The controversy over the winter testing of new energy vehicles is ongoing. Recently, the company released a series of test results for the "2023 Winter Test", which has aroused questions from many car companies. Around the rigor and scientificity of the assessment process, the industry has set off a wide range of debates.
From the current indications, the impact of this incident may be far more profound than the reasonableness of the results. On December 14, Great Wall Motor Initiative held a roundtable forum on "Jointly Improving the Environmental Testing Level of China's New Energy Vehicles", at which more than 30 experts from authoritative institutions, industry, academia, research and media conducted in-depth exchanges on the evaluation of new energy vehicles, and released seven initiatives to improve the environmental testing level of China's new energy vehicles.
The controversy over the evaluation of new energy vehicles is quietly brewing a change in the new energy vehicle industry.
Call for the power of authority
The winter test of new energy vehicles has brought a certain warning effect to the current environmental test of new energy vehicles in China.
Judging from the reactions of all parties, the results of the assessment are naturally not widely recognized, and the results are naturally an important factor because they are too impactful, but the reason why they can be widely questioned is mainly because there is room for optimization in the evaluation process. For example, in Zhihu's popular Q&A, the first two high-praise answers questioned the control variables and unified standards. Among the doubts of relevant car companies, the air conditioning heating time in the formal test maintenance stage is too long, the doors are opened and closed many times, the windows are not operated properly, and the idle waiting time for refueling is different, etc., these standards are not uniform, which will indeed have a significant impact on the actual performance of the vehicle.
This also reflects the current dilemma of automotive evaluation. Vehicle reviews aren't as straightforward as other hardware. Automotive testing specifications are complex, bulky, detailed, and susceptible to interference from other factors, requiring clarity and rigour, as well as specialized testing equipment and trained personnel. In mainland China, professional third-party testing institutions need to have CMA/CNAS certification, and these two institutions will assess a series of contents such as laboratory equipment, personnel, test methods, and program documents, which many third-party institutions do not have. Including the controversial winter test, many assessments did not provide on-the-job training for testers. For example, an article pointed out that in this winter test, the measurement and calibration certificate of the staff who installed the test instrument was not released to the outside world.
In the absence of authoritative standards, any third party can formulate according to its own standards, and there will even be standards that can be flexibly changed, which is not conducive to the ecological development of the industry. According to data, there are more than 300 evaluation accounts on major online platforms, but most of them have "standard problems" and half of them are suspected of having the problem of "testing by business". The lack of scientific, rigorous and authoritative yardsticks for the development of the industry will not be able to obtain the results that best reflect the actual situation, but will interfere with the development of the industry and consumers.
Such a problem appeared as early as March this year, when the China Consumers Association put forward three suggestions for the development of "third-party evaluation": first, government supervision, industry self-discipline, and social supervision should work together to set industry access thresholds and increase market supervision;
After the incident, Dr. Wang Yao, assistant secretary general and director of the technology department of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said in an interview that the healthy development of the automotive industry requires the establishment of a scientific and standardized new energy vehicle evaluation system.
Leading industries need leading standards as a match, which is the background of the roundtable forum on environmental testing level of new energy vehicles in China. So, what impact and changes will the results presented in this forum bring to the evaluation of new energy vehicles?
The "starting point" of the authoritative standard for new energy environmental testing
Judging from the signal released by the roundtable forum, this may be an important starting point for the evaluation of new energy vehicles to be professional, rigorous, fair and just.
First of all, the roundtable forum attracted more than 30 experts from industry authorities, industry, academia, research and media for in-depth discussions, with multiple roles of industry experts, academic leaders and media, which can provide different perspectives and perspectives, which ensures that the discussion on automotive environmental testing is not a single opinion, but a more objective position.
Secondly, the Forum put forward seven initiatives with clear outputs. From the specific content of the initiative, the forum clarified the principle of focusing on the actual needs of users, emphasizing that the test should follow relevant laws and regulations and industry-recognized standards, establish strict procedures for certification, and have professional professionals to provide professional technical support. The initiative also puts forward requirements for car companies, including being open to normal public opinion evaluation, and actively opening up professional resources, providing professional capabilities, and sharing professional testing experience. At the same time, the initiative also proposes to maintain a fair and just public opinion environment, and all parties jointly formulate environmental testing standards for new energy vehicles.
In summary, in terms of position, the seven initiatives stand from the perspective of the standardized development of the entire industry, advocating widely recognized standards, strict procedures and professional support. In terms of content, the Seven Initiatives are not for the benefit of one party, but put forward requirements for all parties, and are relatively objective, comprehensive and systematic initiatives.
More importantly, during the roundtable forum, Great Wall Motor also announced that all "new energy vehicle test platforms" will be opened to the whole industry. Mu Feng, President of Great Wall Motors, said that he is willing to provide the best test platform for new energy vehicles, including: professional test sites, professional testing tools, professional testing talents and professional testing subjects, etc., and is committed to creating a fair, just, professional and rigorous "New Energy Vehicle Games" and other high-standard new energy evaluation events.
Great Wall Motor took the lead in opening up all new energy vehicle test platforms to the whole industry, and further provided action-level support for the results of the roundtable forum, which made the forum not just stay at the level of initiative or discussion, but also have a clear implementation. Based on global R&D, 33 years of experience in car manufacturing, and the data of vehicles operated by millions of users in overseas markets, Great Wall Motors has built an environmental testing capability for the full scenario operation of the whole vehicle, and the test models have been successfully driven in more than 170 countries and regions, covering extreme environments such as conventional environments, extreme heat, extreme cold, high temperature and humidity, and high altitude. Compared with third-party institutions, Great Wall Motor's test platform has stronger capital, personnel, and site strength, as well as stronger professionalism, once the test platform is opened, it will be more direct and efficient for the entire evaluation, which is an important step for the new energy vehicle evaluation to get on the right track.
Great Wall Motor's sharing environment testing capabilities will also play an important driving role, this initiative may be used by more car companies for reference, and more open professional test platforms will appear, which will promote the establishment of evaluation standards for the entire industry, and the establishment of professionalism, rigor, openness and fairness in evaluation.
From this point of view, the roundtable forum on the level of environmental testing of new energy vehicles in China may be the starting point for the establishment of evaluation standards and the development of industry norms, and the formation of rigorous and scientific evaluation standards will bring great impetus to the development of new energy vehicles.
The "establishment" and "benefit" of high-quality development of new energy vehicles
Rigorous and scientific evaluation standards are of great value to the development of the entire new energy vehicle industry.
In the most basic aspect, rigorous and professional standards combined with the open evaluation capabilities of car companies will help China's new energy vehicles to be judged more scientifically and rigorously. Taking Great Wall Motors as an example, it has built a fully functional and internationally leading test center, and invested in the construction of first-class test facilities in R&D modules such as safety, environmental protection, economy, comfort, new energy and intelligence. In terms of comprehensive road test site, it covers an area of 1.14 million square meters, and there are 13 typical functional modules such as high-speed ring road, dynamic square, city square, ABS, NVH, etc., including more than 100 kinds of typical characteristic pavement, which can give more comprehensive evaluation results to automobiles.
In terms of qualification, Great Wall Motor's Great Wall Test Center has obtained CNAS certification, and the pure electric endurance test refers to 7 national, international, industry and other standards, and defines in detail the pre-test vehicle pretreatment, charging completion judgment criteria, vehicle loading, immersion temperature and immersion time and other elements, with standard hub test bench, environmental simulation cabin, etc., to ensure the accuracy of external factors such as vehicle loading and ambient temperature, and use standardized test data processing methods to ensure the authenticity of test results.
In terms of personnel, Great Wall Motor will, in accordance with national regulations, certify personnel qualifications in the comprehensive test site and winter test site personnel, and formulate strict assessment standards within the company to conduct a detailed assessment of the personnel's driving age, driving skills, and control ability corresponding to the test.
Compared with the simple 1-2 dimensions from the coarse particle evaluation, the establishment of these elements can ensure that a car gets a comprehensive, real and rigorous evaluation. Great Wall Motors took the lead in opening up these heavy investments and the evaluation capabilities accumulated over the years, which is largely a kind of dedication and responsibility. If this dedication can eventually be transformed into the improvement of the overall evaluation standard of the industry, and finally transformed into a more comprehensive and fair evaluation of a brand and a model, it will also bring great value to the healthy development of the industry.
When the evaluation ability is improved and the evaluation standard is established, the entire market is also expected to enter the stage of orderly development. Institutions can provide professional guidance to the market, continuously improve market systems and norms, and promote enterprises to comply with laws and regulations. The media, with clear guidelines, can play their own supervisory role in a more targeted manner, and at the same time help the industry to create a "fair, just, true and three-dimensional" public opinion environment. Finally, it is transmitted to car companies, with a more fair and open evaluation, there will be a more authoritative yardstick in terms of publicity caliber and development direction, so as to achieve high-quality development, and finally realize the expulsion of bad money from good money in the entire market.
At present, Chinese car companies are entering an unprecedented period of opportunity, and new energy vehicles are overtaking in the Chinese market and even the global market by taking advantage of the east wind of the times. Exceeding the industry's evaluation standards, it can help enterprises find problems in a timely manner, improve requirements, and achieve orderly and high-quality development. High standards correspond to high quality, and finally urge Chinese car companies to go to the world with higher standards and truly seize the historical opportunity period.
The controversy brought about by the winter test of new energy vehicles has exposed the reality of the gap in evaluation standards, which is also the key to hindering the objective evaluation of new energy vehicles, and ultimately is not conducive to the long-term development of new energy vehicles. From the current point of view, Great Wall Motors has taken the lead in taking a key step in opening up its evaluation capabilities, which is the beginning of helping the high-quality development of new energy vehicles, and to truly achieve the ultimate goal, more companies need to join it. As Mu Feng said, "I hope that this small step of Great Wall Motors can allow more car company colleagues and media friends to join it and jointly take a big step forward in the high-quality development of China's automobiles." ”