“I ordered the car in June and I was originally planning to pick it up in mid-August. However, the production date was repeatedly postponed. Finally, I was told that it would be postponed to the end of October. So I replaced it with a car that was returned by another owner in the store. The car is now available, but the car is still not picked up, which means delivery has stopped.” On August 22, Wang Jia (pseudonym), a prospective BMW i3 owner in East China, told Times Finance.
Wang Jia is not the only one who was unable to mention the BMW i3 after placing an order and paying the car payment. Many prospective car owners reported to Times Finance that the delivery of new cars was delayed for a long time, which seriously affected their car use plans, and dealers were unable to provide compensation. Clear pickup time. A prospective car owner joked, “Now that I can’t pick up my car, people in the village think I’m bragging about buying a BMW, and they don’t dare to go back to the village for fear of being laughed at.”
Regarding the situation encountered by car owners, Times Finance learned from a BMW dealer in Guangzhou as a consumer on August 22 that the BMW i3 has currently suspended nationwide delivery, and the manufacturer has not given a clear time and reason.
On August 22, BMW China’s public relations department told Times Finance about the above situation, “We deeply apologize for the inconvenience caused to customers by stopping delivery. During our internal routine quality inspections, we found deviations in battery cell production, which may cause the system to prompt drivers The staff is concerned about the power and battery life, but we have not received any accident reports related to this issue yet. We are actively conducting technical analysis and expect to provide further information in August. We deeply apologize for the inconvenience caused to customers by stopping delivery, and we are studying the relevant User Care Program”.
Source | BMW China official Weibo
Delay in delivery related to battery cells?
“There are two main reasons why I bought the BMW Brilliance i3. One is because it is a BMW brand, and the other is because I want to choose an electric car.” On August 23, Zhuang Qiang, a prospective car owner, told Times Finance.
As Zhang Qiang said, the reason why many car owners choose the BMW Brilliance i3 is mainly because of its brand effect accumulated in the era of fuel vehicles. If not, they could have chosen independent brands and Tesla that have more advantages in electric vehicles. .
Times Finance has learned that many prospective car owners made their decisions in June. According to BMW’s pace and the delivery time agreed in the contract, they can get their new cars around the end of August. Prospective car owners reported that they received the chassis number at the end of July, but there was no news about new cars since then. Even though they kept urging dealers and providing feedback to the customer service center, it was of little use. In addition, dealers have different statements. Some said the suspension of delivery was due to parking problems, others said it was a battery cell problem, and some simply said they did not know.
Source | Network
“From a safety perspective, it is a good thing for manufacturers and dealers to keep cars, but without a deadline, it will be very annoying.” A prospective car owner said. Other prospective car owners believe that it is understandable to have minor problems with electric vehicles, but they hope that manufacturers will actively help users solve problems and have a responsible attitude to let consumers understand the progress, instead of asking questions and dragging on without solving the problem.
Wang Jia said that if the new car can be delivered on time, it can still receive new energy vehicle subsidies from the local government, but looking at the current situation of delayed delivery of the i3, the possibility of applying for subsidies is very small. Many car owners said they hope BMW can give out the reasons for delayed delivery orders as soon as possible, clarify the problems, deliver the vehicles, and whether there will be a compensation plan.
According to Jiemian News, on July 26, according to a video posted by a car blogger on a social platform, a blue BMW Brilliance i3 suddenly caught fire in the battery chassis during a test drive. The 4S store salesperson and the test drive owner quickly got out of the car after noticing the fire. The accident did not cause any casualties. Therefore, some people in the industry speculate that the delay in the delivery time of BMW Brilliance i3 may be related to the fire during the test drive of the aforementioned vehicle. After all, vehicle safety is not a trivial matter.
As for the reason for the suspension of delivery, BMW China’s public relations department told Times Finance that “during internal routine quality inspections, deviations in battery cell production were discovered, which may cause the system to prompt the driver to pay attention to power and battery life. However, no reports on this issue have been received for the time being. Relevant incident reports”. However, Times Finance also interviewed BMW on issues such as the time to pick up the car, but as of press time, it had not received a positive response.
It is worth mentioning that consumers who did not mention the car had trouble waiting for orders, and car owners who mentioned the car also encountered minor problems.
A car owner told Times Finance that the BMW i3 he had just picked up had a problem with a series of alarms, which affected the driving experience. The 4S store said that he would drive it first and wait for the manufacturer’s reply. However, as of the 22nd, BMW had not yet given any response. Answers and solutions. “Although I stopped skipping the alarm after restarting, I still felt scared for some unknown reason. And at the time, my situation was said to be an occasional problem, but now many riders in the group have said that similar situations have occurred. (4S store) said If it triggers again, I have to dismantle the central control unit and repair it. This doesn’t make sense, I just bought a new car.”
Times Finance also interviewed BMW about the problems car owners encountered after picking up their cars. As of press time, no positive response had been obtained. A source close to BMW China said, “It is recommended that car owners go through the dealer’s vehicle inspection first. After all, the situation of each car is different. If there are relevant situations, the dealer will report it according to BMW’s relevant procedures.”
Source | Photo provided by car owner
Can i3 support BMW’s new energy transformation?
As a new energy model tailor-made for the Chinese market, the current performance of the BMW Brilliance i3 is not impressive.
Data shows that the manufacturer’s guide price of the BMW Brilliance i3 on sale is 349,900 yuan, and it will be launched in March this year. Although it has been on the market for less than half a year, there are already considerable discounts on terminals. Autohome data shows that its terminal discounts are around 27,900 yuan. A BMW dealer in Guangzhou said, “The current price of the i3 can be as high as 319,900 yuan, and there is still room for negotiation if we go to the store.”
According to Times Finance, most new energy models under independent brands currently have few terminal discounts. After experiencing the increase in the cost of components such as power batteries, the selling prices of most new energy vehicles even increased several times during the year.
Source | BMW China official Weibo
According to Jiemian News, which quoted a BMW 4S store manager who recently resigned, it is difficult for BMW to sell new energy vehicles, and it is basically difficult to meet the sales targets set by the manufacturer every month. “The indicator given by the manufacturer is that new energy vehicle sales account for 10% to 15% of total sales every month. But if we sell 100 vehicles a month, we will be very happy if we can sell 10 new energy vehicles.”
According to data from CarInformer, BMW Brilliance i3 has been delivered in the past two months, with a total of 1,702 units delivered, of which 1,116 units were delivered in July, ranking outside the 200th place in the new energy market. For comparison, the price range of Tesla Model 3 is 279,900 yuan to 367,900 yuan. Its sales volume in June this year was 25,788 units, and the cumulative sales volume during the year was 61,742 units.
The new energy business got off to a bad start, and BMW’s fuel vehicle business in the Chinese market also suffered a certain decline due to the supply chain crisis. Data show that in the first half of this year, BMW’s cumulative sales in the domestic market were 378,700 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 23.3%.
Another industry insider said that BMW currently does not have many bright spots in its smart-electrification transformation. The market sales of its new energy models are mostly transformed from the brand influence created by its fuel vehicle era. With the advancement of the new energy wave, There is also a question mark as to how long its brand effect can last.
Gaulle, President and CEO of BMW Group Greater China, previously said, “Although there are still many uncertainties in the global market, the BMW Group remains confident in the prospects of the Chinese market. Going forward, BMW will continue to be customer-centric and continue to Expand investment in China and work with Chinese partners to contribute to the recovery and future development of the market.”
In addition, the BMW Group is also continuing to accelerate its pace of transformation. According to the BMW Group’s plan, by 2023, BMW’s pure electric products in China will increase to 13 models; by the end of 2025, BMW plans to deliver a total of 2 million pure electric vehicles. By then, a quarter of BMW’s sales in the Chinese market will be Pure electric vehicle.
Post time: Jan-03-2024