New energy vehicles have always been a pain point for car owners due to battery decay. To this end, national policies require new energy vehicle companies to introduce long-term quality assurance policies for the core component of power batteries to give consumers peace of mind. At present, some auto companies have launched a warranty period of 8 years or more than 150,000 kilometers, and some auto companies have even offered the "lifetime warranty" sign in order to compete for customers. However, the reporter noticed that behind the promotion of "lifetime warranty" by car companies, there is also the very detailed disclaimer clause , which are often ignored by consumers.
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Mystery1
Please note that the disclaimer clause should not be too harsh
Li Jing (pseudonym), who bought the car in May this year, recently convened nearly 100 Nezha Auto owners to protect their rights through online form. The rights protection content mainly revolves around an unobtrusive disclaimer clause in the Nezha Auto Warranty Manual.
"In fact, many of us did not notice this disclaimer clause at the beginning. It was discovered by a friend who accidentally searched the warranty manual one day." When the cause of the incident, Li Jing told reporters that Nezha Auto promised consumers that the three-electric system of the vehicle to enjoy a lifetime warranty, but in the warranty manual, there were several "non-warranty scopes" in detail, one of which was "the battery discharge during the vehicle was higher than the rated battery power of the battery."
"We thought about it carefully, does this mean that we cannot reduce the remaining power of the car to below 20%?" Li Jing quickly checked his vehicle app and found that he had violated this regulation inadvertently. "My car's total range is about 400 kilometers, which means that it cannot drive to the remaining range below 80 kilometers. This is a bit harsh, and this is equivalent to the vehicle's range being directly reduced by 80 kilometers!" Li Jing was dissatisfied with this.
After Li Jing posted this discovery to the group of car friends, the group was in an uproar. Many car owners quickly checked the vehicle app and found that they had turned the vehicle's power to below 20% of the vehicle's power several times before charging. "That won't mean we can't enjoy a lifetime warranty, right?"
Fortunately, the reporter learned that after Li Jing contacted the 4S store on behalf of the car owner, the after-sales staff contacted the manufacturer in time and said that next year, an updated warranty manual will be issued to Li Jing and other car owners, and the content will be adjusted. "We are still very satisfied with the feedback speed of Nezha Auto. We hope that we can truly implement it next year and modify this unreasonable clause." Li Jing said. At the same time, he also reminded consumers to read the owner's manual, warranty manual, etc. in detail before purchasing a car, and not to ignore the terms in it.
Mystery2
Lifetime warranty is only for the first owner
"Before buying the car, I also compared almost all the mainstream brands on the market. BYD 's battery lifetime warranty is really attractive, which is an important reason why I chose to buy it." Mr. Zhang bought a BYD Han car this year. In his opinion, with the promise of lifelong battery warranty, the anxiety of low retention rate of new energy vehicles can be fundamentally solved.
But after Mr. Zhang joined a BYD rider group, through everyone's discussion, he realized that he was thinking too simple. "I used to think that if I wanted to change my car for a few years, if I wanted to change my car, the battery life warranty guarantee would not depreciate much. But later I heard from everyone that this right is only for the first car owner, and if I buy BYD second-hand electric car , I can't enjoy it. So once I plan to resell my car, the price of the car will depreciate significantly due to the battery attenuation. "
" When I bought the car, the sales only vigorously promoted the lifelong warranty, and the specific terms did not say."After realizing that he was "too sloppy", Mr. Zhang hurried back and carefully looked through the warranty manual, and found that there were indeed many requirements that he had not noticed. "Like the manual, if you do not follow the user manual and go to the authorized service store for maintenance, repair and maintenance, and do not use original pure spare parts, accident repairs, and BYD authorized service store for maintenance, you can no longer enjoy a lifetime warranty. "Mr. Zhang admitted that fortunately, he read the manual, otherwise he might go to an unofficial store near his home for maintenance, which unconsciously violated the requirements.
In addition, the warranty manual also requires that "the vehicle travels a total mileage of more than 30,000 kilometers at any time for 12 consecutive months" cannot enjoy a lifetime warranty. This point has aroused the complaints of Mr. Zhang and many car friends. He felt that it is understandable that the manufacturer is unwilling to provide a lifetime warranty for some operating vehicles with a larger number of kilometers, but if the owner has a longer commute or likes to travel by himself, the limit of 30,000 kilometers seems a bit harsh. "After all, do I have to count the number of kilometers I buy every year? ”
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Investigation
There are few car owners who know the warranty terms in detail
Car owners like Li Jing and Mr. Zhang who did not carefully understand the vehicle warranty conditions before purchasing new energy vehicles. The reporter conducted a survey in 3 car friends groups with a total of more than 300 people. Although most car buyers will intentionally pay attention to the warranty policies of new energy vehicles for power batteries before buying a car, less than 2% of car buyers who truly understand the warranty terms in detail. html l3 Most car buyers only understand the most basic warranty terms through sales introduction before purchasing the car. For example, Tesla provides an 8-year or 240,000 kilometers warranty for power batteries, BYD provides a lifetime warranty for power batteries, Xiaopeng Motors basic warranty for 8-year or 160,000 kilometers, but can be upgraded to a lifetime warranty for a certain price, etc.
In fact, these warranties have specific restrictions. The reporter found that various car companies have basically common requirements in quality assurance, mainly including that vehicles must go to an official authorized store for repair or maintenance. Vehicles cannot use non-original pure spare parts during repair and maintenance. Vehicles must be used for household purposes (not for official business, operations, competitions, etc.). Vehicles have not repaired related parts of the three-electric system due to human or accidental collision, flooding, burning or accidents.
In addition to common requirements, some car companies will have some special requirements in the warranty manual . For example, many car companies with lifetime warranty require that the warranty recipient must be the first owner. However, non-lifetime warranty car companies represented by Tesla do not have this clause. The Tesla warranty manual states that if the ownership of the vehicle changes, the new owner can Previously, the remaining warranty time limit or kilometers were enjoyed based on the age and number of kilometers of vehicles. This is also the reason why the pure electric used car market is currently sluggish, and car dealers almost only accept Tesla.
In addition, some car companies will propose requirements in the warranty manual "discharge does not exceed 80%", or vehicles cannot park at a low temperature for a long time, etc.
It is worth mentioning that in addition to the detailed terms in these warranty manuals, some consumers also have misunderstandings about the battery warranty method. reporter's investigation found that many consumers believe that if the battery has serious attenuation problems during the warranty period, the manufacturer will replace it with a new battery. However, an insider of a car company told reporters that First of all, whether the battery has attenuation to the extent that warranty is required, the manufacturer must first evaluate whether the battery is fully charged to the level of warranty. The general evaluation standard is that the battery fully charged must be lower than 80% of the rated power to be considered included in the warranty range. Some car companies' warranty manuals also emphasize that the normal attenuation of the battery is not included in the warranty.
. Even if the warranty is included, it will not be as simple as consumers imagine to replace it with the new one.Because power batteries are the most expensive parts of pure electric vehicles, car companies generally choose to disassemble the batteries for repair or replace some parts, so that the battery can reach the requirement of no less than 80% of the rated battery.
Recommended
Power battery should be as shallow as possible to charge and release
Why do some car companies put forward some relatively "harsh" terms on the quality of power battery? reporter consulted Wang Qiyu, deputy chief engineer and doctoral student at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Wang Qiyu introduced that does not recommend that the battery discharge exceeds 80%, and the following reasons may be considered: First, the capacity attenuation of the battery after discharge is fast, which may cause the owner to judge the mileage inaccurately; Second, from a safety perspective, considering the possibility of individual inconsistencies in the battery, if the discharge is too low, there is a possibility of some inconsistent batteries being overdischarged. Overdischarge may cause internal short circuits, which lead to thermal runaway; Third, from the consideration of energy consumption, when the battery is in a too low charge state, the internal resistance is relatively high, and there will be more safety hazards; In addition, lithium-ion battery shallow charge and shallow discharge are beneficial to the internal materials and battery life. However, Wang Qiyu also said that many car companies currently have some good solutions to these problems, so the discharge volume exceeding 80% does not mean the "red line".
For some car companies, "no more than 30,000 kilometers within 12 months." Wang Qiyu analyzed that this may be due to comprehensive considerations such as battery protection and commercialization. Battery life is often calibrated by capacity retention rate and is also defined by the number of cycles. "The mileage defined by car companies should be assumed to be used continuously for a long time, that is, it is always in a charging and discharge state, so that the battery life will decay faster."
In addition, Wang Qiyu also recommends that car owners charge and release as lightly as possible in maintaining the battery to avoid long-term parking. Because when parked for a long time, the battery will be self-discharged, causing the battery power to decay, and even causing the charge state to be too low, resulting in circuit protection and even inability to use the power supply normally.
Source Beijing Evening News | Reporter Zhao Yuhan Art Editor Zhang Cun
Edit Wang Qiong
Process Edit Wu Yue
