AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)08/05 Report--

A few days ago, a letter about Guangzhou Auto Toyota iA5 owners reporting to the quality Development Bureau of the State Administration of Market Supervision circulated on the Internet. The report letter is as follows: from July 18 to 23, 2021, Guangzhou Auto Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. upgraded the battery management system BMS through background OTA for a large number of Guangzhou Automobile Toyota iA5 models produced before June 2020 without informing customers and with their permission, artificially reducing the available capacity of the car's power battery (locking power) and limiting the vehicle output power to no more than 60 percent (locking power).

In addition to the report rights letter, the relevant car owners also reflected to the media: "from the end of last year at the beginning of this year began to reduce, one is to reduce the charging power." The second is to reduce the output power. This time because a vehicle caught fire in Xiamen in early July, everyone's car was urgently updated like this on July 18. " The owner said he had complained from the very beginning, and the attitude of the other party had not been changed.

The report letter and the reflection of the car owner are summarized, which mainly means that after the OTA upgrade of the vehicle by Guangzhou Automobile Toyota iA5, the battery capacity of the original 58.78kWh is reduced by nearly 10kWh and the actual mileage is reduced by nearly 100km. The user also said that not only was the battery capacity reduced, but the output power of the motor that could have been 100% full output was forced to be locked below 60%. The background information of the vehicle BMS battery management system shows that on July 18, 2021, the owner's iA5 was successfully upgraded to see the version number "2510015ARD0000C.9" BMS calibration software, after which the vehicle appeared battery life and performance degradation. In addition, other users also said that when the vehicle was nearly fully charged, they went to the 4S store for vehicle information diagnosis and found that when the vehicle SOC (battery charge) was 99%, BMS reported that the actual power consumption of SOC was only 83.5%.

It is understood that the so-called power locking is to redefine the voltage range of the battery by rewriting the BMS battery management system, thus affecting the capacity and charge-discharge performance. If the capacity is reduced, the mileage will naturally be reduced. For this matter, some netizens said: the ride-hailing driver quit, this day must not run several ah, drive for a while to recharge. Another netizen said: be careful to lock the fuel tank.

From the complaint page of the car quality network, we can also see that there are a lot of complaints reflecting such problems. The content of the complaint is that the mileage of Guangzhou Auto Toyota iA5 manufacturer has been reduced after the OTA upgrade. Some car owners reported that in mid-late July 2021, Guangzhou Auto Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. artificially reduced the available capacity of vehicle power battery without informing customers and with their permission, for a large number of Guangzhou Automobile Toyota iA5 models produced before September 2020 (claiming NEDC mileage 510KM, battery capacity 58.8KWh), upgrading battery management system (BMS) through background OTA, etc., and the instrument showed that it was still fully charged, which was tested by the majority of car owners. From 0 50KWh 100%, taking into account the charge loss can only be recharged about 50KWh power, the power of 58.8KWh only shrunk to 50KWh, this is fraud. We ask GAC Toyota to explain the situation and stop upgrading remotely without customer's consent in the future; remove the hidden trouble of battery and restore battery capacity.

At present, most of the car owners who reflect this problem have expressed the hope that the authorities will respond to this matter, and at the same time restore the vehicle performance and driving life performance during brand promotion, and if the vehicles have hidden dangers or defects in safety, they should adopt measures such as a unified recall, otherwise they will continue to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests through various vocal channels to functional departments such as the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State Administration of quality Supervision. On this matter, GAC Toyota Public Relations Department responded that it has taken note of the relevant complaints and is investigating and dealing with its after-sales colleagues.

According to relevant data, Guangzhou Auto Toyota iA5 was listed in 2019 and positioned as a compact pure electric sedan. The subsidized price of the car is 16.98-192800 yuan, which competes with Geometry An and BYD Qin PLUS EV. The new car is powered by a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) of 135kW (184PS). The power battery is a ternary lithium battery produced by Ningde Times, which has a range of 510km and supports fast charging function, which can be replenished from 30% to 80% in only 34 minutes. According to relevant data, Guangzhou Auto Toyota sold 179 iA5 vehicles in June 2021, down 38.9% from the same period last year and 63.7% from the previous month.

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