Produced by Radar Finance and | Li Yihui, ed. | Deep Sea
According to the "Analysis of Complaints Accepted by the National Consumer Association in 2021" released by the China Consumer Association, the annual number of complaints about automobiles and parts was 41,600, an increase of 19.28% year-on-year, ranking third among the complaint goods, second only to food and clothing.
The content of the complaint includes the safety problems of new energy vehicles, such as driving power outages, spontaneous combustion of automobiles, failure of automatic driving systems, etc.; prominent battery quality problems, such as charging failures, etc.; shrinking mileage, especially in the winter low temperature; failure to fulfill promises, such as publicizing the use of high-performance chips, but the actual situation is not so; price changes are controversial, consumers have just signed a contract and have not yet picked up the car, the purchased model will be reduced in price, or the launch of products with the same price but higher performance configuration, resulting in consumer dissatisfaction and so on.
According to the combing of the black cat complaint platform, Radar Finance found that the car companies that are currently complained about the most on the platform are Great Wall Euler. In addition, the traditional car company SAIC Volkswagen, the luxury brand BBA and the new car-making forces Xiaopeng and Weima are also on the list, and the reasons for complaints involve vehicle failure, after-sales service, and charging financial service fees.
Great Wall Euler trap "chip gate"
Euler is an independent new energy brand under Great Wall Motor, released in September 2018, positioned in a new generation of urban life vehicles, with the goal of becoming "the world's most loved woman car brand".
However, the "stealing chips" storm that occurred at the end of last year pushed this brand to the cusp of public opinion.
The cause of the incident was that in the middle of November last year, some car owners found that Euler's products were "not worthy of the name", and the company changed the previously advertised 8-core processor into a 4-core processor, and the chip brand changed from Qualcomm to Intel.
The two chips have great differences in terms of the number of CPU cores, manufacturing processes and GPU computing power. And according to the data provided by "Electronic Engineering Album", the official price of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 is $80-100, while the old Intel AtomX5 E3940 chip released in 2016 is only $34.
More importantly, a good cat equipped with an old Intel chip cannot upgrade or install an APP, can only use a pre-installed APP, and the voice assistant is also very unintelligent, which is far from the official publicity of "rapid deployment of efficient AI, automatic driving, intelligent visual integration and Internet of Vehicles".
In the face of questions from car owners, Euler Automobile issued a statement on November 17, saying that a special working group was set up to investigate at the first time. At the same time, it is said that some non-Euler good cat users impersonate real users, incite negative emotions, and attempt to seek improper benefits, and have collected evidence and called the police.
However, the statement not only did not solve the problem, but also further intensified the contradictions, and more and more defenders were defending their rights.
On November 22, Euler Automobile issued another statement, "changing its mouth" to admit that the Qualcomm 8-core chip planned to be carried in the future was publicized in advance, and gave away a 7200 yuan equity package for the owners of Euler cars who ordered Euler cars before December 31 last year.
However, in the eyes of some users, these rights and interest packages are already the standard of many new energy vehicles and have no value.
On December 6, CCTV Financial Channel publicly "named" Euler Automobile, pointing out that the brand side "stole the core", played word games or was suspected of consumer fraud. Subsequently, Euler proposed a new compensation plan, saying that in addition to the previously promised 7200 yuan equity package, the first owner of Euler Good Cat can also enjoy a lifetime warranty and 10,000 yuan charging rights.
But some car owners do not recognize such a compensation scheme, and on the black cat complaint platform, a car owner proposed that Euler either replace the Qualcomm octa-core chip for free, or return the car and compensate three times the full purchase amount.
It is understood that Euler has five models on sale, such as black cat, white cat, good cat, good cat GT, iQ, etc., of which black cat and white cat are A00-level pure electric vehicles, which are the fist products of the Euler brand. According to the data, in 2021, the annual sales volume of the Euler brand was 135,000 vehicles, of which the cumulative sales of black cat and white cat models exceeded 88,000 units, accounting for more than 65%.
But on February 23, Euler CEO Dong Yudong posted through the Euler ORA App that Euler black cats and white cats stopped taking orders, saying that they had "indeed encountered difficulties and are actively seeking ways to improve."
Dong Yudong said that although there are advantages in the industrial chain behind the Euler brand, this car still brings huge losses to the company. Taking black cats as an example, after the sharp rise in raw material prices in 2022, Euler black cats lost more than 10,000 yuan per unit. In addition, the black and white cats caused by the lack of core and electricity have not yet delivered new cars to users, and the cumulative number of orders exceeded 20,000, and if orders continue to be received, the delivery of new orders will wait until the second half of 2022.
In fact, Euler's delay in delivery has become another problem frequently complained about by car owners.
According to the Jiangsu Traffic Broadcasting Network's "Jiaoguang Shuangdao" program, at the end of October 2021, Mr. Xue, a citizen of Wuxi, purchased an Euler Black Cat 301km cute pet version of the car at a local Euler 4S store, and the contract stated: "About 80 days to pick up the car."
But by the end of January, Mr. Xue had been told there were no cars to pick up. According to the 4S shop, it is not certain when there will be a car, and there will be no delay compensation.
On the black cat complaint platform, such cases are not in the minority. Radar Finance noted that on February 17 this year, 93 consumers who paid the deposit launched a collective complaint on the platform, complaining about Euler Automobile's problem of "opaque orders, arbitrarily cutting in line to disrupt the market, not delivering the car on time, and cheating consumers with indefinite delays".
Car owners demand that the national order be transparent, so that consumers can clearly understand the progress of the work order; as soon as possible, the manufacturer through the official channels, publicly apologize to all the delayed Euler black cat owners in the country; for the extended owners, give 60 yuan / day compensation treatment.
Complaints are currently pending.
Industry insiders believe that the shortage of automotive chips, rising raw material prices and subsidies decline, under the influence of multiple industry factors, the product profits of some new energy vehicle companies have been greatly discounted, how to adjust the strategy in time to deal with the crisis has become a key issue for car companies to think, and stopping receiving orders is not a long-term solution.
Volkswagen Langyi was accused of reducing the number of car machines
As a veteran car company that has accompanied consumers for more than 30 years, SAIC Volkswagen has frequently broken out various problems recently.
On December 24, 2019, in the crash test of The Passat, 25% of the positive bias collision evaluation was "poor", and the body of the test vehicle A-pillar was severely deformed, which subsequently triggered many Passat owners to start collective complaints.
Sales data shows that SAIC Volkswagen's total sales in 2021 were 1.242 million units, down for three consecutive years. Fortunately, another of its main models, Langyi, sold 429,600 units last year, becoming the sales force.
However, this model also has a crisis of trust, which has been exposed to problems such as inconsistent configuration and publicity, engine shaking and so on.
According to the Central Broadcasting Network, what triggered the collective complaint of car owners was the SAIC Volkswagen Langyi 2021 280TSI DSG Comfort Edition model.
In the process of use, car owners found that this model, which was claimed by SAIC Volkswagen to support the intelligent car connection system and can be connected to CarPlay through the SAIC Volkswagen Super App, found that the car machine system was not the original MOS system of the car machine, but the sub-factory Android car machine, and there was no CarPlay function.
On the black cat complaint platform, a number of users complained about similar problems, and the vehicle did not have a cigarette lighter, the publicity did not match the actual situation, and the sales staff did not explain in advance, suspected of deceiving consumers.
According to some car owners, in the face of complaints, some 4S stores have admitted the fact that they concealed the owners and reduced the allocation of vehicles, but because SAIC Volkswagen has never officially concluded about this incident, the compensation received by the owners varies widely.
Some people received 2,000 yuan of fuel cards, and some people received almost the same amount of cash, "the amount is standard, completely relying on the negotiation skills of the owner and the 4S shop." There are also owners who have replaced the machine under the struggle, but they have been removed from other new cars and installed, and the new car has become a reduced allocation car.
It is reported that in response to the problem of reducing the allocation, SAIC Volkswagen told the media in January that it is "under investigation", but has not yet given a conclusion. Some owners who do not know the inside story have not even realized that their cars have been reduced.
In addition to the reduction of the car and machine, some complaints also mentioned that Langyi had problems such as engine shaking and transmission noise.
In addition, volkswagen Tiguan L suffered collective complaints from car owners due to the problem of particle trapper blockage.
The so-called particle trap here is that some manufacturers in order to meet the "National VI" standard, in the case of the engine itself can not reach the new standard, on the basis of the three-way catalytic converter to install a GPF particle trap, to further reduce PM (fine particulate matter weight), PN (fine particulate matter quantity) emissions, so as to meet the new emission indicators.
This "masking" approach seems to solve the problem of emission compliance easily, but when too many carbon particles in the particle trap begin to congest, it is necessary to maintain a high speed of the engine to eliminate the blockage, known as "GPF regeneration".
However, such a means will obviously lead to an increase in fuel consumption, especially in the current state of soaring oil prices, this cost is not low, and it affects the normal use of vehicles. For example, a complaining user said, "I bought a 330 Tiguan flagship on November 2, 2021, drove more than 2,000 kilometers, and the particle trap was blocked to level 3, resulting in start-stop failure, increased fuel consumption, and too noisy engine sound." ”
The official solution is software upgrades and increased thermal insulation protection, but it proves to be "a cure for the symptoms but not the root cause", and the "blocking" problem has not been effectively improved.
Xiaopeng and Weima were accused of "locking electricity"
Among the new forces, Xiaopeng Automobile is the best in terms of delivery volume in 2021, but it encounters "bad things" after entering 2022.
Recently, a number of Xiaopeng car owners said on the black cat complaint platform that the first batch of 670 battery life of Xiaopeng Automobile P7 was locked for no reason, and the 80.3kw battery capacity could only be installed with about 70kw, which was 8.7% off.
According to the black cat complaint network, there were more than 16 collective complaints about Xiaopeng Automobile's "locking electricity", mainly involving the model of Xiaopeng P7 670 endurance version, which was priced at about 370,000 yuan.
A complainant said that he purchased the Xiaopeng P7 four-wheel drive Supreme 80-degree electric version, which can only be charged about 70 degrees in actual use, which is seriously inconsistent with the publicity. Repeatedly asked 4S stores and manufacturers customer service, can not give a clear diagnosis, has been verbally emphasized that there is no problem.
Another complainant said that he was the first batch of ultra-long endurance owners of the Xiaopeng P7, and only charged 72.44 degrees when the electricity was only 20km left to 576km fully charged (wltp calculation mode). Compared with the same version of the owner, the same charging situation, other car owners app shows more than 78 degrees. The battery of the ultra-long battery version is 80.5 degrees, and according to the current data, at least 6 degrees of electricity are locked.
In this regard, Xiaopeng Automobile customer service denied the existence of charging locking, saying that in addition to the charging limit, there is no relevant operation setting to limit the charging power.
According to the analysis of automotive industry researchers, "locking power" is to set the highest charging power of the battery, so that the battery can not be fully charged, so as to extend the purpose of battery life.
Another reason why car owners suspect that they are locked by Xiaopeng is because many of these vehicles have significantly reduced their mileage after an OTA (car remote upgrade) at the end of last year.
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. "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. ”
In fact, not only Xiaopeng Automobile, but also another new force car company, Weima, has also fallen into the "lock electricity" storm.
On the black cat platform, some users complained that "the WM E5 standard is 505km low mileage, but it is actually only 200km, which is seriously false." "The endurance mark is 400 kilometers, but the actual is only 240 kilometers; the endurance is 40% off, which is lower than the national statutory battery life standard", "The mileage of the WM EX5-Z 400 dynamic version is 400 kilometers, while the actual mileage is only about 200 kilometers, and the charging degree is also seriously inconsistent with the actual charging degree of the state grid." ”
It is reported that in January this year, WM Motors launched the "New Year User Premium" activity, and the lucky users who were randomly selected will receive a comprehensive vehicle inspection and a Jingdong card worth 200 yuan. However, many vehicles that have undergone "comprehensive inspection" have been found by car owners to have a greatly reduced mileage, which seriously affects the car experience.
Car owners even found different voltage difference information before and after the "comprehensive inspection" as evidence of "locking the electricity". That is, after the upgrade, the maximum voltage of the single battery is limited, resulting in the battery not being fully charged.
To this end, on January 10 this year, 173 owners of Wei ma carriage submitted lawyer letters to Wei Ma in real name. The lawyer's letter shows that WM privately locks the user's vehicle through activities such as "maintenance", "random sampling of 18888 lucky people", "200 yuan Jingdong card gifted to the store", etc.
However, on March 11, WM responded to the media that the company did not lock the electricity, and the mileage of electric vehicles would decay in winter.
In the view of Zhang Xiang, an analyst in the automotive industry, the purpose of locking the power is to prevent the emergence of overcharge and over-discharge of the power battery, but some related OTA upgrades or offline upgrades, the car companies have not clearly informed the owner of the impact and effect of the power lock, the regulatory authorities should introduce relevant regulations, requiring the car companies to clearly inform the owner of the upgrade content and impact.
The BBA also faces more complaints
In terms of user complaints and rights protection, BBA, as a representative of luxury cars, is not absent.
What makes Mercedes-Benz "troubled" is its first domestic electric mid-size SUV model EQC. Launched in November 2019, this model is positioned as a mid-size pure electric SUV, and the price range is initially set at 499,800-57.98 million yuan.
At the beginning of this year, the Mercedes-Benz EQC was exposed to a motor burn-out accident, followed by three recalls. On March 9, 245 EQC car owners issued a joint statement again, raising 7 questions and 4 appeals for the last recall.
The statement asked Mercedes-Benz to re-identify EQC as having "design defects" rather than "manufacturing deviations"; to re-conduct recalls, technical assessments, truthfully announce vehicle problems and propose complete solutions; vehicle depreciation losses caused by the replacement of motors; and how to ensure the safety of vehicles before the formal recall on August 15 this year.
At the same time, it is hoped that Mercedes-Benz will immediately recall all the vehicles involved, give the vehicle that has replaced the motor the right to choose to return or change the car, extend the warranty period of the "three-point system", and give the owner of the replacement motor a certain standard of depreciation compensation for the second-hand car.
In response, the official response said that in response to some customers' doubts about the EQC recall measures and plans, they will contact them one by one as quickly as possible, listen to their needs, and properly respond to their concerns.
And the collective rights protection is not only Mercedes-Benz, BMW due to engine burning oil, "fraudulent" sales, but also quickly to the top of the major complaint rankings.
According to media reports, 122 OWNERS OF BMW's B48TU engine issued a joint statement on issues related to engine burning oil.
The models involved include the 3 Series, 5 Series, 6GT, 7 Series, X3, X4, X5 series, etc. that have been produced since 2019.
It is reported that since 2020, BMW owners who use B48TU engines have successively found that the oil level is too low in a maintenance cycle. Further inspection found that there were different degrees of oil and serious carbon deposition in the cylinder of the spark plug.
However, after the additional increase in oil, there are still more and more car owners who have the phenomenon of "burning oil". For some vehicles with severe oil burners, BMW replaced the valve compartment cover. However, even after a large number of car owners have replaced the valve room cover, the phenomenon of burning engine oil still exists. In response to such phenomena, BMW has never been able to give an effective solution.
According to the analysis of car owners, the crux of the problem lies in the defective design of the oil and gas separator of the B48TU engine, and the defective material of the valve chamber cover.
In addition, on the black cat complaint platform, 190 people collectively filed a complaint with BMW China, saying that the car engine system supporting the 2020 BMW 5 Series, 630, 2020-2021 X3 sold lacked the functions such as remote upgrade and voice control described in the owner's manual, and deliberately concealed defects when selling vehicles (different from the 3 Series, X5, and 7 Series ID7 systems in the same period), violating the consumer protection law.
In 2018, BMW launched the more intelligent seventh-generation human-computer interaction system, iDrive 7.0. At the end of 2020, BMW announced that it will carry out OTA upgrades for 500,000 cars equipped with the seventh-generation iDrive system worldwide, and will start pushing updates on December 16.
However, some owners who purchased the 2020 5 Series (including imported and new energy), 2020-2021 X3, 2020 6 Series GT, and 2020 X4 could not wait for the upgrade, although the owner's manual stated that the vehicle had OTA upgrade functions. Finally, it was learned from BMW officials that the number of cars produced before July 2020 did not have the OTA upgrade function and belonged to the castrated version of the car machine.
Owners therefore believe that BMW deliberately concealed itself when selling the 2020 BMW 5 Series, 630i, 20-21 X3 models produced in July 2020.
For Audi, there have been 12 complaints on the black cat platform in the past 30 days.
A Wuhu car owner said that on March 8, 2022, he ordered an A4L at "Wuhu Andy Automobile Sales Service Co., Ltd.", and talked with the sales from beginning to end about the total price (bare car price + purchase tax + financial service fee of 3500 yuan + maintenance service), and the sale was not informed that "financial service fees are not included in the total price".
The signed agreement does not state this, nor does it indicate the total price. However, after signing the agreement, it was found that the amount on the agreement was 3500 yuan more than that previously negotiated.
The owner therefore launched a complaint, asking the 4S store to either refund the deposit of 10,000 yuan and apologize according to the negotiated total price.
Another kunshan Audi Q5L new owner, on the way home on the day of the purchase of the vehicle heard a strange noise, at first Audi after-sales has been insisting on no different noise, the vehicle is no problem; later at the strong request of the owner, the after-sales technical director together to test the car heard the abnormal sound, but was told that it is a normal sound, after-sales can not be solved.
On January 27 this year, the State Administration of Market Regulation announced that 450,000 Audi Q5L will be recalled for technical rectification, because the vehicle gateway control module is located in a lower position under the rear seat, and if a large amount of liquid is accidentally spilled on the rear seat, it may enter the gateway control module, resulting in a short circuit inside the gateway control module.
According to media reports, at present, some car owners have proposed return and replacement requirements because of this hidden danger, but audi companies believe that they cannot meet the conditions for return and replacement of manufacturers and refuse.
Note: This article is the original of Radar Finance (ID: leidacj). Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.