A Xiaopeng P5 was accidentally scratched slightly, and the total maintenance cost was 19022 yuan; A Tesla Model Y has a rear end collision, and the fixed loss maintenance cost is up to more than 50000 yuan... What's the point of new energy vehicle maintenance and parts? The reporter carried out an investigation to this end.
1 Lidar loading head slightly scratched and spent 20000 yuan
Mr. Chen had a scratch with a car while driving Xiaopeng P5. Due to the slow speed of both sides, Xiaopeng P5 only saw some slight scratches, deformation and looseness at the front left headlamp and the bumper under the headlamp.
I thought it was not a big problem, but Mr. Chen was surprised by the maintenance price determined by both parties after taking insurance to determine the loss. "The estimated total cost reached 19022 yuan, of which the most expensive one was a laser radar in the front left corner of the car, and the price of replacing the original parts was 8916 yuan." Mr. Chen said that fortunately, the accident was not his own responsibility, and the maintenance costs were borne by the other party. However, this matter still makes people feel a little scared. Such expensive parts are installed in the bumper positions on both sides of the front of the car, and this is the place where they are most likely to be scratched.
What exactly is lidar? Why is it so expensive? It turns out that lidar is an intelligent perception device with more accurate recognition, wider recognition range, and the ability to achieve three-dimensional modeling. Previously, lidar was more used in the military industry. In recent years, with the continuous use of automatic driving technology as a selling point, more and more cameras have been installed on the front and body of the car as the "eyes of the car". In the case of insufficient light and rainy and snowy weather, the camera's recognition ability is greatly reduced, so it is necessary to add radar as a recognition supplement.
Compared with the millimeter wave radar mainly used by automobile enterprises before, the cost of laser radar is much higher now. As a result, a number of automobile enterprises began to rush to install this new equipment in order to attract consumers and seize the market.
In addition to expensive maintenance, there is also a long maintenance cycle. "It will take at least one week to deploy the parts, and installation, maintenance and commissioning are also required. It may not be possible to drive the car for several weeks." Mr. Chen felt helpless.
2. It takes thousands of cameras to replace one camera
A large number of cars with dozens of cameras and millimeter wave radars have been on the road. During use, these intelligent devices have a certain risk of damage, which also increases the maintenance cost.
After Mr. Liu bought a Tesla Model 3, he specially chose to stick the car clothes and changed the color of his new car. It may be due to careless operation when pasting the car coat, and the camera was not fastened after it was removed and reinstalled, which led to water ingress in the camera during driving and low recognition level of frequent prompts. So he went to Tesla's official maintenance center for maintenance. "The amount of camera accessories is 973 yuan, which is the national unified price, but the labor cost varies from place to place, and I spent a total of 1130 yuan." This money made Mr. Liu feel distressed.
Mr. Lu, the owner of Tesla, has also experienced damage to the intelligent perception device. "One time, there was a rear end collision accidentally. Because the speed was very slow, it didn't matter to look at the two cars at that time, so it cost hundreds of yuan to get private." However, to his surprise, when he used the automatic driving assistance function of the vehicle later, he always prompted that the visibility of the front radar was low. For this reason, Mr. Lu had to go to the maintenance center and spent thousands of yuan on maintenance.
"Over the years, many new energy vehicles have installed many cameras and radars on their bodies, which has also pushed up maintenance costs to a certain extent." Mr. Zhang is an engineer in an automobile maintenance center. He told reporters that in recent two years, he has handled many cases of replacing cameras and radars for new energy vehicles. "Especially the cameras or radars installed near the bumper are relatively easy to damage, and some will cost hundreds or thousands of yuan to replace."
3. If the pre installed equipment is not enabled and fails, you have to pay for it
It is understandable that car enterprises should install more intelligent sensing devices to achieve technological innovation. However, many consumers feel that it is "expensive" because some intelligent functions, such as automatic driving and intelligent calling, are not yet mature, and they have not yet used them with confidence, so they first assume the potential risk of maintenance.
"In the field of new energy vehicles in the past two years, laser radar is a high-frequency word, which is always used by various car companies to promote that the automatic driving technology will be greatly improved after installation." Mr. Wang likes to try new technologies, and chose the version equipped with laser radar. However, to his disappointment, so far, the automatic driving assistance system has not been upgraded to a new version. Without the support of new software system, the current lidar is more like a "decoration".
A recent car accident also made Mr. Wang more cautious about the current automatic driving technology. "In the past two years, there have been many accidents, some of which even led to casualties. After the accident, my friends and relatives reminded me to be careful when using automatic driving, and I was a bit afraid to use it," said Mr. Wang.
Mr. Zhang is also the owner of new energy and has a similar feeling. "When I test drove a new energy vehicle, I was impressed by the automatic driving function displayed." However, after purchasing, he found that the current automatic driving technology is far less reliable than what the car companies advertised. "Once, when using the automatic driving assistance function, the vehicle suddenly connected two lanes. Fortunately, there were no cars on the road, otherwise, the consequences would be unimaginable. At that time, the vehicle suddenly operated on its own, and I had no time to take over driving." After that attempt, Mr. Zhang put the automatic driving assistance technology on the shelf, This also made him feel that the multiple cameras and radars equipped on his vehicle were "somewhat wasteful".
4. Vehicle price for integrated maintenance of body battery
In addition to the intelligent perception devices all over the car body, some innovative technologies such as body integrated die-casting and body battery integration by some car enterprises may also significantly increase the maintenance costs of vehicles.
At the beginning of this year, Ms. Zhao drove a Tesla Model Y and encountered a rear end collision on the ring road. Due to the fast speed of the rear car, her car was rear ended and hit the front car, causing a certain degree of deformation and damage to the front and rear of the vehicle. After the insurance loss was determined, Ms. Zhao was surprised by the cost: "The maintenance cost of the final loss was more than 50000 yuan."
Because she was a little surprised about the price, Ms. Zhao consulted the loss assessment personnel and learned that due to Tesla's use of integrated die-casting and lighter aluminum body, sheet metal parts such as fenders and bumpers can hardly be repaired, and all of them need to be replaced. Some of the body's intelligent sensing devices were also damaged during rear end collision and needed to be replaced. "This makes me deeply feel that the car friends say that 'new energy vehicles can't afford to hurt'," Ms. Zhao sighed.
There are more extreme cases. At the beginning of this year, a netizen shared that his Model Y was deformed to a certain extent due to hitting the wall, and the final maintenance cost was up to more than 200000 yuan, while the price of this car was only 280000 yuan. According to the analysis of maintenance experts, since the integrated die-casting technology is adopted, the car enterprises have broken many parts into a whole, greatly improving the productivity efficiency. However, once damaged, it also means that a full set of replacement is required, thus increasing the maintenance costs. At the same time, the impact may also damage the battery of the vehicle. Once the battery is damaged, the maintenance cost is bound to increase significantly.
In addition to the body integrated die-casting, the new technology of body battery integration applied to some models of BYD, Zero Run and other brands is also controversial. Although this technology can reduce the thickness of the battery pack package, increase the vehicle space, and improve the body stiffness by integrating the battery pack with the vehicle chassis, the potential risk is that once the chassis is hit, the battery may be damaged by accident. As we all know, battery is the most expensive core component of electric vehicles. If it is damaged, its maintenance cost may be no different from that of a new car.
