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A helpful reader brought my attention to a story I hadn’t seen. For the most part, electric vehicle technology news out of China is all about the ridiculously rapid pace of innovation there. Range has gotten dramatically better in the past five years, or even the past couple of years, and fast charging has gotten dramatically faster.
However, things are not always rosy….
This is a weird story, and it’s hard to know what’s actually going on here. Some “new energy vehicle” owners in China have claimed that EVs which originally had 500 km (CLTC) of range on a full charge got dropped to about 300 km of range after an over-the-air (OTA) software update. (That’s 310 miles and 185 miles for those who just think in miles.) Additionally, fast charging times reportedly changed from about 40 minutes to 70 minutes.
“This phenomenon is known in the industry as ‘battery locking’—automakers modify the battery management system through system upgrades without explicitly informing car owners, limiting charging limits and discharge power in software. Manufacturers claim this is to optimize battery function and reduce the risk of spontaneous combustion, but the cost is indeed sacrificed range and performance, compromising the user experience. A search on platforms like Black Cat Complaints revealed a surge in complaints about ‘battery locking’ in recent times,” CCTV reports.
