Author: Yang Haiyan
Intro: Ora Good Cat, known as “female friend,” has really run into trouble this time. Avoiding consumers with various excuses after false advertising is not the correct way of handling things. The most important thing is to apologize and deal with the root cause seriously.
Ora Car, known as the “best friend” of women in cars, has won the female market and become the bestseller in the segment market with the brand slogan “a car brand that loves women more.” Just as there was a raccoon dog who wanted to become the prince, there is now Ora “chip swap,” which has caused controversy recently.
Ora car owners have complained that the latest Qualcomm eight-core high-performance chip used in the Ora Good Cat entertainment system is not true. Through the owner’s inspection, it was found that the central processor installed in the car actually uses the old Intel 4-core A2940 chip released in 2016.
Ms. Zhou from Shanghai bought an Ora Good Cat new energy vehicle in November. Zhou said, “What attracted me most was the brand’s claim of installing a Qualcomm eight-core car chip, which can achieve rich in-car functions.” However, after picking up the car, Zhou found that the vehicle she picked up was not equipped with the Qualcomm eight-core car chip. Therefore, Zhou questioned it, and the Ora car company told her that they couldn’t switch the chips for her.
In response to this incident, the protagonist, Great Wall Ora, responded many times. On November 15th, the account “Good Cat Master,” certified as the Ora Good Cat Product Director, posted on the Ora APP that he had noticed that some Good Cat users had raised differentiated requirements for the car system and that they valued it very much. They have started to communicate and understand in many ways. However, the actual operation has not given the audience the feeling that Ora has faced the user directly.
On November 17th, Ora responded for the first time on the APP official website, stating that a special working group had been established to conduct investigations at the first time, and it had decided to speed up the configuration of Carplay and HiCar functions on the basis of the original development plan of Ora Good Cat products, and provide users with OTA function upgrades for free (expect software development for 3.5 months + certification for 6.5 months), providing users with a more rich user experience. In other words, this Ora message was not accurate and timely enough, which caused a lot of troubles for car owners. But this action did not solve the root cause and still caused disputes among car owners.
At the same time, Ora stated on the APP official website: Some non-Ora Good Cat users impersonated real users, formed WeChat groups, created negative opinions, incited negative emotions of real users, prevented normal communication of users, and attempted to seek undue benefits, relevant evidence of which has been fixed and reported to the police.
On November 22, the official confirmation from Eura stated that the car entertainment system was not equipped with a Qualcomm octa-core processor. The statement said that the Eura Cat model launched in 2020 does not have the Qualcomm octa-core processor but it is planned to be included in future car models. Eura also proposed a solution to compensate car owners, offering an equity package worth 7,200 yuan for owners who purchased the Eura Cat model before December 31, 2021. The equity package includes free upgrades to Carplay and HiCar functions, extended two-year free entertainment data packages, and lifetime warranty service for the first owner’s three electric components.
According to China’s advertising law, online advertisements should be recognizable and enable consumers to distinguish them as advertisements. The issue of Eura’s false advertising will be resolved through legal proceedings. However, Eura has not taken any practical actions to solve the fundamental problem of user complaints and they lack convincing power as they have not directly faced car owners.
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Around November 20, the introduction about the Qualcomm chip “with 8 CPU processing cores, a GPU image processor, and a digital signal processor” was deleted from Eura’s official website. Eura did not directly respond to car owners but quietly removed the previous official promotion about the Qualcomm chip. This behavior is “turning a blind eye” and car owners have expressed dissatisfaction.
The event continued to escalate, and Eura Cat’s “chip replacement” was named by CCTV. After CCTV Finance reported that Eura Cat’s “car entertainment system chip is inconsistent with the promotion”, “Eura Automotive was exposed to defraud consumers” made the hot search on December 7. Ms. Zhou is not an isolated case, as many car owners have encountered similar problems and question whether Eura Cat’s brand has engaged in false advertising and misled consumers during sales.# Long Great Wall Euler Has Many Car Owners Complaining
Many car owners have voiced their grievances, saying, “The car’s infotainment system is getting slower and slower after being in use for more than a month,” “I cannot install any software, and the existing software cannot be updated,” “The infotainment system freezes, the navigation and the voice control stop functioning,” and “It’s hard to imagine having such bugs in a new car after just one or two months of use.” These similar issues faced by many car owners are all caused by the same problem– the car’s embedded chip, which is an Intel chip. Car owners have launched complaints and protests regarding this issue, causing a lot of commotion. Such “bait and switch” practices by Euler are neither legal nor ethical.
On November 27th, Euler held a communication meeting and responded to the concerns about the chip problem, chip replacement, and compensation rights. Dong Yudong, the GM of Euler Automotive and the person in charge of the Euler Great Wall Cat brand, expressed his deep regret for the problems caused to users by the chip issue. He promised to conduct a thorough investigation into the incident, properly handle related matters, and provide satisfactory replies to consumers.
Not until November 30th did Euler Great Wall Cat announce that the manufacturer had established a dedicated “Infotainment System Experience Service Group” to provide one-on-one specialized service and solutions to users’ infotainment issues. The service group has since arrived in various locations such as Nanjing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shandong, etc., to contact users to understand, inspect, and maintain their infotainment issues and to provide one-on-one service to help users solve their problems and achieve a pleasant infotainment experience.
The Euler Great Wall Cat was launched in November 2020. Its parameter configuration at launch showed that it has a “Smart Service Processor” and not the “Coffee Intelligence Platform.” The “Smart Service Processor” includes various chip control architectures such as Qualcomm, Intel, Renesas, etc. However, the detailed content of these subdivisions was not written entirely, leading to many users’ confusion.
CarQuality.com publicly released the top 30 complaint rankings for November car models, in which the Euler Great Wall Cat ranked first due to “inconsistency with advertising claims and the failure of the audiovisual system,” with a total of 557 complaints, a 556% increase compared to the previous month.
At the time of writing, many complaints and videos related to the “Euler Great Wall Cat chip problem” can still be found on the CarQuality.com complaint platform. The typical issues mostly include “sales fraudulence and inconsistency with advertising claims,” “the malfunction of the car’s accessories, electronics, audio and video systems, and the malfunction of the reversing radar,” “Euler Great Wall Cat’s false advertising claims inconsistent with official claims,” and “Euler Great Wall Cat’s use of Intel chips is suspected of false advertising.”
As for the Intel chip in the car, it was designed five or six years ago and cannot keep up with the times. This is also why car owners cannot freely install software, including car navigation, in the car and face many problems such as inability to upgrade. Some car owners have expressed their feelings, “From being happy to pick up the car more than half a year ago, to now knowing that their vehicles have such problems, the gap is really too big.”
The car’s infotainment system is an important component of the car, and consumers can protect their legitimate rights and interests through legal means such as the State Administration for Market Regulation or the China Consumers Association. Many car owners cannot accept Euler’s attitude towards the issue and the ultimate 7200 yuan compensation package. Some Euler Haomao car owners are contacting lawyers and choosing to take legal action to safeguard their rights. Euler Haomao, which claims to be a “female friend,” has really suffered a setback this time. After false advertising, evading consumers by finding various excuses is not the correct way to handle the problem. It is essential to apologize seriously and address the root cause.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.