Photo by Oxana Melis on Unsplash

News broke recently that 173 car owners of Weltmeister (WM), a Chinese NEV brand, had filed a class-action lawsuit in January against the company, asking it to stop false advertising. 

Car buyers claimed that at the end of last year, WM lured them with “free inspection of the car and a voucher worth CNY 200 (USD 31.50),” but in fact, the auto maker clandestinely “limited the charging SoC (State of Charge)” of their vehicles through OTA (Over The Air) upgrades, media reported.

By limiting the charging SoC, EV makers could reduce the charging voltage of their car batteries and this has become a lightning rod for criticism among car owners.

Word of WM’s tinkering with its car batteries surfaced when a customer found after a service that his car showed a voltage of 396V when the battery charged to 99%, about 10V less than the standard. 

This is often referred to as "locked" electricity in industry parlance, which considerably reduces battery life.

Consumers also complained that the “limited” model from WM could only reach 160-180 kilometers in driving range, around 40% of what is officially promised. 

In addition, when the cell life  has 6% left, the SoC is displayed as “zero.” When the battery capacity is shown at 3%, the power decreases significantly. Finally, the maximum acceleration can only reach 47km/h. 

The company has recalled models for OTA upgrades in ways that have prompted widespread criticisms. Since May last year, owners have been informed to get free in-store maintenance, during which WM upgraded some cars secretly. 

Some car owners said that remote OTA updated their vehicles during this year’s Spring Festival without users’ permission.

The OTA upgrade is made due to an excessive number of accidents involving WM's products. In 2020, four WM vehicles caught fire within a month. Similar incidents happened to three WM models in the space of five days in December 2021.

In October 2020, the company recalled 1,282 defective cars due to fire-proneness, in a move that confirmed the issue with the battery.

Observers pointed out that WM’s battery supplier mixed impurities in production, resulting in a process known as thermal runaway that could lead to blaze.