Claiming that 400 to 500 kilometers are actually 200 or 300 kilometers, when will the cruising range of new energy vehicles no longer "see flowers in the fog"?

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, March 16, 200 title: The so-called four or five hundred kilometers, the actual two or three hundred kilometers, when will the cruising range of new energy vehicles no longer "see flowers in the fog"?

Xinhua News Agency", reporters Guo Yujing and Jining

"When buying a car, the manufacturer advertises that the mileage is 420 kilometers, and the sales say that they can drive at least 350 kilometers, but in fact they can only drive up to 300 kilometers." Ms. Chen of Beijing, who bought a new energy vehicle in 2020, said that this problem is particularly obvious in winter, and she drove more than 200 kilometers, almost a "50% discount".

The "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporter's investigation found that many new energy vehicle manufacturers have played "ultra-long endurance" advertisements, but consumers find that the mileage will often shrink after buying a car, and some are only half of the nominal mileage, and complaints about the discount of the mileage of pure electric new energy vehicles have long been common.

Cruising range seriously shrunk a lot of "50% off" "30% off"

In 2021, the mainland's new energy automobile industry performed well, with production and sales exceeding 3.5 million units, an increase of 1.6 times year-on-year. While production and sales are growing by leaps and bounds, the mileage advertised by automobile manufacturers is also growing, but there is a widespread problem of untruthfulness.

In December 2021, an agency tested the mileage performance of 41 new energy vehicles in the winter cold, and the results were shocking. Many well-known brand cars generally have a mileage discount of about 50%, and many vehicles have a mileage of less than half of the nominal mileage, and some can only run to 30% to 40% of the nominal mileage.

Zhu Xichan, director of the Institute of Automotive Safety Technology of Tongji University and professor of the School of Automobile Science, said that although the test is not necessarily very rigorous, the poor low temperature performance of new energy vehicles is an indisputable fact.

At the beginning of March, the consumer associations of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei released a comparative test of the low-temperature mileage of electric vehicles. According to the report of the Beijing Municipal Consumer Association, the 10 sample cars tested have a low temperature "power loss" mileage "discount", and "mileage anxiety" has always been one of the biggest problems hindering consumers from purchasing new energy vehicles.

At the beginning of this year, the China Consumer Association released the "Analysis of complaints accepted by the National Consumer Association in 2021", showing that with the gradual promotion and ownership of new energy vehicles, related complaints have gradually increased. Among them, the shrinkage of the cruising range is one of the main problems of consumer complaints, especially in the low temperature of winter, the endurance loss is fast.

According to the survey of market research consulting agencies Jundi and the users who understand the car emperor, more than half of the car owners surveyed have never actually experienced the mileage told by the manufacturer. Among them, the driving mileage of pure electric new energy vehicles is lower than the officially announced mileage, and the inaccurate mileage valuation and the sudden decline in mileage are the main reasons for the anxiety of car owners.

According to the case released by the China Consumer Association, in September 2021, Mr. Zhang, a consumer in Hubei Province, complained that he spent 200,000 yuan to buy a brand of new energy vehicles, and the sales staff said that the battery life of a charge could reach 510 kilometers, but the cruising range when actually used was only 300 kilometers.

The reporter browsed the major automotive forums and found that in the new energy vehicle sector, there were the most questions similar to "how many kilometers the real mileage is".

Promoting "idealized endurance" has become a common tactic for manufacturers

Why is there such a big difference between the mileage advertised by car companies and the actual use?

Experts pointed out that the current mileage announced by automobile manufacturers generally uses comprehensive working conditions such as NEDC (New European Cycle Test) or CLTC (China Light Vehicle Driving Conditions) to test. Jiang Peng, director of the automotive products division of Jundi China, said that although the comprehensive working conditions of traditional fuel vehicles and the actual experience of consumers are also different, the gap is much smaller than that of new energy vehicles. According to the existing standards, the mileage results announced by the manufacturers are tested under relatively ideal temperatures, driving habits and other conditions, and it is difficult to truly reflect the actual experience of users.

The reporter's investigation found that some car companies often use the mileage under ideal conditions when publicizing. The reporter logged on to the official website of a number of well-known new energy vehicles and found that the description of the vehicle mileage of the major websites was generally "idealized", for example, some greatly displayed the actual comprehensive working range of 1000 kilometers, and in the very inconspicuous small characters at the bottom of the screen, it was explained that the comprehensive working mileage was the use of additional conditions such as battery packs that had not yet been mass-produced.

In the network search found that the major car companies have played eye-catching slogans such as "ultra-long endurance" in the prominent position of the search page, but for the explanation of the mileage kilometers, only small characters are displayed in the marginal position, so that consumers are not easy to detect.

The reporter visited a number of new energy vehicle display stores, and sales consultants generally recommended products to customers according to the ideal mileage or slightly discounted mileage. Under repeated questioning by reporters, the sales staff of a well-known new energy vehicle company admitted that at present, the company is mainly focusing on a model with a range of 670 kilometers, and in fact, it runs more than 500 kilometers in the summer and only more than 400 kilometers in the winter. "Discounted mileage is a common phenomenon, because the test is ideal, and it will certainly not run under real circumstances." She said.

A well-known brand of new energy vehicle owners said that when they buy a car in 2020, the vehicle mileage is far from reaching the manufacturer's nominal mileage, nor can it reach the actual mileage that the sales staff claims to be able to drive when buying the car.

Bring the range back to reality

Lu Yun, director of the Consumer Rights and Interests Legal Committee of the Beijing Lawyers Association, believes that the mileage of new energy vehicles is an important consideration for consumers to purchase vehicles, which belongs to the category of consumers' right to know, and manufacturers and dealers need to clearly and significantly inform consumers of relevant information when publicizing, and if they take fictitious mileage or mislead consumers, they are suspected of consumer fraud.

Xu Hao, a lawyer at Beijing Jingshi Law Firm, said that from the current precedents, because new energy vehicles are new and there are differences in the interpretation of related issues, it is difficult for consumers to protect their rights.

Zhu Xichan said that the mileage is an important basis for consumer purchases, and it can also be said that it is the "life gate" for the sustainable development of the new energy vehicle market. Let consumers understand the actual number of kilometers used, which is the basic obligation of manufacturers, and it is also the bottom line to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. Car companies should be truthfully publicized, but also need all parties to work together to present the characteristics of such new products more scientifically by updating standards and enriching data.

"It is impossible for users to understand very clearly about lithium iron phosphate, lithium ternary lithium, working conditions standards, etc. related to new energy vehicles, and the current standards can be further refined." Zhu Xichan said that for the existing mileage test, it is possible to comprehensively consider factors such as region, temperature, road conditions and other factors to divide different reference values. "You can set different mileage reference numbers according to different regions and different seasons, and publish the upper and lower thresholds so that consumers can clearly understand the battery life."

"The degree of intelligence of new energy vehicles is very high, and big data statistics can be used to publish the average mileage of existing users, so that the mileage can return to the truth and no longer appear in front of consumers with a fictitious image." Jiang Peng said.