China's new energy vehicles are maintaining rapid growth. The Traffic Management Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security disclosed that 5.35 million new energy vehicles were newly registered nationwide in 2022, accounting for 23.05% of the total number of newly registered vehicles, an increase of 2.4 million units or 81.48% compared with the previous year. In 2018, the number of newly registered new energy vehicles in China was only 1.07 million.
However, the rapid popularization of new energy vehicles has also brought new safety issues. In recent months, a considerable number of owners of Zeekr 001 have complained and given feedback through different channels, saying that the vehicle will suddenly jump out of the dashboard during cold start and driving, "power limitation", "inability to drive", "ESC abnormality" and other fault information. When communicating with the official of Extreme Krypton, the other party only asked the owner to restart or check, but the problem was not fundamentally solved.
Follow-up Extreme Krypton official investigation confirmed that each module self-test during system initialization has a certain probability of deviation in the timing of system self-test verification, which is misjudged to not meet the starting and running conditions of the power system. The fault occurs when the vehicle is powered on, can not be engaged from P gear to D gear, re-lock the car for a few minutes and then start, the fault will be eliminated, the fault will not affect the hardware, and the vehicle has not started, there is no safety hazard.
In response, Zeekr responded through the App that the official has prepared a new version of software to solve the power system failure, and the owner can enter the store to write. In addition, store technical experts can add a set of emergency wiring harnesses to the vehicle fuse box, and say that the wiring harness has no safety risk and does not affect the lifetime warranty. Extreme Krypton said that through the combination of software and hardware, the problem can basically be repaired at one time.
The "user trust crisis" caused by the failure of the power system is almost a realistic portrayal of the stumbling of the entire new energy vehicle market in 2022. At present, the new energy automobile industry needs to face not only the development dilemma of "lack of power and less core", but also need to seriously examine whether its product quality and control system cannot keep up with its "soul" of rapid progress.
01
Winter endurance avalanche, these cars are destined to say goodbye to winter
The round-the-clock stability of a car is a key indicator to measure the quality of a car. In the past winter, a car APP conducted a huge winter test of new energy vehicles in Genhe, Inner Mongolia, and the good news is that the average endurance achievement rate of new energy vehicles has increased by 4% compared with last year; The bad news is that even with this improvement, the endurance completion rate of new energy vehicles participating in the test is only 48.5%.
Winter cars seem to have become the "mirror" of new energy vehicles, completely ripping off the bottoms of NEDC that OEMs most often mention. The results show that the NIO ET5 with an official cruising range of 640 kilometers has a measured low-temperature cruising range of 311.6 kilometers, and the achievement rate is only 49%; The Xpeng P7, which has an official cruising range of 562 kilometers, has a low temperature cruising range of 269.6 kilometers, with an achievement rate of 48%. It can be said that the actual endurance of new energy vehicles can be called "thigh chopping".
△Image source: NIO Weibo
In addition to this staggering extreme cold test, the car APP has also conducted high-temperature evaluation in Turpan, Xinjiang, and a number of new energy vehicles have also exposed problems such as air conditioning failure, vehicle crash, light rod failure, limited blind spot monitoring function, and charging failure. As the person in charge of the test said, the three high tests such as high temperature, plateau and cold are the tests that all models must go through before leaving the factory. At present, some new energy vehicles have not been able to submit a satisfactory answer.
The innovative applications such as intelligent driving, vehicle AI, and voice recognition that the new forces of car manufacturing focus on publicity have become the "emperor's new clothes" in the face of performance. No matter how science and technology advance, car manufacturing is still an industry that needs to respect technology and safety, and the problems such as the collapse of battery life and abnormal battery systems exposed by new energy vehicles in winter tests are still worthy of the attention of every new energy manufacturer, actively improve product performance, and provide consumers with a comfortable and safe driving experience.
02
"N-continuous burning" of new energy vehicles
Just this past year in 2022, as BYD's fist product of new energy vehicles, "Tang DMI" has had a number of spontaneous combustion accidents in a row, covering different scenarios such as driving, stationary parking and even trailers.
The battery module used by Tang DMI is BYD's self-developed "blade battery". Regarding the safety performance of the battery, Wang Chuanfu, chairman and president of BYD, said at the super press conference of "blade battery out of the sheath" on March 29, 2020, "blade battery reflects BYD's determination to completely end the safety pain points of new energy vehicles, it will redefine the safety standards of new energy vehicles, and force the entire new energy automobile industry to make changes"; "New energy vehicles equipped with blade batteries will completely erase the word spontaneous combustion from the dictionary of new energy vehicles."
However, the reality of "N continuous burning" has made the public talk about "blade batteries". In April 2022, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) issued an announcement indicating that BYD decided to recall some Tang DM models produced between September 2, 2021 and March 14, 2022, totaling 9,663 units.
△Image source: BYD Auto Weibo
As mentioned in the announcement, due to manufacturing reasons, the installation surface of the tray vent valve is uneven, and there is a risk of water ingress, which may cause the electrical circuit failure of the power battery system, and in extreme cases, there is a risk of thermal runaway of the power battery. Subsequently, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued another announcement, revealing that BYD would expand the scope of Tang DM recall, because some vehicle power battery pack trays have the risk of water ingress, which may cause arcing of high-voltage systems and have potential safety hazards. The recall reached 52,928 vehicles.
Whether it is battery thermal runaway or high-voltage system arc pulling, it shows that BYD Tang DM still has a lot of problems in production line quality control and factory quality inspection. It is worth noting that according to the statistics of Tanuki Lab, from January to November 2022, a total of 71 spontaneous combustion incidents of new energy vehicles were reported by the media, involving both foreign car companies, domestic car companies, and new forces in car manufacturing.
03
Chips "shake a shot", consumers are forced to become "IT experts"
If in a few years, looking back at the history of China's new energy vehicle development, the Great Wall Ora's "chip door" will be a landmark event in the industry, and this event will always remind manufacturers that respect for consumers is the core element of how far a brand can go.
Great Wall Ora, has always been based on unique design and women-friendly brand proposition. As a popular product of Ora, Ola Good Cat has had a good sales performance since its launch, and the number of orders and deliveries has been rising. Just when the situation was good, according to Caijing, a programmer-turned-good cat owner accidentally discovered that Qualcomm's new professional in-vehicle intelligent service platform and Qualcomm chip with 8 Kryo CPU processing cores in Ola's promotion were replaced with Intel quad-core chips.
△Image source: Great Wall Motor Weibo
You know, in the field of new energy vehicles, the quality of the vehicle chip is almost equivalent to the key indicator of the quality of the engine of the fuel vehicle. This is equivalent to the era of fuel vehicles, you order a coupe with a V6 engine, but the manufacturer delivers you a 3-cylinder family car. At the same time, according to radar financial reports, Intel chips are not compatible with Android application software, and the chip causes software lag and slow reversing images, which cause great safety hazards and seriously endanger the health of consumers.
In fact, as early as 2021, CCTV Finance made an investigative report on Euler's chip replacement, pointing out that the brand side "steals the core", plays word games or is suspected of consumer fraud. Under the pressure of public opinion, Euler eventually apologized and issued a compensation plan, but some consumers did not pay. False propaganda is a provocation to consumers and laws and regulations in any industry, and new energy manufacturers need to adhere to the bottom line of complying with regulations and respecting consumers at this stage of rapid development.
04
Quality control failed, and the number of recalls reached a record high
According to the Associated Press on March 9, some of Tesla's SUV models have fallen off the steering wheel.
The incident stemmed from a document released by NHTSA (National Transportation Safety Administration) saying that two accident complaints had been received, and the owner had the steering wheel off the steering column while driving the Model Y SUV electric car produced in 2023. One of the owners said that just 5 days after he picked up the car, the steering wheel came off, but fortunately he reacted quickly and no one was injured.
NHTSA will focus on investigating whether these issues are widespread and reviewing Tesla's manufacturing and quality control processes, and NHTSA also disclosed data that the investigation covered about 120089 Model Y vehicles.
△Image source: Tesla Weibo
This is not the first time Tesla has had quality control problems, NHTSA recently announced that Tesla will recall 3,470 Model Y cars produced in 2022 and 2023 in the United States, citing that "the bolts securing the backrest frames of the second-row seats may not be tightened." Loose bolts can cause seat belts to not work properly in a crash, increasing the risk of injury to passengers.
Similar recalls of new energy vehicles caused by quality control problems have been common in the past 2022. According to data released by the State Administration for Market Regulation, the number of new energy vehicle recalls hit a record high in 2022, with a total of 47 new energy vehicle recalls involving 1.212 million vehicles, accounting for 27.0% of the total number of recalls for the year, a year-on-year increase of 31.5%.
From the perspective of defect clues, in 2022, the State Administration for Market Regulation received 35,896 reports of automobile defect clues provided by consumers, involving engine assembly (accounting for 30.7%), electrical equipment (accounting for 23.3%), body (accounting for 18.1%), drivetrain (accounting for 12.5%), etc. Among them, 4300 cases of new energy vehicle defect clues were reported, reflecting that power battery, motor and electronic control system problems accounted for 41.9% of the new energy vehicle defect clue reports.
Among the many brands, Tesla became the brand with the largest number of recalls throughout the year and the first electric vehicle brand to top the annual recall list. In 2022, Tesla recalled up to 791502 passenger cars in six batches, and in April and May last year, Tesla's recall scale exceeded 100,000 consecutive vehicles; In December, Tesla recalled more than 430,000 domestically produced Model 3 and Model Y because "the marker lamp cannot be lit".
05
The "embarrassing technology" that is overly innovative
In the increasingly involuted intelligent automotive industry, fancy innovative product highlights are becoming the key to attracting attention for many manufacturers. The emergence of Tesla's "Yoke" steering wheel has broken the tradition of round steering wheels and made special-shaped steering wheels a new technological trend for new energy vehicles.
I believe that many people have seen the LS7 running road video released by Zhiji before, and they still remember the scene of the steering wheel in the video. The car driving on the mountain road itself is not unusual, but the LS7's U-shaped steering wheel breaks people's cognition, on the winding road, in the face of many corners, the driver needs to control the U-shaped steering wheel in an extremely awkward posture to complete the corner, the difficulty is even no less than the famous scene "death tape race" in the anime "Head Text D".
△Image source: IM Zhiji Auto Weibo
In this regard, we really can't help but ask for many consumers: "Is the U-shaped steering wheel design of Zhiji LS7 necessary?" Car blogger Wu Pei believes that this kind of steering wheel is inconvenient, and the other is unsafe, even if it gives you a line steering + variable steering ratio, there will still be risks in the case of not being used to being unfamiliar.
More importantly, the current new energy vehicles equipped with U-shaped steering wheels are generally not equipped with by-wire steering to achieve "variable steering ratio", which leads to some scenarios that require a large turn and turn around, and still need to rotate continuously like a conventional steering wheel, but the missing upper and lower halves of the U-shaped steering wheel are easy for the driver to hold the air, and even lose control of the vehicle when emergency avoidance is required in extreme situations.
With the rapid increase in the penetration rate of new energy vehicles, the competition in the entire market will become more intense. However, whether it is an independent brand or a joint venture brand, whether it is a new force or a traditional car company, while fighting for core technology, service level, cost control, and forward-looking strategy, the quality problem cannot be relaxed, after all, "the APP can be restarted, but the owner sitting in the car cannot afford the price of life restart." ”
Resources:
China Quality News: In 2022, the mainland will recall 4.48 million passenger cars
Daily Economic News: Driving the car, the steering wheel fell off! More than 120,000 Model Y investigated! The company's market value evaporated by 200 billion yuan overnight
Radar Finance: Great Wall Motor's Ora Good Cat was involved in the "chip fraud door", and more than 30 consumers appointed lawyers to sue
Finance and economics: Filing court: Euler's "chip gate" is upgraded again
Understand the Chedi APP: Measured in winter 2022 Measured in summer 2022
Author丨Timeline
Editor丨Wen Ba Niang
Image source丨Extreme Krypton ZEEKR
This article is jointly produced by Tencent Finance X Slow Release
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