The new energy vehicle owner who was "stabbed in the back" in 2023: lost more than 100,000 yuan the next day after picking up the car and was kicked out of the group after receiving points
Tencent Auto & Premium Creators year-end special planning "2023 Auto Market Tide AB Side" "New Energy Vehicle Owners' Annual [Portraits]" series, this issue is jointly planned and output by [AutoLab], focusing on the real phenomenon of "backstabbing old car owners" brought about by the price war of new energy vehicles in 2023, and interviewing the real stories of many new energy vehicle owners who have been "backstabbed".
Speaking of the price war in 2023, everyone's first impression is that there is a wave of price reductions between car companies.
In fact, after a whole year of price wars, car companies that have been dragged out of breath by gross profit margins and front-line sales who are tired of coping have a lot of pain to talk about, but the most important thing to pay attention to must be those car owners who have no way to complain and think they are unlucky.
The joy of just picking up the car and the sharp price reduction in a short period of time are intertwined, which is far from a simple summary of "buy and leave, willing to gamble and lose".
I will not compensate anyone because they are "stabbed a little worse".
At the beginning of 2023, Tesla China announced that it would reduce the price of many models of the domestically produced Model 3 and Model Y, ranging from 20,000 to 48,000 yuan, thus firing the first shot of the domestic price war. As for the reason for the price reduction, Tao Lin, Tesla's vice president of external affairs, publicly said: "Tesla insists on pricing at cost."
The decline in the price of lithium carbonate, a raw material for batteries, is a prerequisite for the price decline of new energy vehicles in 2023, with power batteries accounting for about 40% of the total cost of electric vehicles, and lithium carbonate, a raw material, accounting for about 30% of the total cost of batteries. Since last year, the price of lithium carbonate has continued to fall, according to the data on January 5 this year, the average price of battery lithium carbonate is 100,000 yuan/ton, and in 2022, this data will be close to 600,000 yuan/ton.
On the other hand, according to Tesla's 2022 global production and delivery report, in the fourth quarter, Tesla produced 439,700 vehicles and delivered 405,300 vehicles, while in the previous second quarter, its production was 258,000 and the delivery volume was 254,000, which was basically balanced. At the end of 2022, Tesla was also constantly exposed to the news of the suspension of production and the cancellation of morning shifts at the Shanghai factory, and industry insiders close to Tesla told AutoLab that the essence of Tesla's price reduction at the beginning of the year was that there was surplus capacity.
In addition, Tesla sold a total of 1.31 million vehicles in 2022, and the high sales volume also spread the cost, according to Tesla's financial report, its average profit per car is close to 70,000 yuan, and Tesla has enough room to reduce prices.
Since 2023, Tesla has adjusted the prices of its models no less than 10 times, and also jokingly called "buying Tesla is like speculating in stocks", and most of the price adjustments are mainly focused on the hot-selling models Model 3 and Model Y, among which, the price reduction in early 2023 is considered to be the largest price reduction in the history of the two models Model 3 and Model Y.
If the sharp price reduction in a short period of time is an unacceptable "backstab" for ordinary car owners, then for the owners and fans who love this brand, it is even more mixed.
"Musk's die-hard fan" is Chen Han's personality label, as early as when Chen Han was still studying in the United States, he admired Musk, and after returning to China after completing his studies, Chen Han bought three Teslas before and after.
In March 2016, Chen Han happened to see a Tesla store in Fangcaodi, Beijing, and ordered the first Tesla, Model S, in addition to the purchase tax subsidy of 50,000 yuan, Chen Han spent nearly one million dollars for this Model S.
In June 2020, as the Model 3 dropped from the initial 560,000 to 360,000, Chen Han made a decisive move.
In April 2023, attracted by the new interior of the Model X, Chen Han replaced his Model S with the Model X.
For example, the idea of buying a Model 3 was germinated as early as 2018 when Chen Han was invited to visit Tesla's California factory. "When I saw the Model 3 for the first time at the California factory, I was very excited about the new hardware and new configuration. ”
Over the years, Chen Han has introduced many friends to buy Tesla and become half a salesman, but this year's Tesla price reduction has obviously shifted Chen Han's enthusiasm and expectations.
"The Model X was still very fragrant when I first bought it, but after the price dropped, looking at the car, it didn't taste right, it wasn't so fragrant. A month after buying the new car, Chen Han's freshness of the new car was replaced by the "backstabbing feeling" of the price reduction of 160,000 yuan.
On September 1, 2023, Tesla announced a price cut for all Model S and Model X models, with a reduction of up to 110,000-220,000 yuan. Among them, the starting price of the Model X dual-motor all-wheel drive version was adjusted to 738,900 yuan, and just the month before, Chen Han's purchase price of this car was 899,800 yuan.
"Why can't I stand it? The main reason is that the price dropped too fast, and the price of the Model S was also reduced at that time, but the Model S has dropped from the original million to more than 600,000 now, at least there is a process in the middle, and it will take half a year. Including the Model 3, the price is also slowly reduced, but this Model X is a bit outrageous, in less than a month, it lost 160,000, which is like playing stocks. The fact that a Galaxy L7 was lost in less than a month made it difficult for fans like Chen Han to accept the buyout.
Even worse than Chen Han is Li Yi, who is also a Tesla fan, Li Yi mentioned the Model X at 5 o'clock in the evening the day before the price reduction, but the price was officially announced early the next morning, and the car was not out of 20 kilometers, and it lost more than 100,000 yuan overnight, "Converted, I am nearly 10,000 yuan per kilometer." Moreover, Tesla is directly operated by the whole country, and it is still open and fair in terms of price, and as far as I know about them for a long time, Tesla will not make any concessions. ”
In Tesla's rules and regulations, there is no reason to compensate anyone because they are "stabbed a little worse". Li Yi said with a smile: "Everyone went to the store to give feedback, but the staff just responded that they would give feedback to their superiors, but then there was no result, the owner must have complained, and from time to time he pulled his voice in the group, but there was no way, he shouted too much, and his voice was dumb, so it was gone." ”
In addition to simple feedback and psychological imbalance, there are also many car owners who complain, lawsuit, and make trouble in stores.
In the price reduction at the beginning of this year, many Tesla owners went to Tesla's Chengdu Taikoo Li store to "fiercely defend their rights", resulting in the situation of looting gifts, snacks, drinks and other materials in the store. There are also some Tesla owners who pull out banners in front of the store that say "Defraud consumers, pay me back my hard-earned money".
A Model Y owner also told AutoLab that when he bought the car, the sales repeatedly assured him that it was impossible to reduce the price, and repeatedly urged him to place an order as soon as possible, so he suspected that the salesperson deliberately wronged him knowing that the price would be reduced.
In this regard, AutoLab learned from a Tesla sales person that Tesla's sales were almost synchronous with consumers about the price reduction, saying: "The company will not notify the company internally in advance, and everyone (the company's employees) does not know that the price will be adjusted." ”
At the same time, the sales also said that after Tesla owners were dissatisfied with Tesla's price reduction and pulling banners to make trouble in stores in January, Tesla quickly reviewed the whole incident internally and gave countermeasures: car owners who have already booked a car but have not yet picked up the car can pick up the car at the new price after the price reduction.
This point was also confirmed by AutoLab in Chen Han: "I originally picked up the car in March, but because of a little problem, I refused to pick up the car, so I postponed it to August, in between, the car dropped by exactly 35,000 yuan, and I followed the new price of the car." ”
After experiencing this incident, Chen Han's feelings for Tesla have changed subtly, "At least I won't recommend Tesla to my friends in the future, it's too emotional, I recommended a friend to buy Model S before, and now I have lost a lot, including myself, I will not buy Model S and Model X anymore, I will choose Model Y with a more stable price and more cost-effective." ”
Despite this, Chen Han still has a certain trust in Tesla's technology, and when talking about whether he will choose a domestic electric car, Chen Han said: "If you buy an electric car, you will still choose Tesla, and in terms of technology and performance, you will still believe in Tesla." The refrigerators, color TVs, and large sofas on some domestic trams are too bells and whistles to focus on the car itself. ”
After a stalemate at the police station for two or three hours, the leaders of the car companies began to loosen their mouths
After Tesla started the "price war", domestic brands have entered the game, behind which the industry reshuffle has been accelerating. Selling cars and surviving has become the most important task for all car companies.
In order to cope with the profit compression brought about by the "price war", various car companies have successively launched "cost reduction and efficiency increase", and this risk and pressure have been differently distributed to each member of the organization.
A sales representative of a new force told AutoLab: "In the past, we only cared about how many cars we sold each month, but now we not only update the KPI progress every week, but also have to deal with the disputes of various old car owners. ”
In the middle of this year, a new power brand officially announced a price cut, a drop of about 30,000, taking advantage of this price cut, Zhu Ming made a car of the brand, Zhu Ming introduced: "It's not entirely because of the price reduction, mainly because I want to seize Shanghai's policy of sending green cards, I have been paying attention to this car for a long time, and I have been looking at it since the beginning of the year." ”
In January 2023, the 13-year-old national subsidy policy for new energy officially ended, and at the same time, Shanghai also canceled the issuance of green cards for hybrid models.
Some time ago, the news that "Shanghai will stop giving green cards to pure electric models at the end of 2023" was also spread all over the world. But this is not the case, according to the official news released at the end of the year, it is clear that individual users and unit users will continue to be given free special license plate support for the purchase of new energy vehicles, but the requirements are more stringent.
The sharp price reduction in the first half of the year gave Zhu Ming a lesson from the past, when picking up the car, Zhu Ming repeatedly confirmed to the sales that after the future price reduction, if there is relevant compensation, whether he will enjoy it synchronously, not only the store sales gave him an accurate answer, but even the leaders of the delivery center also promised them a group of new car owners: "There is no impact on picking up the car now."
Therefore, Zhu Ming picked up the car at the end of November, but a few days after picking up the car, the price of the car was reduced by 5,000. At the same time, Zhu Ming also received a call from the delivery center, saying that the company would give 10,000 points (equivalent to 1,000 yuan) as compensation, but Zhu Ming did not accept this compensation plan.
Too little compensation is one thing, but more important is the dishonesty and concealment of the store staff.
Zhu Ming revealed that two weeks before he picked up the car, some riders received a notice of delivery, which roughly read: If the car is ordered before November 20, and the car is not picked up before December 2, 70,000 points will be given.
Zhu Ming explained: "Why is 70,000 points given here, because it dropped by 4,000 on December 1. ”
This means that before Zhu Ming picked up the car, there was already a rumor of the follow-up price reduction of 4,000 yuan, but the sales swore to him that "the price will not be reduced for a long time, and even if the price is reduced, the follow-up compensation will be given to you."
Zhu Ming contacted his own sales, and the sales expressed helplessness, saying: "This is the company's policy that has just come out, and we have no choice." Zhu Ming contacted the brand's official again, and the reply was: "This is the independent behavior of individual stores, not the official price reduction." ”
According to Zhu Ming, these small price reductions are indeed not official unified price reductions, but discounts obtained only after the order is changed in the sales background, but the actual transaction price is still the official price.
Zhu Ming said: "Although it is the behavior of the store, it must also be done under the unified guidance of the government, and in this case, even if you call the consumer hotline, it is useless." ”
Unable to get a satisfactory answer online, Zhu Ming and other car owners went to the brand's delivery center in Songjiang, Shanghai, to ask for an explanation, but the answer they received made them dumbfounded.
"I didn't say anything like that", and the leader, who had promised compensation, began to deny it. In desperation, Zhu Ming chose to call the police.
After two or three hours of stalemate at the police station, the leaders of the delivery center began to relent, admitting the previous agreement, saying that the company's current policy could not be fulfilled to the car owners, and agreed on a time to give an accurate answer. When Zhu Ming thought that this matter would finally turn around, a dramatic scene came again.
At the appointed time, Zhu Ming and other car owners came to the delivery center to make an appointment, but the leader released the pigeons. "A group of us were waiting for him here, and he left us here with a simple 'A stream', and asked the staff of the delivery center to ask no questions, all of them were hooligans. Zhu Ming on the other end of the phone was emotional.
In addition to a group of people like Zhu Ming who demand compensation, there are other types of consumers who are also defending their rights.
A consumer who made a decision to pick up the car without paying the balance for the brand car revealed to AutoLab: "I paid a deposit of 5,000, but they reduced the price before the car was delivered, and I wanted to fight for the final payment at the latest price, like Xpeng and Tesla, when I was still negotiating with their staff, the car purchase contract was unilaterally terminated by the official, on the grounds that I had not paid the balance for more than seven days, resulting in a direct loss of 5,000." ”
Zhu Ming also revealed that up to now, almost all rights protection through formal channels have not been successful, and only a few car owners have obtained more satisfactory compensation by going to the delivery center to make trouble, trampling on the brand to consumers who want to buy cars in the store, and at the same time, they also need to sign a confidentiality agreement with the store, which cannot be disclosed to the public.
Zhu Ming added: "The compensation they want is from the relevant person in charge of the store or the sales pad, which may be the commission of the sale to the car owner, plus the points of the mall." ”
Unlike Model X owner Chen Han conveyed to us that "it will be over later", the rights protection of Zhu Ming and others is still ongoing. At the end of the interview, he told me, "We're going to have a trial in the next year. ”
Lost 50,000 points and kicked me out of the car owner group
"The official gave me 50,000 points, and I mentioned such a thing in the car owner group, and then their marketing staff called me and asked me not to post it in the group, so I felt that since you sent it to me, don't you let people say it? ”
Subsequently, the brand apologized to Wu Han for this incident, and transferred the staff involved from Hefei, the city where Wu Han was located, to Shanghai, which was regarded as giving Wu Han an explanation. But in Wu Han's opinion, this is just perfunctory, and said: "That person was originally from Shanghai, and he couldn't ask for it when he was transferred to Shanghai." ”
"Chilling" is an emotional word frequently mentioned by Wu Han, as the first batch of owners of this model of the brand, Wu Han mentioned the car at the end of 2022.
"At that time, I spent more than 300,000 yuan to buy the highest version, and I also looked at cars like Tesla, Weilai, and Xiaopeng, and finally chose this car, mainly because I liked the design of the scissor door, which felt very cool. ”
But the "scissorgate" that Wu Han was most willing to pay for did not bring him the experience he expected in real life.
"The scissor door is not convenient to use at all, it often fails, it has been repaired many times, and even changed the door, but it has not been able to solve the problem, often does not open automatically, or there are obstacles next to it that have not been identified, and it has been scraped several times. ”
In addition, Wu Han also complained about the excessive noise of the car on the highway, and the abnormal noise of seats and windows raising and falling. "These are all trivial things, the main thing is that the price reduction is too ruthless, a year down, I bought a new force, and I can lose more than 100,000 yuan, there is no compensation for all kinds of price reductions, and the service attitude is so poor, it is too chilling, and I was so supportive of it at the beginning. Wu Han was remorseful.
Wu Han and a group of top car owners are demanding the right to free charging for life, Wu Han believes that he has lost more than 100,000 yuan in a year, this request is not too much, but the official does not think so, and the response is similar to other brands: "We have no way, the times are updated, and price reductions are inevitable", "Your demands will be fed back to the superiors".
Soon after, Wu Han was suddenly told that the compensation points had been credited to the account, and the official directly took 50,000 (equivalent to 5,000 yuan) points without any discussion with them.
"No one wants this point, everyone is not satisfied with this plan, it is compulsory, and the things in the mall are twice as expensive as the things on the market, for example, the mineral water in the supermarket is 2 yuan, and the mall sells it for 4 yuan. ”
After that, there was a plot in which Wu Han was kicked out of the car owner group at the beginning.
Wu Han revealed: "Their compensation plan for each version of the owner is different, for our most expensive, the most dropped version of the owner is given 50,000 points, maybe other versions of the owner on one or two thousand points or something else." That's why the marketing staff didn't let him withdraw points in the group.
Speaking of service, Wu Han added: "When I first picked up the car, the service was not bad, but now it is very bad, sometimes I send a consultation message to their staff, and I don't reply for ten days and half a month." ”
"If it were now, I would definitely not think about buying this car anymore, or even thinking about new forces, I would consider buying a car from a traditional luxury brand. Wu Han repented that he was not at the beginning.
Now, half a year has passed, and there has been no follow-up progress. "Later, I had no choice, so I took 50,000 points and suffered a dumb loss" - Wu Han summed it up.
Write at the end
In fact, in the communication with many "backstabbed" car owners, we found that the car owners do not have much resentment about the price reduction of new energy vehicles, and they can basically maintain rationality and understanding.
But what makes the "new" car owners feel dissatisfied and chilled is actually the ways and means of manufacturers and sales staff in dealing with follow-up matters. There are those who deceive, those who pretend to be deaf and dumb, and those who let fans who are also car owners attack them, and these chaos are the core of the resentment caused by each "price reduction".
"Buy and leave" should not be an excuse for manufacturers and water armies, and it should not be the fate of new energy vehicle owners to be "backstabbed" by car companies.
According to the interviewer's request, Chen Han, Li Yi, Zhu Ming, and Wu Han are all pseudonyms.