Southern Network News (Reporter/Zhang Shuang)
In January this year, 173 owners of Weima Car jointly sent a lawyer's letter to WM Motors, questioning whether the vehicle was "locked" by WM without informing the owner, and asked WM Motor to respond to whether there was a quality problem in the power battery on the grounds that the actual mileage was greatly attenuated. Among them, there was a netizen of "Mi Zhou is not surnamed Mi" to leave a message under Shen Hui's personal Weibo, to be in 315 and not to be separated, but WM Motors and Shen Hui did not respond.
Fortunately, although Weima escaped the "first day" (CCTV 315), it could not escape the "Tenth Five-Year Plan" (Guangdong 315). It is reported that the 315 evening party in Guangdong Province exposed the problem of "locking electricity" of WM Motors. A number of car owners feedback manufacturers through the OTA upgrade of the vehicle "lock" operation, because after the upgrade of the vehicle has a shortened battery life, slow charging and other issues.
Xiaopeng and Weima were exposed to lock electricity
According to the video of the Guangdong 315 party, three cars suspected of "locking electricity" were sent to a third-party testing agency, and the third-party agency test showed that the mileage was greatly reduced, the charging information did not match, and the vehicle should be considered to have lowered the battery capacity. Wang Xudong, president of the Inspection and Appraiser Branch of the China Automobile Dealers Association, said: "Comparing the cars with normal mileage with the several problematic cars sent for inspection, it was found that its charging pile showed 100% when it was full, but the actual power we read from the decoder was only 89%. From a professional technical point of view, the power lock is to make some restrictions, one is to prevent spontaneous combustion, and the other is to minimize the loss rate during the warranty period. Until now, the WM Auto 4S store still refuses to admit to "locking the electricity", and the WM Motor official has not publicly responded to this matter.
Coincidentally, another new car-making force, Xiaopeng Automobile, was also exposed to "lock the door of the store". Since March, many car owners have complained that the first batch of Xiaopeng P7 models of xiaopeng automobile, a new force in car-making, are suspected of "locking electricity" for no reason. A number of xiaopeng P7 first owners complained: their cars at the end of last year after an OTA (car remote upgrade), there was a significant decline in mileage, so these owners suspect that Xiaopeng Motors through the OTA way to the vehicle "lock" treatment.
Although the follow-up Xiaopeng official customer service response said that there is currently no charging "lock power", in addition to the charging limit, there is no relevant operation setting to limit the charging amount. After the test of Xiaopeng Automobile, this is the normal loss of the car battery. But at present, the complaints about the Xiaopeng P7 are still growing, and it is obvious that such a pale and feeble reply cannot satisfy the owner.
Why "lock the electricity"?
In fact, the reason for locking the power is not complicated, the most fundamental reason is to reduce the risk of spontaneous combustion and ensure the safety of the battery pack. After all, the battery pack contains dozens or even hundreds of cells, and there is an important link in the battery pack factory quality inspection, that is, the cell consistency check. But the battery cells can only be infinitely close to the same, and there is no way to achieve 100% complete consistency. That is to say, one or two cells in the battery pack are rat.
In it, this battery cell not only has a low charge and discharge voltage, but also a larger internal resistance. When the same current flows, the heat generated by the cell with large internal resistance is relatively large, which leads to the temperature of the cell being too high, and the internal resistance will further increase. The internal resistance and temperature rise form a pair of negative feedbacks, which accelerates the deterioration of high internal resistance cells, which not only leads to a decrease in battery pack voltage, reduced capacity, higher heat generation and the risk of spontaneous combustion. With the increase in driving range, charging, especially the number of high-power charging, the deterioration of the battery cell will further accelerate, and electric vehicles will become more and more prone to spontaneous combustion. This is also why in the spontaneous combustion of electric vehicles in the past years, the use of high intensity, frequent fast charging of online car- and taxi accounted for a large proportion.
The power lock refers to the upgrade and rewriting of the battery management system to lock the battery power SOC chip window, redefine the voltage range of the battery, to limit the upper limit of the battery charging and power consumption, in simple terms, is to limit the maximum voltage of the single battery, resulting in the battery charge is not satisfied, so the mileage has been discounted, but also reduced the probability of spontaneous combustion and battery compensation. Moreover, it is necessary to mention that the car company locks the power only needs to use OTA upgrades to complete it quietly.
Deliberately concealed, pretending to be deaf and dumb
First of all, after locking the electricity, what kind of impact will it have on the use of the car? Here is a real car owner's case, the official standard endurance of 400 km of the model, the actual endurance after leaving the factory is only about 320 km, and then, unknowingly, the manufacturer on the grounds of "upgrade", after the second lock, the actual endurance has been significantly less than 280 km, and after the winter mileage is reduced, the endurance is further reduced to less than 180 km.
With the current new energy models in the publicity will always put the maximum mileage of how many kilometers in the first place in the publicity, to dispel people's anxiety about the endurance of new energy vehicles, forming a great contrast. After all, a model advertised as a 400-kilometer endurance, but in fact only 180 kilometers of endurance performance, the gap between which, how should users calmly talk about the use experience?
Secondly, locking the electric door can stir up thousands of waves with one stone, causing hundreds of car owners to be dissatisfied, and there is also an accelerant, that is, the handling methods and attitudes of car companies. At the end of last year, under the banner of "New Year's Eve user premium", WM Automobile said that 18,888 lucky users were randomly selected, not only giving away a comprehensive vehicle inspection, but also a Jingdong card worth 200 yuan. But the owners of the carriage soon discovered that it was actually a sugar-coated shell. According to a owner of the WM EX5 who has personally experienced the "big gift package", his vehicle has undergone a system upgrade after inspection, and subsequently, the mileage of the vehicle has been greatly reduced. And it is not an isolated case, and many members of the car friend group also revealed that after the upgrade, it is suspected that WM Motors has carried out a power lock operation on the product.
What makes these car owners even more angry is that WM manufacturers refuse to admit the "lock electricity" question reflected in the former, and have not taken relevant measures to solve it. It is worth mentioning that when the lock power information is flying in the sky, Shen Hui, chairman of WM Motors, is also very active on Weibo, paying special attention to the problem of rising oil prices, automatic driving and high battery life of electric vehicles, and also released the Weima Family Book on the first working day after the Spring Festival, saying that it will strengthen user operation and service capabilities in multiple dimensions and attach importance to the delivery of the user experience after delivery. However, the problem of locking the power was not mentioned by the user.
In the face of WM's inaction, Zhou Zhou, who was once the "star owner" of WM Automobile and a loyal fan, created a song "200 pieces will deceive me" for this purpose, singing the ins and outs of the matter bluntly and singing the helplessness of the matter.
epilogue
The battery itself is difficult to achieve the official advertised range under normal use, and the follow-up is further restricted through OTA upgrades, which is too far from the data advertised at the beginning of the car purchase, which is enough to constitute deception of users. What's more, whether it's for battery safety performance or battery life, this is not something that consumers should consider. It is a problem that the car should solve before the goods leave the factory, but Xiaopeng and Weima did not mention this matter when selling, but added it in the subsequent upgrade, so that consumers pay for the battery problem, which is really not kind. In addition, at present, most car companies provide ultra-long or even lifelong three-electric quality assurance policies, but due to the immature battery detection methods, it is difficult for consumers to fundamentally point out that the battery has been restricted, which also provides convenience for car companies to lock the electricity in the dark box.
However, the relevant laws and regulations for OTA upgrades are gradually being improved. For example, the General Office of the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the Notice on Further Strengthening the Supervision of Remote Upgrade (OTA) Technology Recalls of Automobiles, etc., and believes that with the continuous improvement of policies and supervision, our rights and interests and the order of the market will eventually be maintained. Therefore, Xiaopeng and WM Motors still come up with an attitude and solution as soon as possible, and do not continue to sink deep into the mud and cannot turn over.