Photo: Volkswagen/edited by autoevolution
Volkswagen lost its crown in China to BYD in November. If you think that has to do with BYD selling only battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, some news from the largest car market in the world may offer another possible explanation. A group of customers sent the German carmaker an open letter about all the issues they are having with ID family vehicles.
According to CNEVPost, the problems have been happening since June 2021, when SAIC-Volkswagen started delivering the ID.4 and ID.6 (exclusive to China). The ID.3 did not make it any easier after being introduced in October 2021: it also presented the same issues.
The affected owners complain about losing internet connection frequently. Navigation and Apple CarPlay do not work. The instrument panel and the infotainment screen go black all of a sudden, leaving drivers with no information about the range, speed, and other relevant data. As the infotainment screen controls the air-conditioning, drivers may lose access to it, which is dangerous on rainy days (due to foggy windows and windscreen) and also in the winter.
Another safety concern is the backup camera failing to work, as well as several sound warnings the cars should emit and just don’t. Finally, the ID family cars present fault codes and cannot even start in some situations.
In their open letter to Volkswagen, the affected owners said that telling SAIC-Volkswagen about the flaws did not help much because the company could not solve them. In October 2022, the number of cases started to increase and broke out on a large scale on November 29. We have no idea why this is so specific and CNEVPost also did not mention that.
Besides reporting the issues, the affected owners want Volkswagen to stop selling the ID family vehicles in China until it can repair them. As they lost confidence the company would do that, they want regulatory authorities to ensure that really happens. And that is not enough: they want written apologies from the company and compensation for any financial problems customers may have faced due to the issues.
When Volkswagen mentioned it was having software issues, we did not imagine they were so severe, mainly because we did not hear about these cases in the U.S. or Europe. Considering the software is probably the same for all cars worldwide, that is strange: American and European customers should be facing similar issues. Either they are under the radar, or the software is different in China. The open letter from Chinese customers may reach more than SAIC-Volkswagen and the Chinese media: other ID owners worldwide may relate to what they are facing.
The affected owners complain about losing internet connection frequently. Navigation and Apple CarPlay do not work. The instrument panel and the infotainment screen go black all of a sudden, leaving drivers with no information about the range, speed, and other relevant data. As the infotainment screen controls the air-conditioning, drivers may lose access to it, which is dangerous on rainy days (due to foggy windows and windscreen) and also in the winter.
Another safety concern is the backup camera failing to work, as well as several sound warnings the cars should emit and just don’t. Finally, the ID family cars present fault codes and cannot even start in some situations.
In their open letter to Volkswagen, the affected owners said that telling SAIC-Volkswagen about the flaws did not help much because the company could not solve them. In October 2022, the number of cases started to increase and broke out on a large scale on November 29. We have no idea why this is so specific and CNEVPost also did not mention that.
Besides reporting the issues, the affected owners want Volkswagen to stop selling the ID family vehicles in China until it can repair them. As they lost confidence the company would do that, they want regulatory authorities to ensure that really happens. And that is not enough: they want written apologies from the company and compensation for any financial problems customers may have faced due to the issues.
When Volkswagen mentioned it was having software issues, we did not imagine they were so severe, mainly because we did not hear about these cases in the U.S. or Europe. Considering the software is probably the same for all cars worldwide, that is strange: American and European customers should be facing similar issues. Either they are under the radar, or the software is different in China. The open letter from Chinese customers may reach more than SAIC-Volkswagen and the Chinese media: other ID owners worldwide may relate to what they are facing.
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