What is the biggest lie in the new energy era? So far, it is undoubtedly a "false standard" of battery life.
In the "China New Energy Vehicle Market Insight Report" released in 2021, it is shown that in the ranking of dissatisfied factors in the use of new energy vehicles, the proportion of insufficient endurance reached 30.3%, ranking first. We inquired about complaints about pure electric vehicles on a domestic automobile complaint platform in the past three years, and among the 2,935 complaints, 451 involved inaccurate battery life and false battery life, accounting for 15%.
It can be said that the problem of "false standard" of battery life has existed since the birth of electric vehicles. Even if experts and media call for attention to the phenomenon of "false standards" in battery life every year, and improve relevant laws and standards as soon as possible, so many years have passed and are still not solved today. The difference is only the degree of false mileage promotion, which will vary depending on the car brand, and will change due to changes in standards such as CLTC and NEDC. But in a word, the false publicity of the cruising range of new energy vehicles is always an "ironclad fact", and even a "normal operation".
However, the industry believes that this is a normal and normal phenomenon, but car owners do not agree. The resulting disputes are also common.
In October last year, Ms. Li from Qingdao, Shandong Province, finally purchased a GAC AION because she saw GAC Aion Y's leaflet advertised that the range could reach 500 kilometers, and when she looked at the car in the 4S store, the clerk also promised her that the vehicle range would be 500 kilometers. But after driving for more than a month, she found that the vehicle could only run about 200 kilometers on a full charge. Ms. Li successively reported this problem to the 4S shop and the manufacturer's 400 customer service, and after the manufacturer's test driver actually tested the vehicle, she found that under ideal conditions, it could only run 340 kilometers when fully charged. Ms. Li believed that GAC AION Y's false mileage was false publicity, so she began to defend her rights through various channels.
However, although the manufacturer and the 4S shop are willing to continue testing, they also insist that the motor battery does not have any quality problems, and also shows that 500 kilometers is a comprehensive working condition given by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the actual situation is definitely not reached due to weather, driving and other reasons. Ms. Li took more radical measures to protect her rights, but in exchange for a lawyer's letter from the 4S store, she wanted to sue her for infringing on the reputation of Aion through legal channels.
This is not an isolated case. On the black cat complaints, there are also many complaints about the false cruising range of models such as Leap C01 and Leap C11. The owner of Liu in Anhui purchased the Zerorun C01 long-range version, the official cruising range is 606km, but the actual driving can only run about 200km. Ms. Zheng and Ms. Li, who bought the same model at the end of last year, also encountered the same problem. Ms. Zheng only drove 238km on a full charge, and the battery was completely exhausted. Ms. Li can only run about 200km on a full charge, and even runs only 190km on the highway before lying directly in the nest. Even considering that the winter at the end of the year has a greater impact on the endurance of pure electric vehicles, the cruising range of Zero Run is not a nine-fold, almost directly "broken bone".
Many people may still remember the collective rights defense of Feifan owners at the Chengdu Auto Show last year. At that time, more than a dozen Feifan car owners stood at the booth with T-shirts with the words "SAIC Feifan car life is seriously falsely marked" to defend their rights. Car owners have said that they are the first batch of owners of the Feifan ER6, less than a year after picking up the car encountered a serious reduction in cruising range, the official propaganda NEDC pure electric range of 620 kilometers, the result of the actual endurance of more than 300 kilometers, directly discounted.
When Xpeng Motors was collectively defended by car owners a few years ago, it was exposed that the Xpeng G3 had a false standard and a serious reduction in battery life. However, today's Xpeng G3i is also suspected of battery life fictitiousness. The cruising range of different versions of the Xpeng G3i is 460 kilometers and 520 kilometers respectively, but careful netizens have found another version of the cruising range data in some documents in the "environmental protection information" at the bottom of Xpeng's official website: 430 kilometers and 500 kilometers. The source of this data is the China Automotive Engineering Research Institute Co., Ltd. Testing Center/National Motor Vehicle Quality Inspection and Testing Center (Chongqing), and its credibility should not be questioned. Xpeng Motors has also been questioned about the existence of "yin and yang" data.
Overseas brands are no better. In Norway's 2023 electric vehicle winter endurance test, 29 cars competed on the same stage, and the results were unexpected. Mercedes-Benz EQE is the most seriously false, with a mileage of 614 kilometers that is actually only 409 kilometers, shrinking by 200 kilometers.
Tesla, the world's leader in electric vehicles, was fined $2.24 million in South Korea earlier this year for misleading advertising. The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) said that since August 2019, Tesla has exaggerated "the range of its cars on a single charge, the fuel cost-effectiveness compared to gasoline vehicles, and the performance of superchargers" on its local official website, and believes that Tesla's vehicles will reduce their range by up to 50.5% in cold weather. In terms of the actual cruising range of some locally sold pure electric vehicles in South Korea, the peak decline in cruising range of most pure electric vehicles in the low temperature state in winter is generally not more than 40%. This is probably the only time so far that car companies have been punished for false battery life.
Why do almost all OEMs have false standard battery life, and they are all fearless?
First of all, two objective facts. The first is that under the premise that the convenience of electric vehicles' range and fast charging time cannot be further improved for the time being, long battery life is the only reason to reduce users' mileage anxiety and increase users' purchase intentions. Therefore, the main engine factory must not admit in the matter of battery life. The second is that, like fuel consumption, cruising range is indeed affected by multiple factors such as season and driving habits. Therefore, whether it is the original NEDC, the current CLTC, or the overseas EPA, the endurance standards of these new energy vehicles cannot fully reflect the endurance of new energy vehicles. This provides a reasonable explanation for the false propaganda of the OEM.
When the motivation and conditions are available, OEMs will naturally take action. The so-called habit is not done, accustomed to some wrong things, but think that it is right. When some car companies begin to falsely mark mileage, slowly everyone will follow suit, in the face of competition, no one will be willing to talk about their real mileage. This has become a rule that no one will break.
As for consumers, on the one hand, they have to be forced to accept the fact that the endurance is discounted, on the other hand, if the range and the nominal difference is only twenty or thirty kilometers, it will not be too careful. Over time, everyone has formed such a thinking of buying new energy vehicles: no matter what kind of car, come up and first discount the cruising range and then look at it. Therefore, car companies open their eyes and keep their batteries running, and the bad atmosphere that users close their eyes and gladly accept is tacitly formed. Only when the cruising range is too outrageous, or when other product quality problems accumulate together, the user will burst out this dissatisfaction.
Written at the end:
Every 315, the topic of battery life false standard will always be taken out and said, but there has never been a substantial change. The "virtual standard of battery life" may seem like a small problem, but it is like a hidden fuse that always exists and may be ignited at any time. From a legal point of view, this itself has the nature of false propaganda; From the consumer level, it also harms the rights and interests of consumers such as the right to know. Whenever there is a dispute between car companies and users on the issue of battery life, the public saying that the public is reasonable and the mother-in-law is reasonable, it will only be endless rip-off. Over time, it will only increase consumers' distrust of new energy vehicles and new energy vehicle companies.
It's 2023, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles has been 30%, consumers' cognition of new energy vehicles has gradually taken shape, car companies should do is on the one hand through technology as soon as possible to improve the actual cruising range, on the other hand to develop a more reference standard for cruising range, rather than just take a beautified figure to say things. It's time to completely remove the fig leaf of the "battery life virtual mark". (Text/Youshi Auto Old Cannon)
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