[Aika Car Deep Observation Original]
Recently, a complaint about Xiaopeng Automobile was sued on the Internet. According to the owner's report, Xiaopeng Automobile issued the latest road rescue service terms, which deleted the previous description of "nationwide unlimited and unlimited mileage road rescue", and added "limited to failures caused by product quality problems" in the revised terms. In addition, the new clause also deletes "free towing to the service center designated by Xiaopeng Automobile or xiaopeng supercharger station", and the roadside assistance service in the new clause is only responsible for "towing the vehicle to the service center designated by Xiaopeng Automobile", in other words, because of the lack of electricity or accidents, the need for rescue is ignored or not free. For Xiaopeng Automobile's unauthorized modification of the terms of service, the owner said that he did not accept it.
Another complaint was about NIO. Customers legally purchased a NIO ES6 with an automatic driving system worth 45,000 yuan through a second-hand car dealer, and the vehicle service account was also changed. However, after the vehicle arrives, the system prompts the customer that the autonomous driving system is limited. The customer contacted NIO, and NIO replied to the customer on the grounds that "the vehicle cannot be upgraded for unofficial used cars". The customer believes that this provision is a unilateral overlord clause of the car company, requiring NIO to restore this function or refund the automatic driving system to reduce losses.
In fact, the shrinkage of service rights similar to the above has become a new means for car companies to "cut leeks", and such behavior is particularly common in today's vigorous development of new energy vehicles. From the very beginning, new energy vehicle companies need to obtain consumers by attaching rich service rights and interests to new cars, and gradually move towards the stage of stable development. The service rights and interests previously promised have gradually shrunk, and almost every new energy vehicle company is doing.
Tesla introduced a free supercharging service with the car in the early days of entering China, and then the supercharging service was changed to only for the first car owner.
Taking Tesla as an example, in the initial stage of just entering the country, consumers who buy Tesla come with a free supercharging privilege, and the privilege can be transferred with the vehicle, that is to say, consumers who buy second-hand Tesla can also enjoy free supercharging. At the beginning of 2017, Tesla announced that car owners who ordered Model S and Model X before January 15, 2017 can use supercharger privileges for life, and consumers who place orders after this time node only have a charging quota of 400kWh, and the part exceeding 400kWh will need to be charged.
The first owner of the Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback Plus/Pro can enjoy a lifetime three-free policy, which is naturally not suitable for used car owners.
For the change of service rights and interests, it is a healthier development for enterprises, which is excusable, after all, with the expansion of user scale, the cost of the rights and interests promised at the beginning is also a geometric increase, which makes car companies unable to bear. This has also directly led to the addition of "only the first car owner" restriction to many service rights and interests of car companies. At present, the special car purchase rights of "only the first car owner" are not limited to new energy vehicles, and it is not uncommon in the purchase clauses of traditional fuel vehicles. For example, the recently launched Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback Plus/Pro provides a lifetime three-free policy for the first car owner.
Such a restricted car purchase rights is bound to significantly affect the second-hand retention rate of new cars, after all, the second owner will not be able to enjoy similar car purchase rights, so they can only get better cost performance by lowering prices. Interestingly, for the official second-hand cars of car companies, they can enjoy similar rights and interests, which is undoubtedly a disguised monopoly behavior, and only those who buy used cars with higher prices and official certifications from the official car companies can enjoy similar rights and interests. For example, the Certified official second-hand car launched by Weilai can enjoy similar rights and interests similar to the new car, including extended warranty, free charging pile, lifetime free roadside assistance, and lifetime free car networking services, just like the case introduced at the beginning of the article, because the purchase of unofficial second-hand cars, so customers can not use the automatic driving system purchased by the original car. We have also consulted lawyers for this.
Like weilai's official second-hand car, "peace of mind and new" is actually more like the overlord clause, that is, only the purchase of official second-hand cars can enjoy service permissions.
The advice given by the lawyer is that the rights and interests of the first car owner and the inheritance of rights and interests are more controversial issues in recent years, and many new force car companies give the "first car owner" a large number of rights and interests, such as a lifetime free warranty, a lifetime battery warranty, etc. However, once the vehicle is transferred, the owners of the used car can no longer enjoy the above rights. From a legal point of view, such unilateral provisions of car companies are not reasonable, and we understand that the so-called "first owner rights" of car owners are due to their purchase of new energy vehicles, which are ancillary rights and interests of the purchase of vehicles, that is, the purchase of cars generates these rights and interests. Therefore, the relevant rights and interests should "follow the car" rather than "follow the people". If the vehicle is transferred, as long as the vehicle is not lost, whether the vehicle is transferred to the second owner, the third owner... The logic of subsidiary interests still exists, which makes more sense;
Secondly, in view of the fact that the current new energy used car trading system is not yet perfect, consumers are in a weak position to purchase new energy used cars. We recommend that consumers who have not yet purchased a new energy second-hand car must learn from the manufacturer whether the relevant rights and interests of the lifelong free warranty, lifetime battery warranty and other related rights and interests are required to avoid the commitments made by the second-hand car dealers cannot be fulfilled; at the same time, the second-hand car dealers should write the commitments of the second-hand car dealers on the inheritance of the rights and interests of the first car owner in the contract terms and clarify the liability for breach of contract, try to prevent risks in advance and have a certain prediction of the occurrence of risks. It is also recommended that consumers who have purchased new energy second-hand cars and cannot inherit the rights and interests of the first car owner reflect their problems through various complaint channels such as the 12345 mayor hotline, industry associations, and consumer associations, which has aroused the attention of supervision.
Shrinking rights and interests "cutting leeks" new means?
If the rights and interests clause of the "first car owner" has not clearly violated the relevant laws, then the following case is debatable. According to the clues on the black cat complaint, Xiaopeng Automobile unilaterally changed the terms of free roadside assistance and added the restriction "limited to failure caused by product quality problems". Such a change has undoubtedly saved costs for Xiaopeng Automobile, after all, Xiaopeng's current sales have ranked first in "Wei Xiaoli", and the sales volume in March 2022 has reached 15414 units, with Xiaopeng's current magnitude, "the province is one hundred million" may not be a joke, but it is a difficult reality for Xiaopeng's old owners to accept.
Xiaopeng Automobile's roadside assistance service terms have changed from "unlimited times nationwide and unlimited mileage" to "limited to failures caused by product quality problems".
There are many similar rights protection complaints, another case: there are Xiaopeng car owners complained that more than 80 free charging piles located in the Zhengzhou CBD were deactivated for no reason, and consumers were advised to move to another supercharging station with only 6 charging piles 1.8 kilometers away, and Xiaopeng Automobile did not have any publicity about this. The consumer said that Xiaopeng Automobile changed the free charging station without authorization, which had a great impact on his life, and complained that Xiaopeng Automobile should restore the original free charging station. For similar issues of new energy vehicle companies unilaterally modifying the terms of service rights and interests, the suggestions given by the lawyers are:
If the owner has previously purchased Xiaopeng Automobile based on the publicity of Xiaopeng Automobile in all aspects (including the publicity of the free roadside rescue program), signed a contract with it, and there is evidence to prove that the user's rights and interests include "unlimited times and unlimited mileage" free road rescue services, then Xiaopeng Automobile's unilateral modification of the contract terms or rights and interests content in the user's rights and interests in the consumer's background app is a breach of contract, and the owner can refer to the specific terms of the contract to claim the liability for breach of contract from Xiaopeng Automobile. You can also complain through multiple channels such as the 12345 mayor's hotline and the consumer association;
If the owner has previously purchased Xiaopeng Automobile based on the publicity of xiaopeng automobile in all aspects (including the publicity of the free road rescue program), signed a contract with it, and the sales staff of Xiaopeng automobile has also expressed or promised to give free road rescue rights to the owner, but the owner later finds that the signed contract or the rights and interests of the backstage app user do not contain free road rescue content, the behavior from the perspective of the contract, the owner can collect the official news announcement promoted by Xiaopeng Automobile at that time. From the perspective of consumer rights and interests protection, Xiaopeng Automobile's behavior has deceived or misled consumers with false or misleading content, and the owner of the car may also deceive and mislead consumers in accordance with Articles 28, 54, 55 and 56 of the Advertising Law and Articles 20 and 45 of the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law. Article 56 and other provisions of the complaint to the Consumer Association and the Market Supervision Administration; at the same time, if, after comprehensive assessment, the above-mentioned litigation plan for rescission of the contract is not feasible, the owner of the car can also file an infringement lawsuit from the perspective of infringement, requiring Xiaopeng Automobile to bear the corresponding compensation liability;
Xiaopeng Automobile canceled the free charging station without authorization, which saved operating costs for car companies in disguise, but brought many inconveniences to existing consumers.
In addition, after Xiaopeng Automobile modifies the free roadside rescue service plan, for the owners who are ready to buy Xiaopeng Automobile, it is recommended not to listen to the oral commitments of the sales staff before purchasing, and must carefully read the terms of the contract, understand the rights and interests enjoyed under the contract, and implement all the rights and interests negotiated by both parties in the contract terms, so as to facilitate the protection of rights and interests in the future.
Similarly, Ideal Auto also launched a lifetime warranty purchase program for the first car owner in 2020, and the first car owner can enjoy the warranty service of unlimited duration and unlimited mileage of the whole vehicle and the three-electric system. This year, after Ideal Automobile adjusted the lifetime warranty plan of the whole vehicle to the lifetime warranty of the three-power and extended-range system, the warranty policy shrank again, and the lifelong warranty rights of the new car-buying users' three-power and extended-range system were adjusted to 8 years or 120,000 kilometers.
Ideal Cars' first lifetime warranty purchase program launched two years ago was adjusted to an 8-year or 120,000-kilometer warranty this year.
Conclusion: Today China's new energy vehicle market has successfully taken the first step, it is time for the market to form its own virtuous circle, relying solely on subsidies to attract customers is neither healthy nor sustainable, and as an indispensable part of the business model, the normal service rights adjustment is beyond reproach, and for new energy vehicle companies, how to take care of the rights and interests of new and old customers while reducing service rights, and find a balance between reducing services and service customers, which is the direction that new energy vehicle companies need to work towards.