Porsche China apologizes to car owners, consumers don’t buy it: Chinese car owners are not so good at cheating

On April 30, the Porsche Press Center issued an announcement “A letter from Porsche China to car owners“, to apologize to the recent car owners’ rights protection incident caused by the reduction of the “steering column”.

Porsche China said that the global semiconductor capacity shortage is still very serious. The continuation of the new crown epidemic, especially the widespread spread of the Omikron virus, has made the situation even worse. We are facing an extremely volatile and challenging situation. We are closely monitoring and assessing developments on a daily basis to reduce possible impacts.

After many coordination efforts at Porsche headquarters, it is still unable to estimate the arrival time of the chips related to the electric adjustment function.This means that the previous recovery replacement plan will place customers in constant uncertainty and indefinite wait.

Therefore, at the end of the first quarter of this year, Porsche headquarters was forced to decide to cancel the restoration and replacement plan of the steering column with electric adjustment function.. Porsche China immediately authorized Porsche Centres across the country to actively inform and communicate with relevant customers. We learned that each Porsche Centre has gradually communicated with relevant customers in batches.

We fully understand the disappointment of affected customers and their willingness to express their opinions. To this end, we have quickly established a special working group, led by Porsche Headquarters and Porsche China, together with relevant suppliers, to jointly study all possibilities, and hope to find a solution as soon as possible. We share the urgency of our affected customers.

However, since March this year, the sudden recurrence of the epidemic in China and related prevention and control measures, as well as the epidemic that has continued overseas, have increased the difficulty of communication and collaborative work. We also hope to obtain the understanding of customers and give us more time to work hard to find a solution.At the same time, we will actively communicate with each affected customer together with Porsche authorized dealers and negotiate a reasonable solution.

Previously, many car owners complained that the Porsche they ordered was officially reduced for no reason. Originally, Porsche officially promised to temporarily reduce the vehicle to a “manual steering column” due to insufficient supply of chips, and will upgrade the “electric steering column” for owners free of charge in the future. After that, the official changed its stance to not allow free upgrades, and the allocation of millions of luxury cars was reduced, and only 2,300 yuan vouchers were provided as compensation.

It is understood that in the absence of relevant chips, PorscheSince the second half of last year, the steering column with electric adjustment function of some on-sale Porsche models has been replaced with a manual adjustment steering column, and the electric steering column adjustment function will be restored free of charge in the later stage when the car owner promises that the relevant chips are sufficient.

However, in February and March of this year, due to the delay in solving the chip problem, Porsche announced to cancel the later restoration and replacement plan and compensate consumers 2,300 yuan for after-sale coupons..

This move has caused dissatisfaction among many Porsche owners. On April 27, at the online live broadcast conference of the Porsche Taycan CrossTurismo model in China, many consumers entered the online live broadcast room and carried out “screen-swiping rights protection” against the steering column problem.

However, it is clear that the owner did not buy into Porsche’s apology.

According to the Economic Observer, some consumers commented: “Porsche’s excuses are useless, we must compensate us”It’s a bit of an afterthought, if those car owners didn’t unite, it is estimated that Porsche would want to send us 2,300 vouchers, but I didn’t expect Chinese car owners to be so foolish.”

According to official Porsche data,In the first quarter of 2022, Porsche delivered a total of 68,426 new cars to customers worldwide. China is Porsche’s largest single sales market in the world, with 17,685 new cars delivered in the first quarter.

The following is the full text of a letter from Porsche China to car owners:

Hashtag: Porsche China Apology