Great Wall WEY's fuel consumption fraud scandal continues, and its core technology is still not up to standard

As a typical representative of the upward movement of independent brands, Great Wall WEY has attracted much attention since its birth. However, less than two months after the launch of the first new car VV7 under this independent high-end brand, the controversy surrounding the "fuel consumption fraud" of this car continued. Some industry insiders said that the fraud problem is not limited to a certain model, which reflects the impetuous mentality of some independent brand companies. Some people are even worried that this will seriously affect the independent brands' creation of a high-end brand image. However, some industry insiders pointed out that this is just a risky marketing plot, which attracts attention by "self-blackening" when conventional promotion fails to achieve the expected results.

Video reveals WEY's fuel consumption fraud

Recently, an independent evaluation media released a test drive video of Great Wall WE YVV 7 on the Internet. The video shows that under highway conditions, the average fuel consumption value displayed by the VV 7's on-board computer is consistent with the actual test value, but there is a deviation from the actual value under urban conditions. In actual driving, under urban conditions, the measured fuel consumption of WE YVV 7 is 15.0L/100K M, but the instrument panel shows 12.5 L/100K M. During the 40 minutes of idling, the on-board computer stopped counting fuel consumption. In the end, the computer displayed fuel consumption and the actual fuel consumption differed by 2.5L. The testers questioned that this phenomenon showed that there was a problem of deliberate cheating in the on-board computer when recording fuel consumption. "When idling, the engine is still running and burning fuel, but the on-board computer has stopped counting. Part of the fuel is deliberately 'blocked' by the on-board computer, which is an obvious falsification of fuel consumption. According to the fuel consumption data officially released by Great Wall, the fuel consumption of Great Wall WE YVV 7 is only 8L per 100 kilometers under comprehensive conditions, and the fuel consumption is as low as 6.6L in suburban conditions. The fuel consumption per 100 kilometers under congested road conditions in the city is 10.4L, which is significantly different from the 15L per 100 kilometers shown in the actual evaluation above. Even a former employee of Great Wall Motors revealed that as early as the beginning of the development of the WE Y brand last year, Great Wall was aware of the problem of high fuel consumption, but this problem was not reported to the higher authorities, resulting in the problem of fuel consumption fraud in the newly launched new cars.

Core technology is still not up to standard

However, an industry insider immediately explained that the transmission is the key reason for the high fuel consumption, not the engine. The high fuel consumption of VV 7 is mainly due to Great Wall's self-produced dual-clutch transmission, which has major problems in internal design, gear ratio, and matching. In addition, in order to meet the requirements of quietness in the car, the body weight has increased by 200 kilograms, and it was launched on the market without large-scale testing and mass verification, so high fuel consumption is inevitable. In contrast, the 2.0T engine equipped with the WE Y brand has been adjusted and improved.

However, several products under Great Wall, such as Haval H7 and H6, were accused of having the same problem of idling fuel consumption not being included in the average fuel consumption. Some people even compared it with other domestic brands with previous criminal records. The industry questioned that the company's intention to cover up high fuel consumption through fraud revealed the technical defects and deficiencies behind it. From Haval H6 to WE YVV 7, Great Wall Motors has never found a "fundamental" solution to the problem of high fuel consumption, which also confirmed that Great Wall has serious problems in its core technology. People can't help but recall the bold statement made by Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall, at the Shanghai Auto Show: "The biggest competitive advantage of the WE Y brand is that it has product strength to support it."

Is WE Y forced to take a risky move due to its low awareness?

According to the overall data released by Great Wall Motors, a total of 68,942 new cars were sold in May 2017, a decrease of 3.76% over the same period last year. The sales of Haval H6, which has been leading the SUV market, declined in May and finally sold 35,262 units. The sales of other Haval SUV models all declined, among which the sales of Haval H1 were 2,094 units, a year-on-year decline of 59.94%, the sales of Haval H5 were 1,378 units, a year-on-year decline of 40.35%, and the sales of Haval H6 and H7 were 35,262 units and 2,242 units, respectively, a year-on-year decline of 5.80% and 29.39%. After all, Haval H6, which has been fighting in the domestic market for many years, has shown signs of fatigue, but with Haval H8 and H9 announcing that their "high-end" performance is not satisfactory, the sales-boosting effect of the WEY brand is temporarily not reflected. People familiar with the matter pointed out that compared with expectations, the shipment situation of W EY VV 7 was not good, and the actual shipment volume was only about 40%.

Many analysts have pointed out that since Great Wall Motors cannot solve the problem of high fuel consumption, it can only cover up the real fuel consumption level through technical "fraud" to make consumers believe that they are "low fuel consumption". This dishonest behavior towards consumers will have a negative impact on the "upward" development of independent brands. However, some marketing experts believe that Great Wall Motors' risky move this time is not about technical fraud, but marketing hype.

As we all know, the official fuel consumption is significantly higher than the actual fuel consumption when we usually use the car. The fuel consumption per 100 kilometers indicated in the manual of domestic cars is the fuel consumption under comprehensive working conditions, including acceleration, deceleration, braking and engine idling, etc., which often occur in actual driving. Therefore, the manufacturer needs to calculate the fuel consumption under idling or low-speed driving. In order to embellish fuel consumption data and play tricks, many automobile companies do not include idling or low-speed fuel consumption. This behavior has always existed in the industry. Previously, a certain independent brand sold SUVs well, and many car owners pointed out that the actual comprehensive fuel consumption was more than 5 liters higher than the official data. Therefore, the data with a difference of 2.5L this time attracted widespread attention, which made some marketers feel a little weird.

A senior marketing person said that this "fuel consumption fraud" incident happened at a time when domestic oil prices have dropped significantly recently. From the perspective of car owners' consumer psychology, the news that a company with a good reputation was exposed to have high actual fuel consumption does not have as much negative impact on consumers who buy cars at this time as we imagined. What's more, this method of fuel consumption fraud is common in the industry, and there are not many consumers who really care about the performance of their intended models in this regard. In the view of this marketing person, when the attention of the W EY brand is not satisfactory, such a hype can at least attract attention. The Great Wall official will not rush to speak out, and may announce to the public at an appropriate time that it has made targeted technical improvements in controlling fuel consumption, so as to give consumers an explanation.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.