Even more violent is the chip reduction incident of the Great Wall Euler. In November last year, some car owners complained that the Euler Good Cat model was not equipped with the latest Qualcomm 8-core high-performance chip advertised, but used the old Intel 4-core A3940 chip with backward performance. This matter has been reported by CCTV News many times and has attracted widespread attention, which is not a good thing for Euler.
Write at the end
At the moment of the shortage of auto parts, the means of enterprises to reduce costs are no longer limited to configuration reduction, but focus on important parts of the car such as suspension, which reflects the fierce competition in the automobile market. Yes, the sales and profits of mainstream car companies are indeed improving. But on the other hand, recalls are also emerging. To some extent, this shows that the reduction has affected the quality of the car. Therefore, many car owners are sighing, "The quality of today's cars is not as good as before1."
No matter what type of reduction, in a word, all the components involved in driving safety can not be reduced, otherwise it is "seeking wealth and killing", and the serious false standard of endurance is the "reduction" of the user experience, which is also unspeakable