Written by Collins Eshiet | Edited by Cláudio Afonso
The electric vehicle industry has been moving rapidly in the world’s largest market, China, with local companies launching revamped versions of their models every year, or even within the same year — like Geely’s brand Zeekr.
The CEO of Shanghai-based EV maker Nio, William Li, pointed out the need for electric vehicle manufacturers to put the consumer’s interest first as the lack of “systematic thinking” can harm users’ trust in the brand, as initially reported by Yicai.
“In the past few years, chips, smart driving, intelligent cockpits, and other new forms of hardware have replaced engines and gearboxes to become the new core strengths of car makers. Unlike before, when only the upgrading of mechanical parts was considered, the iteration of chips and software is very fast now,” the chief executive noted.
“It means that many existing car owners can only enjoy the latest configurations for a short time before their vehicles become out-of-date and are no longer compatible with the latest hardware and software,” he added.
A recent example of this was the Chinese EV maker Zeeker after coming under attack from customers regarding the release of a new 007 model just six months after the old model launched.
“Therefore manufacturers need to have more systematic thinking, provide good services for existing customers and make long-term plans for software updates. Because if the old systems cannot be updated, it will greatly harm old users,” Li stated.
Most of the changes on the new Zeeker 007 model are software-based, as they boost intelligent driving with the Haohan Intelligent Driving 2.0 system.
Another upgrade to this newer model is the Zeeker OS AI system. Customers in China argue that these changes won’t come via an OTA upgrade to the 2024 model that launched about 6 months ago.
“Every generation of Nio new energy vehicles uses an intelligent system that integrates hardware and software. This makes the long-term maintenance of products possible,” Li highlighted as Nio prepares to deliver its first vehicle based on the NT3 platform.
While it is more complex and costly for the manufacturers to upgrade the hardware of previous-generation EV models, the vast majority of them upgrade the software via over the air updates to help them improve existing features and performance while constantly adding new ones.
Written by Collins Eshiet | Edited by Cláudio Afonso
