NIO Owner's Complaints About New Car Quality Problem in US
On the morning of June 20, it was recently revealed by a NIO car owner that he happily picked up a new car (2024 ES6 model) on June 2 this year. Unexpectedly, after just 13 days and driving 776 kilometers, the car suddenly couldn't complete the automatic parking and battery swap. After inspection, he was informed that the central computing cluster (chip) was broken, and it has been repaired for 5 days, and the repair cost is more than 85,000 yuan.
The car owner stated that although NIO can bear the repair cost, he still cannot accept the situation of the chip being damaged in the new car in half a month. His demand is that NIO replaces the new car for free or refunds the full amount. If NIO refuses the request, he requests compensation of $50,000.
NIO staff stated that there is no fault with the chip of the above car series. It is a fault of a certain part around, but the chip needs to be replaced as a whole, so the price is high and the repair time is long, but the above problem is far from reaching the standard of replacement. If a major component fails within 7 days or the same component fails repeatedly after multiple repairs and still fails, it will reach the standard of free return and exchange.
In this case, while NIO is willing to replace the chip for the owner for free, it also provides compensation of 70,000 points (about $4,200).
Regarding this, Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the China Law Society Consumer Rights Protection Law Research Society, told Sina Technology that according to relevant regulations, the chip is not an important part within the scope of the three guarantees. From a legal perspective, if the user has the above fault after buying the car, according to the regulations, the car company only needs to provide the service of free repair, and there is no mandatory regulation to replace the new car.
According to the latest Regulations on the Liability for Repair, Replacement and Return of Home Automobile Products, the conditions for returning and exchanging cars under the automobile three guarantees law mainly include: If a domestic car can be returned and exchanged for free within 7 days from the date of the beginning of the validity period of the three guarantees due to quality problems and needs to replace the engine, transmission, power battery, driving motor or its main components. Or within 60 days or within 3,000 kilometers of driving mileage (whichever comes first), in the case of vehicles with steering system failure, braking system failure, body cracking, fuel leakage or power battery fire due to quality problems; or in the case of vehicles with free return and exchange due to the situation of continuous 2 repairs for serious safety performance faults but still not eliminating this fault or having a new serious safety performance fault.
Unfortunately, the situation of the above owner does not meet the return requ irements.
However, Chen Yinjiang also mentioned that from the consumer's point of view, spending a lot of money to buy a car, and a quality problem occurred in less than half a month. From an emotional point of view, the car company should also understand the emotions of consumers, and make appropriate compensation after negotiation between the two parties. If the consumer is not satisfied with the result of compensation, they can also safeguard their rights through complaints and other means.