Eight car brands suddenly recalled 770,000 vehicles on the eve of March 15

March 15 is a Chinese event, especially for the automobile industry, which produces and sells more than 24 million passenger cars a year. Many senior executives of multinational auto companies responsible for government and media relations were absent from the Geneva Motor Show before March 15, and everyone knows the reason.

I don't know if it's a coincidence, but 8 brands from 12 manufacturers issued 15 batches of recall notices before March 15, involving more than 770,000 defective cars. Among them, Audi recalled the largest batch, nearly 700,000 vehicles.

Takata again

In the 15 batches of recalls in March ending on March 13, airbag (curtain) defects were still the biggest factor, involving more than 7 models of 6 brands. Although only Changhe Suzuki clearly stated in the recall announcement that the airbag supplier was Takata, based on the descriptions of defective products by other brands, it can be basically judged that these brands all used products from the same supplier, namely, Takata.

At the same time as the above brands announced recalls in China due to airbag defects, Nissan, BMW North America and Ford also recently filed a lawsuit against Takata. The three companies accused Takata of concealing and deceiving in the airbag products in the lawsuit, and hoped to use the lawsuit to force the manufacturer to bear the losses caused by its airbag defects. According to statistics, at least 17 deaths worldwide may be related to the defects of airbag inflators produced by Takata.

The Takata airbag explosion incident can be traced back to 2008. In the days that followed, more and more car brands announced recalls due to the use of Takata airbags. In 2015 alone, the United States recalled nearly 34 million vehicles due to Takata defective airbags. This number is equivalent to one in every seven cars on American roads needing to be recalled. In China in the same year, the number was 1.33 million vehicles.

It is worth noting that, taking the data from 2014 as an example, the number of defective cars recalled in the Chinese market due to Takata is less than 10% of that in the United States. However, as Takata airbags are increasingly being paid attention to, the number of recalls due to Takata in the Chinese market is also increasing. In 2016, among the 11.3256 million defective cars recalled in the Chinese market, more than 6.4 million vehicles were involved in airbag and seat belt problems, accounting for 57%.

Normal recall

On January 1, 2016, the "Implementation Measures for the Regulations on the Management of Recall of Defective Automobile Products" was officially implemented; that year, domestic defective automobile recalls exceeded 10 million for the first time, reaching 11.3256 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 103%, setting a historical high.

Historical data shows that it took nine years (2004 to 2013) to recall the first 10 million defective vehicles in the Chinese market, two years (2014 to 2015) to recall the second 10 million vehicles, and only one year (2016) to recall the third 10 million vehicles.

In the field of passenger cars (including some commercial vehicles), according to incomplete statistics, as of February this year, there were 406 recalls of defective cars (data for 2014 is incomplete), and the trend is increasing year by year. Among them, there were 152 recalls in 2015 and 163 recalls in 2016. In the first two months of this year, companies have issued 49 recall notices, both higher than the historical level in the same period. It is foreseeable that with the increase in sales and the deepening of the Takata airbag incident, the number and batches of automobile recalls in China this year will set a new record.

However, although recalls have become a norm in the Chinese market, some brands still have a fluke mentality and are unwilling and afraid to face them. Dongfeng Citroen is one example. According to statistics from the Chezhi.com: Since the Citroen C4L was launched, it has received a total of 1,381 related complaints, which is a considerable number. According to the Chezhi.com's "2016 Domestic Passenger Car Complaint Sales Ratio Ranking" data, among the 249 models that have been on the market for more than 3 months and have annual sales of no less than 15,000 units, the Citroen C4L ranks second from the bottom; it ranks last in the "2016 Joint Venture Brand Car Complaint Sales Ratio Ranking", with a complaint sales ratio of 130.5 per 10,000, which is 8.2 times the 2016 domestic passenger car complaint sales ratio of 15.9 per 10,000. Behind the large-scale customer complaints, the double-digit complaints of suspected product design defects are particularly noteworthy. In 2015, Dongfeng Citroen recalled the C4L 1.6T model, but there has been no action from Citroen on the issues with the 1.8L model reported by the Auto Quality Network.

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.