On 22 April, the China Consumers Association ("CMA") released the Annual Report on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests in China (2021) (the "Report"). This is the first time that the China Consumer Association has comprehensively sorted out the development process of consumer rights protection in the mainland in the form of an annual report. It is worth noting that in the key areas of the Report, the phenomenon of consumer infringement specifically mentions that "the consumption of new energy intelligent vehicles has caused new problems in rights protection".
"At present, new energy intelligent vehicles are still in the process of gradually maturing and improving, and they need to solve these new problems in the process of development." Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Joint Association, said so in an interview with China Automobile News.
1 Auto complaints increased by 20% in 2021 The four major consumer problems are prominent
On April 19, 2021, a video of a female car owner defending her rights at the Tesla booth at the Shanghai Auto Show was widely disseminated on the Internet, and the statement of the relevant person in charge of Tesla Company caused controversy. With the development of the situation, the State Administration of Market Regulation, the China Consumers Association and other relevant departments have spoken out one after another to respond to public concerns. At the Guangzhou Auto Show in November 2021, there was also a situation where car owners defended their rights on the spot. These two public opinion events that were successively on the Internet hot search last year and attracted widespread attention inside and outside the industry were written into the "Report" as typical cases.
According to the Report, in 2021, the National Consumer Association accepted more than 40,000 complaints about automobiles and parts, an increase of nearly 20 percentage points compared with 2020.
The problems are mainly concentrated in four aspects: first, automobile safety issues, such as sudden acceleration during driving, flameout, oil leakage, engine noise, brake steering failure, etc.; second, there are many new problems in the consumer disputes of new energy intelligent vehicles, and there are difficulties in safeguarding rights. For example, there are problems such as driving interruption, mileage shrinkage, failure of auxiliary automatic driving system, battery charging failure and other disputes to varying degrees such as causes and difficulties in determining responsibility; third, the sales information of second-hand cars is inconsistent with the actual situation, and there are quality problems in the car after the transaction. Operators delay in performing or not fulfilling after-sales service commitments, low maintenance efficiency, poor effect, the same fault multiple maintenance can not be solved, consumers frequently travel to and from 4S stores, time-consuming and laborious; fourth, the price increase in addition to the clear price can pick up the car, which has become the "unspoken rule" of some high-end and popular models sales. However, the dealer will not appear in the sales agreement with the word "mark-up", will not issue an invoice to the consumer after the mark-up, or stipulate that the mark-up part needs to pay additional money to supplement the invoice tax point.
The "Report" pointed out that the existence of automotive safety issues shows that relevant producers and operators still need to continuously enhance their awareness of quality and safety responsibility and quality integrity and self-discipline, and promote the continuous improvement of product and service quality; the phenomenon of auto show rights protection is frequent, reflecting the fact that consumers still have pain points, difficulties and blockages in the automotive field, especially in the field of intelligent and connected vehicles; the existence of the problem of price mark-up shows that the relevant supply methods are extensive, the structure is not entirely reasonable, and it is impossible to accurately match and fully meet the diversified needs of consumers. At the same time, it also shows that the cost of violating the law is still relatively low, and it is difficult to completely suppress the impulse to violate the law.
For these new problems of rights protection caused by the consumption of new energy intelligent vehicles, many consumers will use a "difficult" word to describe them when interviewed by reporters. However, there is still a relatively objective and neutral consumer voice. A new energy vehicle owner in Hefei said in an interview with China Automobile News: "I think these problems are normal. Just like the development system, three points depend on pre-construction, and seven points rely on post-improvement. Fortunately, the mainland new energy vehicle market is huge, which will accelerate this process to a certain extent. ”
2 Hidden worries behind rapid growth The supporting system of young brands is not perfect
Rights protection incidents triggered by automobile consumption occur from time to time, but in recent years, many consumers have chosen social media as a voice channel, which has attracted more attention. As consumers, many times they will feel powerless and difficult to protect their rights, and sometimes they have to use online public opinion to "create momentum" for themselves in order to get more support from more people. As a new thing, new energy intelligent vehicles are more likely to attract public attention to the new problems of rights protection.
Relevant data show that in 2021, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in China has reached 13.4%. In addition, in 2021, China's new energy passenger cars have basically achieved full coverage of the Internet of Vehicles, the market penetration rate of L2-level driver assistance systems in new energy vehicles has reached 38%, and some leading auto companies have launched mass-produced new cars equipped with V2X technology. Therefore, the prominence of new problems in the protection of rights caused by the consumption of new energy intelligent vehicles also reflects the hidden worries behind the rapid growth of new energy intelligent vehicles to a certain extent.
Cui Dongshu told reporters that some of the functions of new energy intelligent vehicles are not consistent with the expectations it advertises, and safety cannot be guaranteed. In addition, the safety accidents caused by new energy intelligent vehicles are extremely serious. Problems in the first-in-first-1 trial process will have a greater impact on consumers. "Now the new energy intelligent vehicle technology is gradually maturing, and there are more problems exposed. In addition, each model of new energy intelligent car, each car company, etc. are relatively independent, and if there is a problem, it cannot be improved as quickly as the Android mobile phone (single system). He stressed that the issue of new energy intelligent vehicle rights protection has been named, which is a process that must be experienced in development.
For the problems disclosed in the "Report", Wang Hao, founder and CEO of Coppola Auto Consulting Services (Qingdao) Co., Ltd., said in an interview with China Automotive News that there are three main reasons for the above problems.
First, the industrial service system is not perfect. The rapid development of the domestic new energy automobile industry is only six or seven years, from technology research and development, product production, circulation services, laws and standards, to the establishment of a transparent and sound consumer rights and interests protection mechanism, are still being improved; second, the public does not understand and understand the consumer rights and interests protection regulations for new energy and smart vehicles. As a result, users are blindly consuming, and most of them lack in-depth understanding of the relevant rights and interests before consumption. In the after-sales service is in a weak position, until there is a big problem, will not take the initiative to protect rights; third, there are problems in the operating system of some car brands. In recent years, driven by capital, many young brands have appeared in the new energy vehicle market, and in the process of their seedling-fueled development, they have not yet established and improved the supporting user after-sales service system, in this case, they dare to build cars, sell cars, and seize the market. In actual use, users have become the "guinea pigs" of these brands, and even become the "cannon fodder" of some short-lived brands.
3 Cautiously carry out radical functional design, improve supervision and cut off the problem from the source
In the interview, many people in the industry said that there are many automobile consumption chaos at present, indicating that there are still certain deficiencies in the development of the domestic automobile market, which requires automobile manufacturers to strengthen production quality management, improve the level of car manufacturing, and also require automobile dealers to abide by the market order and promote the benign development of automobile consumption. And consumers can not "sit still", but must learn to take up legal weapons to protect their rights and interests.
The reporter learned that on January 1 this year, the newly revised "Provisions on the Responsibility for Repair and Replacement of Household Automobile Products" was officially implemented, in which the responsibilities and obligations of automobile manufacturers were further clarified, and the protection of consumer rights and interests was further strengthened. Previously, the China Consumer Association announced the analysis of the complaints accepted by the National Consumer Association in 2021, and released some typical cases and solution suggestions at the same time, of which the problem of "new energy vehicles is difficult to prove and difficult to protect rights" is particularly breakthrough.
For how to better safeguard the rights and interests of consumers and promote the development of the new energy intelligent vehicle market, Wang Hao told reporters: "Government departments and industry associations should accelerate the after-sales service for new energy and intelligent vehicles, the introduction and revision of regulations and standards for consumer rights and interests protection, and improve industrial service facilities; car companies and automobile service enterprises should strengthen information disclosure, especially projects involving key interests such as economic expenditure and personal privacy of car owners, which need to be made clear." It is suggested that consumer associations can regularly publish relevant information, including the publication of the "blacklist" of automobile product quality, the warning of service traps, and the dissemination and popularization of consumer rights protection regulations. ”
In addition, it was mentioned that the key point is that the supervision and punishment are not enough, resulting in some violations of laws and regulations or damage to the rights and interests of consumers have not been dealt with in a timely and effective manner, and objectively conniving at some dishonest and law-abiding business behaviors. Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law Research Association of the China Law Society, suggested that it is necessary to further increase supervision and punishment, take effective measures to ensure market order, and crack down on illegal acts; guide and standardize the development of the new energy automobile industry, promote the continuous improvement of battery technology and supporting facilities, and regularly carry out safety hazard investigations to better protect consumer rights and interests.
"New energy intelligent vehicles are easy to do radical functional design, if later corrected, consumer rights and interests may not be effectively protected in this process." Cui Dongshu told reporters that since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments have successively introduced various measures and regulations for issues such as car OTA upgrades and new energy vehicle safety. These measures make it clear that the functions of new energy intelligent vehicles need to be steadily or cautiously introduced, which also protects the safety and legitimate rights and interests of consumers from the source.
Text: Zhao Qiong Editor: Chen Wei Layout: Li Peiyang
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