Recently, the China Consumers Association released the "2021 National Consumer Association Organization Acceptance of Complaints Analysis Report". Among them, the number of complaints involving automobiles and auto parts exceeded 41,000, an increase of more than 7,000 cases over last year, an increase of 19.28%.
In addition, in the automotive complaint cases, complaints related to new energy vehicles have also increased year by year, which reflects the huge problems and hidden dangers behind the current new energy vehicle sales boom, and the contradictions between consumers and new energy vehicle companies are gradually exposed.
According to the cases of relevant car companies and brands in the past year, we have summarized four consumer rights protection incidents involving new energy vehicle brands or models, and whether they can be listed on this year's "3·15" evening party, let us wait and see.
Good cats become "bad cats"?
Euler Auto spent 300 million yuan to pay the "chip door" incident
The "chip door" farce of the Great Wall Euler good cat is undoubtedly one of the events that have attracted much attention in the automotive circle at the end of 2021. In November last year, the owner of a Good Cat euler said on social platforms that the model would privately promote the use of the latest Qualcomm 8-core high-performance chip for its host entertainment system, downgraded to an Intel 4-core A3940 chip, which was suspected of sales fraud.
Subsequently, in December, CCTV Finance named euler good cat models for privately replacing the chip of the car machine. After being stolen to change the chip, the good cat car machine is very backward in performance and poor compatibility. In addition, Euler subsequently deleted the introduction and publicity about the model equipped with Qualcomm's 8-core CPU chip on the official website and other places.
For the incident, Euler issued a statement three times, apologizing on CCTV Finance and giving a solution. The initial solution includes: will provide a 7200 yuan worth of equity packages, the first owner of the three electric lifetime warranty service and 10,000 yuan of charging rights.
However, this solution was rejected by some car owners, who asked Euler to replace the promised car chip or "refund one for three" in accordance with the Consumer Protection Law. Based on Euler's sales of 31,000 vehicles in the first 11 months of 2021 and the average sales price of 120,000 yuan per car, "one refund and three losses" will make the Euler brand face tens of billions of yuan in losses.
Soon after, Euler revised the compensation plan again, changing the "10,000 yuan charging rights" to "10,000 yuan in cash" and directly entering the account of the affected car owner. At this point, the plan has been recognized by most of the owners of Euler's good cats, and Euler has paid more than 300 million yuan in direct compensation losses.
As a pure electric brand under the domestic head car company Great Wall Motors, Euler positions itself as the world's most female car brand, but it cannot "mess" with consumers because of the idea that "female consumers do not understand cars". This kind of infringement on the rights and interests of consumers by "pretending to be confused with clarity" is even more infuriating.
Beijing Mercedes-Benz EQC that can't be repaired!
More than 240 car owners jointly defended their rights
Recently, more than 240 domestic Mercedes-Benz EQC car owners issued a joint statement on the eve of the 315 party to protect their rights. These car owners believe that Mercedes-Benz deliberately deceives consumers, steals the concept of design defects into manufacturing deviations, puts unqualified and unimproved products on the market, and treats consumers as "guinea pigs" for experimentation.
It is reported that from 2021 onwards, some car owners have said that their Mercedes-Benz EQC electric SUV has a fault defect involving the core components of the motor, and the dashboard has appeared in the system prompt of "filling coolant", but the supplemental coolant method provided by the 4S store has not worked until the internal coolant seal of the drive motor finally fails, the motor burns down, and the vehicle nests.
Since EQC uses a motor imported from Germany, the maintenance time is very long, which seriously affects the owner's car. And even if you replace the motor with a new one, the problem may still not be solved. The statement said that most of the Mercedes-Benz EQC owners have replaced the front/rear motors, and some have even replaced them 4 times, but the previous recall has not been resolved, and a new recall notice has been issued.
In response to the previous Mercedes-Benz recall behavior and vehicle safety hazards, these more than 240 car owners have raised many questions and demands. Including requiring Mercedes-Benz and relevant departments to thoroughly investigate vehicle problems, re-recall and technical assessment of motor problems, and judge the probability of vehicle failure through real sales; providing solutions such as how to ensure the safe driving of vehicles before the official recall on August 15, the decline in the retention rate of vehicle replacement motors, and the subsequent decline in motor replacement.
Although the Mercedes-Benz EQC is a pure electric vehicle launched earlier in China among luxury brands, as an "oil to electricity" model, the model does not show extremely prominent advantages and cost performance. Since its launch in 2020, the cumulative sales volume of Mercedes-Benz EQC has not exceeded 10,000 units.
In the context of sales that are not prominent, but the problem of such a serious product and the number of owners recruited is so large, the Mercedes-Benz EQC model does not show a low failure rate and high safety guarantee consistent with the brand tone, so that it causes the joint rights protection of the owners.
WM EX5 spontaneously combusted 3 times in four days
The official recall of the lock electricity caused public outrage
In December 2021, henan zhengzhou, hainan sanya, hainan haikou and other places had three spontaneous combustion accidents related to WM EX5 and derivative models in 4 days, and the concentrated spontaneous combustion accidents also once again aroused public concern about the safety of electric vehicles.
In view of the current frequent spontaneous combustion of electric vehicles, car companies should have investigated and announced the results at the first time, treated consumers and regulators frankly, and vigorously strengthened their own safety supervision. However, compared with the high-profile publicity when the new product was released, WM Motors was silent about the media and the public in these spontaneous combustion accidents, and there was no response.
In fact, WM Motors had a "previous conviction" for spontaneous combustion last year. From September to October 2021, WM Motors has had 4 spontaneous combustion accidents, involving Zhejiang, Fujian and Beijing, in addition to private cars, there are also WM taxis operating in Fujian, and frequent spontaneous combustion has also been on the hot search of major platforms.
After the incident, WM Motors launched an investigation and recalled 1282 WM EX5 and WM EX6 models. It is reported that the power batteries of these recalled vehicles have quality defects, and the impurities mixed in by the battery suppliers during the production process may cause abnormal lithium evolution in the battery, increasing the risk of battery short circuit and fire.
However, after the recall, some owners found that their WM EX5 had different degrees of endurance decline and increased charging time, and WM was suspected of reducing the risk of spontaneous combustion of the vehicle by "locking the electricity". This behavior has caused a large number of car owners to be dissatisfied, and even some car owners have satirized WM for "locking the electricity" without the consent of the owner in the name of "upgrading" by creating songs to the Internet.
The supplier seems to be to blame for the spontaneous combustion of the battery, but at the same time, the car company is required to find problems in the charging equipment, battery management and vehicle assembly process to prevent "unburned". After the problem is found, it should also be actively solved without affecting the owner's car, rather than hurting the owner's existing rights and interests by sacrificing the vehicle's endurance and full speed.
Controversy and sales are on the same page
Xiaopeng Automobile has frequently been subjected to complaints and rights protection
Looking at Xiaopeng Automobile in 2021, car owners frequently defend their rights, yin and yang contract fraud, illegal collection of information is punished, as the sales champion of the new car-making force car companies in 2021, these controversial events are almost accompanied by the increasing sales of the brand. Even after entering 2022, Xiaopeng Automobile is still in the whirlpool of public opinion such as the delay in the delivery of orders and the locking of electricity in the accused models.
In October 2021, consumers in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, exposed that There were cases of car increases and yin-yang contracts in Xiaopeng Automobile sales stores, which was questioned as a fraudulent supplementary behavior carried out by Xiaopeng Automobile in order to obtain the qualification of "new energy vehicle subsidies with a price of less than 300,000 yuan" stipulated by the state. In response, Xiaopeng Automobile said that because the relevant personnel did not clearly understand the relevant promotional policies, the user misunderstood, and the contract commitments will be fulfilled in the future.
Soon after, Xiaopeng Automobile was exposed to illegally collect faces in one of its stores, and was fined 100,000 yuan by the Shanghai Xuhui District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau by purchasing a total of 22 camera devices with face recognition functions from a third party.
Since the beginning of this year, there have been a large number of complaints involving "Xiaopeng P5 failing to deliver the vehicle on time" on a complaint platform. Some consumers said that the booking of the car could not be delivered for 4 months, the delivery time was delayed again and again, and it was impossible to get a specific delivery commitment.
In this regard, Xiaopeng Automobile apologized and said that the current supply of lithium iron phosphate batteries has affected the delivery of vehicles, and gave plans such as refundable deposits or compensation for waiting for vehicles. However, consumers who defend their rights believe that even if the 5,000 yuan deposit is refunded, Xiaopeng's delay in delivery still has an impact on the user's new energy subsidies and equal rights and interests in car purchase electricity.
The current situation of Xiaopeng Automobile can represent the epitome of the rapid development of domestic new energy vehicles, on the one hand, the rapid growth of sales, but on the other hand, the pressure brought by various negative public opinions, which highlights the weak experience of some new force car companies in the foundation of car manufacturing, and also sounds the alarm for the development of new energy brands and some independent brands.
Write at the end:
With the explosive growth of new energy vehicles in recent years, various controversies are also emerging, so that at this year's 315 party, there may be the first appearance of new energy brands or models. However, the "315 Evening" itself is not the purpose of exposing a brand, but more to hope that it can really solve problems for consumers through exposure and bring warning effects to the industry.
Some car companies cannot only know to take measures because they were named by "3.15" and admit their mistakes and be beaten. Similarly, the "lucky" escaped the "3·15" car companies do not mean that they sit back and relax, but should continue to self-discover problems and actively respond to the reasonable demands of consumers. Only when the level of the industry continues to develop, consumers' awareness of reasonable and legal rights protection continues to strengthen, and the service and integrity level of car companies continue to improve, will the three figures of "3·15" become more meaningful.
END
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