A large number of Xpeng Motors car owners have collectively defended their rights in many Xpeng Motors city service centers in Guangzhou, Beijing and other places, demanding to return their cars and refund their money. Obviously, car owners did not buy He Xiaopeng’s apology and compensation.

The Beijing News (Reporter Mo Wei) At present, due to the more favorable price and longer cruising range of the new model of Xpeng Motors G3, the rights protection event that caused the dissatisfaction of old customers is fermenting. Although He Xiaopeng, the chairman of Xpeng Motors, apologized through Weibo and promised relevant compensation to the owners of the old G3, it did not calm the grievances of the owners.

In the eyes of old customers in Xpeng Motors, on the one hand, Xpeng Motors cheated customers when selling new cars; On the other hand, the solution was perfunctory and didn’t really think about the customer, and the incident intensified, resulting in the collapse of Xpeng Motors’s reputation.

Xpeng Motors’s new listing is controversial

On July 10th, 2020 Tucki G3 model went on the market. Due to the more favorable price compared with the old model and the longer battery life of the new model, some old owners of Tucki G3 expressed dissatisfaction. For this problem, on July 12th, He Xiaopeng, Chairman of Xpeng Motors, responded by personal Weibo, apologizing to all the old G3 owners, and offering extra compensation of 10,000 yuan for the old G3 owners to buy any model in Tucki within three years.

But this did not calm the grievances of the owners. On July 13th, a large number of car owners went to defend their rights outside many Xpeng Motors city service centers in Guangzhou, Beijing and other places, demanding a refund.

As for the reason for the fermentation of this incident, an old G3 car owner in Tucki said that it took more than half a year from booking a car at the beginning of the year to picking up the car. As a result, a new model was actually released in less than one month after picking up the car. "We are all" hardcore "fans in Xpeng Motors, and now we have been mercilessly abandoned, and the official response has not given us a reasonable solution and has not solved the problem at all. How can we be content?"

The old car owner also said that new users who are going to buy the 2020 Tucki G3 also need to think about it. "Today for our old users may be your tomorrow.".

Then, why are the old car owners so angry about He Xiaopeng’s apology that they don’t accept its solution?

According to the Beijing News reporter, the 2020 Tucki G3 new car was officially launched on July 10th, with a subsidized price of 143,800-196,800 yuan and a comprehensive cruising range of up to 520km. Compared with the 2019 models that have been on the market for less than one year, the car’s comprehensive cruising range is only 365km at the highest, and the difference between the cruising ranges is more than 40%. And in terms of selling price, the subsidized price of the 2019 model is 155,800-199,800 yuan. Taking the lowest configuration as an example, the price difference between them is 12,000 yuan. Such a big price difference in less than a year has caused dissatisfaction among the owners of the 2019 G3.

In the eyes of old customers, on the one hand, Xpeng Motors cheated customers when selling new cars, on the other hand, the solution was perfunctory and didn’t really think about customers.

Solution Old car owners don’t buy it.

Although He Xiaopeng explained the price misunderstanding in an open letter, saying that the actual payment price of the car owners with the same configuration is not the same, the actual payment price of the 2019 G3 is still more than 20,000 yuan more than that of the 2020 G3 through the doubling of the previous large deposit and the subsequent cash discount and overcharge discount offered by the government.

At the same time, He Xiaopeng announced that the owners of G3 in 2019 will enjoy an additional exclusive subsidy of 10,000 yuan on the basis of all the promotion policies and interests of the new car to be purchased within three years from now. As an apology and compensation for this dispute.

But for old car owners, especially those who have just picked up a car or booked a car, such a scheme is not satisfactory.

A user who just picked up the car revealed in an interview with the media: "The car was booked on July 9, and the new model was released on July 10, which cost 2,000 yuan, 170 kilometers more battery life, upgraded brakes, power assistance and so on. Who feels better? Obviously deceived. " He also said that upgrading is normal, but it is wrong to conceal upgrading and sell the old models to customers.

Some users also said that Tucki sales claimed that it would soon subsidize the price increase, and urged users to place an order to buy the old models, but never mentioned the new models. As a result, the new models were launched soon after the car was picked up. In the eyes of users, this operation has largely deceived consumers. "If the car hasn’t been mentioned, it will become an old model." A Tucki G3 prospective car owner is so self-mocking.

In addition, a car owner from Shenzhen said in an interview with the media, "The deposit was made on June 25, and now the car has not been mentioned. Sales means that the deposit cannot be converted into a new model deposit, and the deposit can only be converted into a 10,000-yuan boutique coupon in Xpeng Motors APP Mall to buy car models and auto parts." There are not a few consumers who haven’t picked up their cars like this and can’t replace the new models.

As for the rights and interests of He Xiaopeng’s subsidy of 10,000 yuan for car replacement, the owner did not buy it. "If you pick up the car, you will be replaced. The new car will become an old one, deceiving consumers, and you want us to buy Tucki’s car again?" A car owner said bluntly.

Some experts in the industry said that it is understandable that the product changes quickly. If the new car listing is deliberately concealed, it will really poke the pain point of the owner, and this behavior will inevitably lead to the suspicion of clearing the inventory. On the whole, combined with the actual situation of many car owners, Xpeng Motors did have some shortcomings in handling this matter.

Is the embarrassing period of the new forces of building cars coming?

As a member of the new car-making forces, Xpeng Motors has always been at the forefront of public opinion. From the outside world, in the five years since Xpeng Motors’s development, its development has been relatively smooth, and it is also one of the first batch of new forces to realize delivery earlier. According to the official sales data released by Xpeng Motors in May this year, the company sold 2,704 new cars in May, up 22.9% from the previous month. According to the incomplete statistics of Beijing News reporter, since the delivery in June last year, Xpeng Motors has delivered 10,000 vehicles so far.

In terms of financing, Xpeng Motors has so far raised 14 billion yuan, including Ali and Foxconn. Many senior executives in Xpeng Motors have also said that they will accumulate 30 billion yuan of financing before the end of 2019. On March 27th this year, He Xiaopeng revealed that Xpeng Motors is seeking to raise at least $500 million and may try to list on the US IPO.

Although several new car-making forces, including Xpeng Motors, still have the support of capital, in this heavy asset industry of automobiles, both product research and development, manufacturing and channel construction cost huge amounts of money. This problem can be seen from the financial report of the listed company Weilai. According to the financial report of Weilai Automobile in the first quarter of 2019, the net loss of Weilai Automobile in the first quarter exceeded 2.6 billion yuan, and the accumulated loss in 2016-2018 has exceeded 20 billion yuan.

After the delivery is realized, the present and imminent problems in capital may be the second, but how to maintain customers in the later period is the key problem faced by enterprises such as Tucki.

Both He Xiaopeng himself and a large number of old car owners call users in Xpeng Motors "Pengyou", which shows the feelings of car owners when they buy cars. But now, the first group of supporters held high the slogans of "return the car" and "whoever buys it will regret it" and went to Xpeng Motors to return the car, resulting in the collapse of their word of mouth.

The industry believes that in the past, everyone used to define the delivery of the first mass-produced car as the first threshold for building a new force. But now, after the delivery, Xpeng Motors presents another bottleneck: customer retention. Previously, Weilai Automobile recalled the first person because of the battery problem, which consumed a wave of users’ patience. Now Xpeng Motors once again puts the customer relationship on the table.

In fact, whether it is a new car-making force or a traditional enterprise, customer maintenance is a topic that can’t be avoided for its long-term development. However, as a new car-making force, the "newcomer" has obviously just experienced and felt the importance of this issue. An industry insider told the Beijing News reporter that the enterprises with new forces to build cars have attracted people’s attention. In addition, many enterprises with new forces held high their feelings and talked about the consideration of consumers during propaganda, which made the outside world expect more from the new forces to build cars. However, many bad actual situations make consumers feel a great psychological gap, and even feel disappointed with the enterprises that build new forces.

Beijing News reporter Mo Wei Picture Weibo Screenshot Editor Li Wendi Proofread Wu Xingfa