AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)05/13 Report--

Porsche may not have expected that the letter of apology released a few days ago has once again pushed itself to the best part of public opinion.

On April 30, Porsche Press Center released a letter from Porsche to Chinese car owners. However, in the thousand-word apology letter, Porsche blamed the "reduction" on the shortage of semiconductors, but did not give a plan on how to solve users' problems. Netizens have commented: "millions of luxury cars even care about 30,000, what is doomed to lose is the market" and "Porsche embodies arrogance, disrespect for customers, disrespect for contracts, and support for legal measures for affected car owners."...

As the incident fermented, Boss @ Cai, a blogger on a short video platform, released a video calling on "car reviewers" across the network to pay attention to the Porsche "downsizing" incident. In the video, Boss @ Cai repeatedly used words such as "pleading" and "can you say a few words", and "roll call" the "car commentators" with a high number of fans. According to incomplete statistics, in the 24 hours after Boss Cai posted the appeal video, in addition to comments made by big Vs such as "Brother Monkey talking about car", "Xiaogang senior", "Chen Zhen" and "Yan Chuang talking about car", even some car circle creators with low fan numbers also joined in.

On May 11, "Brother Monkey said the car" connected with "Boss Cai,"Bajie said the car,"Yan Chuang said the car," and other car circles and rights owners and professional lawyers conducted an in-depth analysis of the incident. In the studio, the rights owners said bluntly that they hoped Porsche would publicly make a public and sincere apology and meet the reasonable compensation needs of consumers.

On May 12, the controversial Porsche responded: "at present, the task force composed of Porsche headquarters and Porsche China has also conducted in-depth discussions with relevant suppliers. And the future supply and production of spare parts have been reorganized and analyzed. Through our efforts, we have made some progress in the possibility of restoring this function. "

What did Porsche do when the "downsize" angered Chinese consumers? According to the China Consumer Daily (run by the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration and sponsored by the China Consumer Association), in the context of the continuing shortage of chips, in order to avoid slow delivery, many car companies have proposed solutions for the delivery of semi-finished products, that is, consumers pick up the car first, followed by car companies to refill the corresponding accessories, and Porsche also adopts this method. Some car owners in the purchase of the standard electric steering column, due to the shortage of chips temporarily replaced by manual adjustment steering column, followed by free reinstallation for car owners. However, after months of waiting, consumers were told by Porsche that the electric steering column would no longer be replenished, but would compensate for 2300 yuan in vouchers and could only be spent at Porsche 4S stores. The compensation plan caused dissatisfaction among consumers and complained about the protection of their rights one after another.

Previously, the steering column electric adjustment function of Cayenne, Paramera and other models is standard and does not need to be optional, but now Porsche officials have made it clear on the official website that the steering column electric adjustment is no longer included. The data show that the whole steering system is divided into two parts, the mechanical part and the chip part, in which the mechanical part is divided into manual steering column and automatic steering column. The steering column is the component of the steering system connecting the steering wheel and the steering gear. Through the steering column, the driver transfers the torque to the steering gear and drives the steering gear to realize steering. The electric steering column is the "electronically controlled steering wheel". The driver can adjust the front and rear position, high and low angle of the steering wheel by electric way, and can achieve comfortable entry function. In other words, if the vehicle wants to use the electric steering function normally, there can be no less chips and electric steering columns.

On the evening of April 27th, the Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo model was officially launched in China, but during the live broadcast of @ Porsche's official Weibo "the New Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo China launch", a large number of online rights activists appeared, which once triggered screen browsing, and the Porsche new car launch lasted only half an hour. Currently, @ Porsche's official Weibo stop until May 11, with Weibo saying "# porschemoments# doesn't lose a classic", but the comments below Weibo basically complain about Porsche's "downsizing" of electric steering columns.

Under public opinion, on April 30, Porsche issued a letter of apology to explain the "downsizing" incident. Officials say that in 2022, the global shortage of semiconductor capacity is still very serious. After many efforts, Porsche headquarters is still unable to predict the arrival time of the chips related to the electric regulation function. This means that the previous recovery and replacement plan will put customers in constant uncertainty and indefinite waiting. As a result, at the end of the first quarter of this year, Porsche headquarters was forced to cancel the replacement plan for the electrically adjustable steering column.

However, neither netizens nor car owners bought the belated apology letter. Netizens said that Porsche never came up with a solution, blaming the problem on the global chip shortage, and the whole apology letter was insincere. As the incident continues to ferment, more and more car owners join the ranks of rights protection, the "reduction" involves models including Cayenne, Taycan, Paramera, Macan, and so on, and there are three main demands of car owners: Porsche recalls the vehicles, uniformly arranges to install electric steering columns in 4S stores, promising to extend the warranty time; return the car; and return the reloaded cash. So far, Porsche has not responded to the demands of car owners.

Is Porsche suspected of defrauding consumers by unilaterally announcing that vehicles will be reduced and no longer reinstalled? Huang Wende, a lawyer at Henan Yinglun Law firm, said that in this incident, the possibility of consumer fraud in Porsche could not be ruled out. However, the identification of Porsche consumer fraud requires two conditions: first, the electric steering column function has a significant impact on consumers' decision on whether to buy a car; second, after signing a car purchase contract with consumers, Porsche has not done any preparatory work to fulfill its promise to reinstall the electric steering column. If the above two conditions are met, then Porsche will have false propaganda behavior that exaggerates the performance of the cars it provides and misleads consumers in the process of selling cars. Huang Wende believes that even if Porsche does not defraud consumers, it has made it clear in its open letter to car owners that it will no longer fulfill its promise to reinstall electric steering columns, which is a breach of contract. The COVID-19 epidemic may increase the cost of Porsche's subsequent reinstallation of electric steering columns, but the epidemic has been going on for a long time and Porsche should be able to foresee the possible commercial risks caused by the epidemic. Therefore, Porsche shall not claim to waive its liability for breach of contract on the grounds of force majeure. Porsche unilaterally put forward the solution of "compensation voucher of 2300 yuan", which is obviously unfair and unreasonable to consumers.

The importance of the Chinese market to Porsche is self-evident! According to the data, Porsche delivered 301915 new cars worldwide in 2021, an increase of 11% over the same period last year. Among them, the Chinese market delivered 95671 new cars, an increase of 8% over the same period last year, accounting for 31.69% of global sales, making it Porsche's first single market in the world. It is worth noting that China has become the world's largest single market for Porsche for seven years in a row.

However, just one electric steering column ruined the brand image of millions of luxury cars, causing Chinese consumers and car circle creators to join forces to question Porsche how long it can maintain its position in the Chinese market. An activist car owner said, "as a Porsche owner, I can do without the electric steering column, but Porsche must apologize to Chinese consumers and can't stand the differential treatment of Chinese consumers."

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