What The Heck Is Going On With OTA Cuts To EV Range In China?

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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.

It’s not clear from the reporting which companies this relates to, or which models. Perhaps coverage in China somewhere includes that, but I’m not finding it. Several automakers may have been identified, though. Maybe. “Recently, rumors circulated that eight automakers had been summoned for talks and three had been placed under investigation for ‘battery locking’ issues. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) responded that this claim is false, lacks official source, and is seriously inconsistent with the facts.” Hmm…. Were they summoned or were they not?

There’s a long Q&A with Zheng Fei, professor at China University of Political Science and Law and researcher at the Center for Sustainable Transportation Innovation, at that CCTV link if you want to learn more about “battery locking” and how to handle it. Check that out if you want to learn more.

CarNewsChina indicates that “China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and State Administration for Market Regulation issued updated rules on EV OTA management in March.” The new regulation prohibits “undisclosed ‘battery locking,’ forced silent updates, and the use of OTA updates to avoid recalls.” One would think that something serious and real triggered the new regulations. Right?

Unfortunately, there are a lot of unknowns here. It would be nice to have more insight into how much this actually happened, which companies were involved, and why they did what they did. However, I’m not confident we’re going to find out much more, especially if there are new regulations now strictly prohibiting this kind of thing.