In 2023, it seems that every Chinese consumer is immersed in the "PUA rhetoric" of car companies. Some car companies say they are "No. 1 in the world," but if you look closely, you'll see, oh my goodness, there are four or five attributives added in front of it; some car companies say their cars are the "ceiling of intelligence," but when you get your hands on them, you find that they are just a blank slate, and there are still more than a dozen versions of OTA to go from being mentally retarded to intelligent; and some car companies say that their crash test scores are all excellent, but in real collisions, the results are horrific.
Author|Wang Xiaoyu
Editor | Thoughtful
On the evening of December 21, a Lideal L7 car had a serious traffic accident in Qingyuan, Guangdong. On December 25, the police in Qingyuan, Guangdong reported the circumstances of the accident: The accident resulted in the death of the car driver and one passenger, and injured another passenger.
Li Auto's official report showed that three seconds before the collision, the vehicle speed reached 178km/h. The driver took braking measures and eventually rear-ended the truck in front at a speed of 96km/h, got under the truck and rushed off the road.
Judging from the videos and photos circulated on the Internet, the scene of the accident was quite tragic. The roof of the car was almost completely lifted, and the A and B pillars were also suspected to be broken.
But in theory, the security of Ideal L7 is not "first in the industry", but also "far ahead".
In August this year, Li Auto officially announced the crash results of the Li Auto L7 in the China Insurance Research Institute - both safety tests received G excellent ratings. Among them, the vehicle assistance safety test score rate reached 99.8%, making it the highest-rated SUV model in the history of China Insurance Research Institute.
Such perfect collision results are obviously only theoretical values obtained at the test site. When users drive their vehicles to speeds that far exceed crash test standards, any test results have no reference meaning.
Throughout the Chinese auto market, it is not uncommon to see huge differences between the “sellers’ show” and the “buyers’ show”. Moreover, not only is collision safety rarely exposed, extreme conditions in winter and summer are often covered with a "fig leaf".
The fig leaf of car companies can finally no longer cover it
The last controversy about the "sellers' show" and the "buyers' show" was the Winter Test of Car Emperor.
Not long ago, in the "2023 Understand Car Emperor Winter Test", a test on the "pure electric range attainment rate of hybrid models in severe cold conditions" triggered a "war of abuse." About 20 models participated in this test. Among them, the U8 that BYD looks up to ranks first with a battery life achievement rate of 85.08%, while the Wenjie M7 has a battery life achievement rate of only 31.6%, ranking last.
Seeing that the "far ahead" industry performance was at the bottom, Huawei couldn't sit still.
Yu Chengdong, chairman of Huawei Smart Car Solutions BU, angrily criticized the car-savvy emperor in WeChat Moments:"The deceptive test misleads the public! Science and rigor are the basic rules that should be followed."
Immediately afterwards, AITO Automotive’s official Weibo also released the “Official Interpretation of Winter Test Performance of Wenjie Series Models Without Fear of Severe Cold”, responding to the fact that Wenjie’s new M7 ranked last in the pure electric range of the plug-in hybrid group in a media winter test, saying, “Relevant tests were carried out under severe cold extremes and continuous air-conditioning heating conditions. The windows and doors were opened for many times for a long time, which seriously deviated from the actual usage scenarios of users.”
The core focus of this controversy is precisely this sentence——“Seriously deviating from users’ actual usage scenarios”.
After the incident fermented, the car expert took advantage of the situation and held an open day for winter testing, inviting representatives from many car companies to the Mohe winter testing site to watch the tests and communicate. Judging from the live broadcast on the opening day, the vehicle maintenance process requires repeatedly opening windows and doors, which is indeed very time-consuming and will also increase the power consumption of the air conditioner in the vehicle.Essentially, this is because the extremely cold environment of minus 40 degrees brings great challenges to the test equipment, testers and the vehicle itself.
In the article "If You Can't Afford Big Goose, Don't Buy an Electric Car," we once introduced the problem that power batteries are too delicate. Especially when the temperature drops below zero, the charging and discharging process inside the battery will become particularly difficult. Therefore, new energy vehicles often need to consume a large portion of power to maintain the temperature of the power battery, and the cruising range naturally starts at a 50% discount.
In fact, car companies have questioned the winter testing because they still do not want to reveal the fact that "electric vehicles are afraid of the cold."
For example, AITO Automobile’s official Weibo account continued to publish tweets titled “This winter, “No freezing”” and “Promote scientific, professional, rigorous and fair automobile testing to bring real value to industry development.” This move is undoubtedly releasing similar information to the outside world, such as "cars are very reliable in winter" and "the test of so-and-so is unfair".
An indisputable fact is that whether it is a pure electric vehicle or an extended-range electric vehicle with an engine, when the temperature drops to subzero, the cruising range must be prepared to be "broken".
In the Dongchedi winter test, the average cruising range of 34 pure electric models was only 292 kilometers at a temperature of minus 20 degrees. Although it has increased by 9% compared to the 268 kilometers tested last winter, the official mark of 600 to 700 kilometers and the actual running of 200 to 300 kilometers still cannot be changed. For comparison, in the normal temperature test, the average cruising range of all 49 models reached 425 kilometers.
It just so happened that Beijing encountered a cold wave some time ago. I drove the Wenjie M7 for daily commuting in the city for several days. As a result, after actual experience, it was found that the achievement rate of its pure electric cruising range was only about 60%, while the fuel consumption was as high as 9.9L/100km. But you should know that the Wenjie M7’s official WLTP operating condition’s fuel consumption is only 5.8L/100km.
The huge difference behind this is that on the one hand, the temperature in Beijing is too low in winter, which affects the performance of the power battery; on the other hand, it is also because Beijing is too congested, and the range extender consumes more fuel in stop-and-go traffic jams.
You will find that even if it is not an extreme environment of minus 40 degrees Celsius, the actual use experience will be hugely different from the officially promoted experience. If the media hadn't taken the car to the extreme cold environment for testing, it's very likely that no one would have pulled away this fig leaf.
What other tricks are there under the fig leaf?
Crash testing is also a place where trouble often occurs.
As mentioned at the beginning, the Ideal L7 achieved "excellent results" in the collision results of China Insurance Research Institute, but in a real collision that far exceeded the test standards, it crashed into a tragic accident where the AB pillar completely disappeared.
When the few professional inspection agencies in the industry become the official channel to determine whether a car is safe and reliable. It will be easier for car companies to develop a model in accordance with the standards of these organizations.
This approach was often referred to as "examination-oriented education" in student days, and in the car-making industry it is called "examination-oriented car building."
The only way to test the "test-oriented car-building" approach is to create a new set of test questions.
For example, not long ago, Autohome conducted a phase of "gas-electricity collision" test. They will conduct a collision between Tesla Model Y, which has won the highest safety award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) for five consecutive years, and Volvo, which has a five-star crash test score from European E-NCAP.
Whether it is Chinese test standards or European and American test standards, there are very few such crash tests. However, this happens to be the issue that users may be most concerned about - which one is safer, petrol or tram. At the same time, the relative speed of the collision is higher and closer to many real accidents. Compared with several fixed crash test standards, real vehicle collisions are more unpredictable.
The results showed that the two cars at the first scene after the collision had the same problem:There was no E-call intervention in either car. Tesla only sent reminders through the mobile app, while Volvo sent condolences via phone.
Looking inside, the connection between the Tesla anti-collision beam and the right longitudinal beam was torn. As a result, the right longitudinal beam did not help the other side to absorb energy. The left half withstood all the energy of the impact. Because of this detail, the longitudinal beam on the driver's side had collapsed to the limit. The final result was that the firewall was invaded and the battery was severely deformed.
After dismantling the car, Volvo's problems were completely exposed. There are obvious cracks at the fuel tank link in Volvo's center tunnel. During a collision, a considerable amount of energy is directly transmitted to the rear, directly leading to cracking at the weakest link. At the same time, the engine was severely displaced and the impact force was transmitted rearward through the drive shaft, causing the rear differential bracket to completely break.
Tesla uses five beams in the middle of the body. The lower side sills on both sides are also filled with fuller aluminum alloy, and the rear also uses a one-piece die-cast aluminum alloy body. The Volvo's deformation occurred exactly in this area, but the Tesla withstood the collision.
Obviously, these two products claim to be the "safest" products in their respective segments, but after the "fist fight", their respective problems were accidentally exposed. If it weren't for the media's cost-effective testing, many consumers might have been kept in the dark by the car companies' propaganda rhetoric - thinking that their cars were really "road tanks."
Another example is "Understanding Car Big Bang" that was previously produced by Understanding Che Di.
In this episode, they dismantled 10 family compact cars at once, including the Qin PLUS DM-i, which has topped all major sales lists. Judging from the dismantling of the car, the car-savvy emperor found that BYD Qin PLUSDM-i used inconsistent materials for the main and passenger door frame beams. The driver's side used a reinforced steel plate, but the passenger side only had one layer of steel plate.
The reason is simple, this question is not tested in the exam. Currently, the 25% offset collision on the passenger side is not a mandatory test item. Therefore, the use of reinforced steel plates in the passenger area will not affect the collision result and save some costs.
"Every large-scale test of Undercardi is conducted under a unified process standard. We advocate unified standards rather than the only standard in testing, and conduct multiple tests based on user usage scenarios, which is of great significance to consumers and the industry." Wang Ruoran, the person in charge of Undercardi's winter test project, said at the press conference.
At the same time, he also revealed the unspoken rules of the industry - "Testing under different climatic conditions such as normal temperature, extreme cold and extreme heat is also something that automobile manufacturers must do during the research and development stage of vehicles before they are delivered to users. However, the competition in the current new energy vehicle industry is too fierce, with short product development cycles and short verification times.Some companies delay or shorten the process of three-temperature limit testing."
In fact, not only China, but also major automobile countries such as Europe and the United States have media reviews of automobiles. Compared with the evaluations of professional organizations, these evaluations obviously lack standardization and professionalism. However, the value of these reviews is that the value proposition based on real user scenarios and media is more attractive and disseminable to ordinary consumers, and is conducive to everyone taking the initiative to understand car knowledge.
Of course, the premise is that the media needs to set up the same test conditions as much as possible during the evaluation process, and will not make special arrangements for individual models just because of "just rice". Therefore, in a mature automobile country, there should be a professional automobile evaluation system such as C-NCAP, and there should also be media and third-party evaluations such as Chedi, Bitauto, and Autohome. Only in this way can the healthy development of the automobile industry be promoted from both official and private aspects.
To sum up, in one sentence,“Good products are not afraid of reviews, and good reviews are not afraid of challenges.”
Car companies have no choice but to fight back
The evaluation of a product only takes three to five days, but the design, development and manufacturing cycle of a car can take as long as three to five years.
When a major car company encounters a public opinion crisis, no matter whether it is right or wrong, the car company's first reaction must be to maintain the brand image and maintain the reputation of the product. Otherwise, if a car is ruined by a picture or a video, it will be difficult for a brand to turn around.
The words may be a bit serious, but the facts can also support it.
In August 2021, a certain self-media made controversial remarks at a test drive meeting of Nissan X-Trail, saying "It's fun to drive the X-Trail in the desert." Later, some netizens questioned that the X-Trail was only equipped with a three-cylinder engine and a CVT gearbox, and did not have the performance and power to adapt to the desert. They believed that it was suspected of "top-up". In addition, there are many other big V car critics with hundreds of thousands or millions of fans who collectively question its authority.
Even though the person involved later came forward to respond, Q-Trail was passively involved in this "desert incident", and the sales of this car have since languished. Data show that the total sales volume in the first four months of this year was only 1,792 vehicles, and the number of monthly compulsory traffic insurances was less than 1,000 vehicles for 11 consecutive months, and for six months, the monthly compulsory traffic insurance numbers were less than 500 vehicles.
The Q-Trail's crotch pull also directly brought down the joint venture company Dongfeng Nissan. With the sluggishness of pillar models and the overall rise of independent brands, Dongfeng Nissan plunged 26.6% in the first three quarters of this year, becoming one of the "worst" Japanese brands of the year with a decline of nearly 30%.
Another case is Wenjie M7.
In a crash test result of China Insurance Research Institute in November 2022, the "old model" Wenjie M7 experienced a serious public opinion crisis. The collision video at the time showed that after the Wenjie M7 collided with a 25% offset, the front of the vehicle collapsed and the A-pillar was also suspected to be deformed. Moreover, it only received an A (good) rating in terms of the amount of intrusion into the upper part of the passenger compartment, body structure, and crashworthiness compatibility.
Although, at that time, a certified Huawei smart car solution engineer responded on Weibo, saying that the A-pillar deformation in a frontal 25% offset collision ≠ poor safety. But this obviously did not stop the fermentation of public opinion and the collapse of sales in the world.
In 2023, all new energy vehicles will generally rise, but the sales of Wenjie M7 have been declining. In the first eight months of this year, Wenjie M7 sold only 7,936 units, with an average of less than 1,000 units per month. It wasn't until September this year when Huawei's Yu Chengdong released the new Wenjie M7 and claimed that the overall upgrade investment exceeded 500 million yuan, that the Wenjie brand finally came back to life. According to Yu Chengdong’s words, it is “resurrected from the dead”.
When the trend of public opinion is bound to affect you, the best way may be to take the initiative.For example, in the early days of the public opinion outbreak of this winter test, there was a company that successfully completed the counterattack, Great Wall Motors.
During the winter test, there were a variety of Great Wall products, including Great Wall's Wei brand Alpine, Blue Mountain, Tank 400, Haval Raptor and other models. Although there are many players, there is no "student champion". What's more, his "old rival" BYD has won several "champions."
As a result, Great Wall publicly questioned the car-savvy emperor. On December 11, Great Wall Motors announced that it would hold a communication meeting to question the winter test standards. At the meeting, Great Wall Motors released "Seven Initiatives to Improve New Energy Environmental Testing Levels" and stated that it will promote the early introduction of more professional and rigorous "new energy vehicle environmental testing standards."
After the meeting, Great Wall Motors made another big move. Mu Feng, president of Great Wall Motors, issued a statement saying: The new energy environmental testing capabilities created by Great Wall Motors are now open to the entire industry. They will jointly improve the environmental testing level of China's new energy vehicles, provide global users with more rigorous, fair and objective product testing, and promote higher-quality development of the Chinese automobile industry.
The trick of Great Wall is that it does not stand on the opposite side of the media, but opens its own resources to more media and promotes a new testing standard. It not only solves the current crisis, but also sets a pattern for itself.
But this method only solves the immediate crisis. The best way is to complete the research and development cycle honestly and avoid any crisis as much as possible.
write at the end
Competition between enterprises and the media occurs not only in the automobile industry, but also in the once-turbulent mobile phone industry. The most typical cases are Luo Yonghao and Wang Ziru.
In 2014, Luo Yonghao’s Smartisan Technology released the first mobile phone T1, and Wang Ziru also led Zealer to become the top leader in the mobile phone review industry. Because in the review, it was pointed out that there are flaws in the design of the Smartisan T1 product, Luo Yonghao, who is proud and proud, insists that there is no problem with his own product. The two were at odds with each other, refusing to give in to each other.
In August of that year, the two had a public debate on Youku, which lasted about three hours and was hailed as the "first fight" in China's Internet industry in 2014. In this debate, Luo Yonghao’s speeches were heart-breaking.
"Why did you lie to your audience that you are a third party? In fact, you represent the manufacturer, because you took the manufacturer's money and your survival depends on the manufacturer."
"If you are being kept, don't talk about independent personality."
However, the difference between mobile phone products and automobile products is that if the mobile phone is not working well, it can be replaced. If there are bugs, it can be solved by software upgrade. If it doesn't work, it can be returned to the factory for repair. But if a car has serious flaws in its design and manufacturing, it will affect the safety of the people in the car.
Car software can be upgraded OTA, but human life cannot be upgraded OTA.