At the annual 315 Consumer Rights Protection Gala, major enterprises are placed in the spotlight of public scrutiny, and quality and service have become the yardstick to measure the conscience of enterprises. But even in this era of fast-moving consumer goods and ignoring quality, there are some brands that have always had their own persistence.
Recently, relying on the complaint big data platform of China Automotive Quality Network, combined with relevant national standards, and comprehensively complaining about faults, defect risks, reliability, safety, and environmental protection, the "2023 China New Energy Vehicle Quality Ranking" was officially released.
Behind this result, it is not only the ultimate pursuit of quality of the Aion brand, but also the embodiment of its continuous innovation and positive response to consumer needs.
Domestic automobile quality problems are frequent
In fact, since 2013, cars have become the highlight of the annual "315". According to statistics, in the past ten years, nearly 10 auto brands, including independent and joint ventures, have been named by "315", and the exposed problems cover the disappearance of power in the transmission driving, the rust of the gearbox water, the rust of the car paint, the major design defects of the engine, the fraud of fuel consumption, and the abnormal noise of the transmission shaft.
However, since 2021, when new energy vehicles have entered a stage of rapid development, the main problems faced by automobiles have shifted from the traditional three major parts to the three-electric system. Correspondingly, the total number of complaints about automobiles and the proportion of complaints about new energy vehicles have also shown an increasing trend year by year.
According to data from China's leading defective automotive product information collection platform, the platform received a total of 160,000 valid consumer complaints about the quality and service of automotive products last year, an increase of 25.4% over 2022. Among them, the cumulative number of complaints about new energy vehicles exceeded 50,000, an increase of 148.3% year-on-year, accounting for 30.1% of the total annual complaints. The focus of new energy complaints is also focused on price changes, shrinking range, failure of intelligent driving assistance systems, power battery failures/alarms, spontaneous combustion of batteries, brake failures, inconsistent vehicle configurations, and unfulfilled promises.
The uneven market environment has also made consumers begin to choose products more rationally. In this context, Aion, which has topped the "China New Energy Vehicle Quality Ranking" for two consecutive years, has gradually become the best choice for reliability and safety in the hearts of consumers.
How does Aion ensure quality?
Aion's success is not accidental, but stems from its long-standing philosophy of "quality is king".
In order to reduce the risk of product defects, Aion is the first in China to develop a pure electric exclusive platform, which can eliminate defects at the beginning of product design and ensure product quality from the source. In 2017 and 2019, Aion successively launched the AEP 1.0 pure electric exclusive platform and the AEP2.0 aluminum alloy pure electric exclusive platform. At present, Aion's AEP platform has been upgraded to version 3.0, and has been comprehensively upgraded in terms of body structure, lightweight, energy consumption, and low-temperature endurance, reducing vehicle energy consumption by 15%, increasing low-temperature endurance by 10%, and achieving a common rate of parts of 78%.
At the same time, Aion's high-end electronic and electrical architecture, the Xingling architecture, has also greatly improved driving safety. For example, most of the failures of intelligent driving assistance systems that consumers often complain about are caused by cameras and radars not being aware of the surrounding objects, or obstructing vision at night.
In addition to the common high-definition cameras, millimeter-wave radars, and ultrasonic radars, the Xingling architecture also pioneers the integration of Fengyun-3 infrared remote sensing technology and three second-generation variable-focus lidars. With these hardware, the vehicle can be unaffected by bad weather during intelligent driving, and even scenes such as alternating strong and weak light and glare, such as night meetings, can still be clearly imaged for accurate identification, thereby improving safety.
Of course, the most worrying thing about new energy vehicles is the spontaneous combustion of batteries. In March last year, two years after the release of the first generation of magazine batteries, Aion held a magazine battery 2.0 shooting test conference, which for the first time solved the battery safety problems in extreme environments such as instantaneous short circuit and burst damage of multiple cells, and successfully passed the shooting test, providing Aion's solution for battery system safety. As it turns out, Aion is not exaggerating either. It is reported that the battery has been installed more than 800,000 vehicles in three years, with a total of 48 billion kilometers traveled, and there has been no spontaneous combustion.
After the product development stage, Aion further strictly controls safety standards in the production process to eliminate potential safety hazards. At the end of last year, GAC Aion Intelligent Ecological Factory was selected into the "Global Lighthouse Network" of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos for realizing the quality management of the whole life cycle of R&D, production, supply and sales, and having reliability close to "zero defects" and "zero defects", becoming the only new energy vehicle "lighthouse factory" in the world.
High quality creates a high reputation for the brand
With a multi-pronged approach in product research and development, core components, manufacturing and other links, Aion is favored by consumers with a lower product failure rate and fewer complaints. At the same time, it has also achieved its reputation for high-quality, high-value retention and high-sales products.
At the end of October last year, Aion released the "Nearly One Million Car Owner Word of Mouth Report", which collected more than 200,000 pieces of information about car owners on the Aion APP from January 1, 2022 to October 31, 2023. Among them, "the best quality", "the safest" and "the most valuable" are the top three keywords in the popularity of user word-of-mouth.
At the same time, the "Purple Sandalwood Award 2023 China Automobile Retention Rate Billboard" released by J.D. Power and 58 Automobile also shows that GAC Aion ranked first with a value retention rate of 75.7%, winning the double championship of pure electric brand and single model value retention rate, and realizing the "pure electric vehicle" value retention rate for the first time surpassing that of hybrid.
Excellent quality and strong scientific and technological strength have made Aion's market share in the new energy vehicle market always in the forefront. From the start of production in 2019 to the end of 2023, Aion achieved the 1 millionth vehicle off the assembly line in only 4 years and 8 months, breaking the world's three major records with "the world's fastest pure electric brand to reach one million", "the world's fastest new energy brand to reach one million", and "the world's fastest car brand to reach one million".
In less than five years, Aion has successfully sold more than one million vehicles, creating a miracle in the automotive industry and showing its huge potential for future development. Although this year's 315 party revealed some shortcomings in the industry, it also highlighted the persistence of companies like Aion on product quality and respect for consumers.
It is true that the competition in the new energy vehicle market is becoming more and more fierce, but as long as you understand the underlying logic of the industry, you can always find your own way of development. Aion's success is not only due to its excellent product quality, but also due to its precise market positioning and forward-looking strategic vision. In the future, we also expect more companies to put quality first and provide consumers with better products and services like Aion.