As of this year, there have been 1.66 million vehicles undergoing OTA upgrades. Why can OTA upgrades also be called recalls?

On the 19th, Xiaomi Auto's recall of some standard - edition SU7 electric vehicles caught public attention.

As this recall will use over - the - air (OTA) technology to upgrade the software of the vehicles within the recall scope for free, many netizens are confused about the form of the recall. Why does this kind of OTA upgrade also fall into the category of vehicle recalls?

What is a vehicle recall?

According to the "User Guide for Vehicle Recalls" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guide") issued by the Defective Product Recall Technology Center of the State Administration for Market Regulation in March this year, a recall refers to the activity in which a vehicle manufacturer takes free measures to eliminate defects in the vehicles it has sold. During the recall process, the manufacturer will promptly release information about product defects and take free measures such as supplementary labeling, repair, replacement, and return to eliminate the defects.

This means that the prerequisite for a recall is that the product has defects. The "Guide" states that a defect refers to a situation where, due to reasons such as design, manufacturing, or labeling, there is a common non - compliance with national or industry standards for personal and property safety in the same batch, model, or category of vehicle products, or other unreasonable risks that endanger personal and property safety.

The "Guide" also mentions that common defect situations include sudden loss of engine power while driving, brake failure, steering assist failure, breakage, detachment, or separation of key components from the vehicle leading to vehicle loss of control, tire bulging, cracking, or splitting resulting in tire blow - out, short - circuit in the electrical or circuit system causing overheating and fire of components, loss of lighting function, failure of restraint systems such as airbags, and fire in the power battery.

Public information shows that OTA is over - the - air technology, which means wireless system upgrades through mobile communication technology. In the automotive industry, it is generally called remote upgrade.

Vehicle OTA upgrade is when automobile enterprises use OTA technology to update and upgrade the vehicle software system through the wireless communication network to achieve the goals of defect repair, performance improvement, and function expansion.

The "Notice on Further Strengthening the Management of Access, Recall, and Software Online Upgrade of Intelligent and Connected Vehicles" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice") jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State Administration for Market Regulation at the end of February clearly classifies OTA upgrades into four categories for management, namely non - technical parameter changes (such as UI optimization), changes involving main technical parameters, those involving autonomous driving functions, and those for defect recall.

In early March, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology further interpreted the "Notice". For OTA upgrade activities that do not involve changes in the main technical parameters of the product, enterprises can implement the upgrade after completing the filing. For those involving changes in the main technical parameters of the product, enterprises must obtain product change approval and complete the filing before implementing the upgrade. For OTA upgrade activities involving vehicle autonomous driving functions, corresponding permits should be obtained in accordance with the relevant regulations on access management.

The above - mentioned "Notice" also points out that when an enterprise conducts OTA upgrade activities to eliminate defects in vehicle products and implement a recall, it should organize and implement the recall in accordance with the "Measures for the Implementation of the Regulations on the Recall of Defective Automobile Products" and immediately stop the production and sales of defective vehicle products. If the measures to eliminate defects involve changes in the main technical parameters of the product, the enterprise can resume the production of the corresponding vehicle products only after obtaining product change approval.

This means that vehicle products can repair product defects through OTA upgrades.

"Our concept of (recall) needs to change. In the past, we all thought that recalls were needed when mechanical parts had defects. Now, the two biggest changes in new energy vehicles are power and intelligence, and intelligence covers a lot of software. Under such changes, software problems also require recalls." Zhang Hong, a member of the Expert Committee of the China Automobile Dealers Association, told China New Economy.

A scene after a certain self - owned brand vehicle activates the assisted driving function. Photo by China New Economy

Taking Xiaomi Auto's recall on the 19th as an example, in some vehicles within the recall scope, under certain circumstances when the L2 high - speed pilot assisted driving function is activated, the recognition, warning, or handling of extremely special scenarios may be insufficient. If the driver does not intervene in time, it may increase the risk of collision, posing a safety hazard.

Therefore, Xiaomi Auto will use OTA upgrade to eliminate the safety hazard.

"The OTA upgrade and recall event of Xiaomi Auto reflects the new characteristics of vehicle intelligent development, and this mandatory recall is of great significance. Automobile enterprises have many scenarios in the field of intelligent connectivity, and some aspects are not perfect enough, requiring continuous upgrades. Especially when facing relatively serious hidden dangers, the upgrade process needs to be accelerated to comprehensively and effectively eliminate vehicle hidden dangers and safeguard consumers' rights and interests." Cui Dongshu, the secretary - general of the Passenger Car Association, told China New Economy.

"OTA has become an important way to implement vehicle recalls."

China New Economy checked the official website of the Defective Product Recall Center of the State Administration for Market Regulation and found that as of the time of publication, there have been 5 OTA upgrade recall activities in 2025, involving 1.6675 million vehicles, and the automobile enterprises involved are Xiaomi Auto, Chery Jaguar Land Rover, and Tesla.

Among them, four recall activities were carried out under the defect investigation launched by the State Administration for Market Regulation, and one did not specify the type of recall.

Data from the official website of the State Administration for Market Regulation shows that as of the end of 2024, it had received a total of 4,047 reports of OTA upgrade activities from enterprises, involving 486 million vehicle times. In 2024, automobile enterprises carried out 19 OTA recalls, involving 4.068 million vehicles, a year - on - year increase of 246.8%.

Will OTA upgrade events through vehicle recall means have an impact on the residual value of the vehicle?

Zhang Hong believes that if there are defects in the product hardware, the recall may affect the vehicle's value retention rate, but software defects may not necessarily have such an impact. "It is undeniable that some consumers may consider whether the vehicle has been recalled when buying a used car and raise objections to the vehicle price."

He further explained: "Software problems are different from hardware problems. For example, if the original battery of a vehicle has a range of 500 kilometers and only 200 kilometers are left during a second - hand transaction, it will cause the vehicle to depreciate. In terms of software, after the automobile enterprise solves the problem through OTA, the vehicle will restore its original functions and may not necessarily cause the vehicle to depreciate. Sometimes, with repeated use of the software, the vehicle functions will become more mature, and the vehicle may even develop the performance to avoid risks."

The State Administration for Market Regulation issued a document in early March, stating that as the number of vehicle software codes increases, OTA has become an important way to implement vehicle recalls.

"As long as there is an OTA upgrade for a vehicle, even if it is not a recall, the manufacturer needs to tell the customer what problems the vehicle has and what adjustments have been made to the vehicle through this OTA upgrade to ensure the customer's right to know." Zhang Hong said. He believes that OTA upgrade and recall events will occur frequently in the future, so it is urgent to issue national - level or industry - association - level standards to regulate the development of intelligent software.

In mid - August, the State Administration for Market Regulation publicly solicited opinions on the "Notice on Strengthening the Recall, Production Consistency Supervision and Management, and Standardizing the Promotion of Intelligent and Connected New Energy Vehicle Products (Draft for Comment)", which mentioned that enterprises are not allowed to carry out OTA upgrade activities without filing, not allowed to push software versions that have not been fully tested and verified to users, not allowed to conceal defects through OTA, and must ensure that the products equipped with combined driving assistance systems are consistent with the approved products and assume product safety responsibilities.

This article is from the WeChat public account "China New Economy" (ID: jwview). Author: Gong Chenyuan, Editor: Xie Jingwen, Responsible Editors: Wei Wei and Li Zhongyuan. Republished by 36Kr with authorization.