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Although the domestic automobile market has been in the era of stock, the number of cars still keeps a high growth, and the recall caused by vehicle safety risks is also on the rise. In the penultimate month of 2020, the car recall ushered in another outbreak, with a total of more than 1 million vehicles recalled in November.

According to the recall announcement issued by the defective Product Management Center of the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration, in November 2020, the domestic automobile market issued 12 batches of recall notices, involving 12 brands, a total of 1.0796 million defective vehicles were recalled, slightly down 0.02% from the same period last year, but a month-on-month increase of 646.39% over the total recall of 144600 vehicles in October this year.

It is worth noting that looking back at the domestic car recalls from January to October this year, there were only two recalls of more than 1 million vehicles this year, one for 1.25 million vehicles in April and the other for 1.08 million vehicles in November this year, which means the recall hit a new high in November this year.

Although the recall is "negative" news, it is not necessarily a bad thing, at least manufacturers dare to admit the problem and solve it in a timely manner, which is not easy in today's increasingly competitive environment in the automobile industry.

(photo Source: Galaxy)

Specifically, the surge in recalls in November was mainly due to large-scale recalls of Buick and Toyota models due to defective brake hoses and faulty fuel pumps. Among them, the Buick Ankoway recalled 649357 vehicles, becoming the "first" of the recall list this month. The main problem is that the tightness of the brake hose joint does not match the braking pressure of the whole vehicle, which may lead to a decline in sealing performance after long-term use, thus affecting the braking function of the vehicle.

In view of the above defects, SAIC General Motors Co., Ltd. will replace the improved brake hoses for vehicles within the scope of the recall free of charge to eliminate safety risks.

Such a news is undoubtedly a blow to the Buick brand, which continues to lose market share, even though the Buick brand has achieved significant sales growth through the introduction of new products this year. However, the recall of as many as 630000 models can be said to be considerable. Calculated on the basis of Anke's sales of about 160000 in 2020, this means that it has achieved the total sales of the model in the past four years, to a certain extent, this shows that SAIC GM Buick has major problems in quality control during this period.

Toyota, which has always had a reputation for "not bad", is still unable to escape this month. The problem, like previous recalls of many Japanese brands such as Honda and Mazda, is that fuel pumps provided by Denso have safety risks and risk of flameout under extreme conditions. This is a large number of recalls of Japanese brands due to supplier problems after the "Takata airbag" incident.

Toyota decided to expand the recall of a total of 2.66 million vehicles due to fuel pump problems, including 42 models such as Toyota NOAH, AVALON and ALPHARD, including 1.67 million in North America, 400000 in China and 210000 in Japan, Nikkei reported.

It is worth noting that the current recall of electrically installed fuel pumps may not be over. In late November, Denso announced that it would recall more than 1.5 million fuel pumps, which may not be on the list of previous recalls by any car companies. This means that more than 8.5 million defective vehicles worldwide may be recalled as a result of similar failures.

In addition, with the high increase in the number of new energy vehicles, the number of defective models continues to rise, resulting in a number of new energy brands on the recall list in November. In October this year, after 53700 new energy models accounted for 37 per cent of the total recall in that month, it continued again in November. Although there was a decline in the total number of vehicles involved and the proportion of the total recall, the recall scale of 12000 vehicles still soared by 196.04 per cent compared with the same period last year.

Specific models on the list include the ideal ONE, which has repeatedly attracted public opinion due to "wheel hub shedding", with a total recall of 10469 vehicles, making it the third largest recall after Buick and Toyota this month.

However, ideal's recall still does not indicate a problem in terms of quality and materials, only for the higher-powered lower arm ball pin of the front suspension of the ideal car that will be upgraded for the ideal ONE produced on or before June 1, 2020, from the previous 35kN to 50kN. As for the ideal ONE models produced after June 2, 2020, they all use new ball pins, and the ball protruding from the lower arm of the front suspension has not occurred yet.

At the same time, the recall also includes the most popular brand of new energy, Tesla, the recall model is Model X, because the roof trim panel may fall off while the vehicle is driving, which will increase the risk of injury to other road participants. In view of this defect, Tesla will inspect the recalled vehicles free of charge and carry out a tension test on the roof trim panel to eliminate safety risks.

And Polar 2, which has just been delivered by Geely and Volvo, because the inverter on the vehicle may malfunction, converting the electricity in the battery into the car's power, resulting in the risk of an accident. It is worth noting that the model was recalled three times in half a month shortly after its launch.

On the whole, whether it is the fuel market or the new energy market, with the gradual expansion of the volume of the environment, the recall is also gradually expanding. Although the recall is a common practice in the world to intercept the quality defects of automobile products and restore the reputation of automobile brands, and gradually formed a system. But the recall is only a means, not an end, after the recall does not mean that the quality of the product is guaranteed.

Therefore, for the current new energy vehicles from policy-oriented to market-oriented process, from the parts to plug the product technical defects and quality loopholes is more critical.

In addition, the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration issued a notice on November 25th, requiring all producers who use OTA (remote upgrade) to carry out technical service activities on sold vehicles to report to the quality Development Bureau of the General Administration of Market Supervision for the record in accordance with the regulations on the Administration of defective Automobile products recall and the measures for the implementation of the regulations on defective Automobile products recall. This also gives a warning to the "new car-building forces" who regard OTA as a selling point: it is not advisable to patch casually, and it is absolutely impossible to treat consumers as "testers".

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