From refrigerators and color TVs to in-vehicle toilets: Who is paying for the annual upgrades of electric vehicles?

"In the world of martial arts, only speed is invincible!"

The famous quote shouted by Lei Jun back then now seems to have become an unbearable burden for the industry.

Compared with the 5 - 7 - year iteration cycle of traditional fuel - powered vehicles, today's electric vehicles have entered an era of "annual updates" or even "quarterly updates". Chips, batteries, headlights, interiors... Any technological update forces the entire vehicle to iterate. On the surface, consumers seem to have reaped the technological dividends, but the hidden costs behind it have put great pressure on practitioners.

"Which new car can sell well for a year these days? It's so difficult!" On April 11th, Li Bin, the founder of NIO, sighed at the 2026 High - level Forum on the Development of Intelligent Electric Vehicles.

New energy vehicles have defeated traditional fuel - powered vehicles with the "magic" of speed. Will they now be backfired by this "magic"? Is this "only speed is invincible" model really the optimal solution for the industry?

The "Iteration" Dilemma of Automobile Enterprises

In order to create new selling points in the competition, automobile enterprises are becoming more and more innovative. Recently, the patent application for an in - vehicle toilet by Seres was approved. This patent designs an emergency toilet device that can be hidden under the seat. It can be pulled out from under the seat when needed and pushed back to be hidden after use, hardly occupying the effective space inside the vehicle, meeting the sudden needs during long - distance self - driving tours, traffic jams, or when traveling with the elderly and children.

The so - called "toilet freedom" seems wonderful, but many netizens said they couldn't accept it. Some people said, "I'll have a psychological shadow. Once it's used, I'll think the car is completely dirty and I can't keep it anymore"; others thought, "You can put a portable toilet in the car, but there shouldn't be an integrated in - vehicle one because there will be residues. If you forget to clean it, won't it stink after a night..."

This just reflects the iteration dilemma that automobile enterprises are in due to product homogenization: If they don't launch new products, there will be no popularity; if they do, it seems to be over - done. The direct motivation behind this is the huge driving effect of iterative new products on sales. But is the pulsed sales explosion really beneficial to automobile enterprises?

In fact, automobile enterprises such as Xiaomi, NIO, and Li Auto have all fallen into the pit of sharp sales fluctuations. After models like YU7, ES8, and i6 were launched, they quickly received a large number of orders, but the initial production capacity couldn't keep up with the order explosion speed, and they experienced the pain of production capacity ramping up. The mismatch between production capacity and sales has given automobile enterprises a headache: when there are many orders, the production capacity is insufficient; just when the production capacity is increased, users' attention is diverted by other new models, followed by a decline in sales and idle production capacity.

"Ramping up production capacity requires investing money, adding equipment, and recruiting people. When sales decline, all these become idle. It's common for a single model to waste hundreds of millions of yuan. In the end, none of the automobile enterprises, the supply chain, and the users benefit, and the money is just wasted." Li Bin said at the forum.

The rapid iteration of electric vehicles further magnifies this waste of production capacity. In the era of fuel - powered vehicles, vehicles were iterated every 5 - 7 years. Although there were significant changes in power, appearance, and interior, the core components didn't change much; consumers could hardly tell the difference in the annual minor facelifts. The longer sales cycle diluted the cost and made the sales and market popularity relatively stable. For example, "Magotan, Accord, and Camry" have been ever - green in the B - class car market for decades.

In the era of electric vehicles, the iteration of competitors in intelligent driving, chips, batteries, and even headlights and interiors is forcing automobile enterprises to keep up. "Now the iteration speed is like 2 to the power of 3, much faster. If others iterate and you don't, it feels like the car is out - of - date, making it very difficult to balance supply and demand." Li Bin said.

However, from the perspective of consumers, isn't it a good thing to get a higher - configured car for the same amount of money with the rapid iteration of electric vehicles? In fact, as a durable good, a car has a long service life, and the benefits obtained when purchasing the car may become a "pit" in the later stage.

In 2022, there were limited options for new energy 7 - seat SUVs in the market. Ms. Ding in Beijing was attracted by the large space and long - range, and finally chose the Volkswagen ID 6 Crozz. "It had a CLTC range of 600 kilometers, which was considered a large - battery car at that time," Ms. Ding said.

However, in the past two years, the "new forces" have been fiercely competing in the "large 7 - seat" SUV market, with crushing iterations in terms of range, intelligence, and configuration, directly squeezing the ID 6 Crozz into an unpopular corner and finally leading to its discontinuation. As an unpopular model, the subsequent usage experience of the ID 6 Crozz has been greatly reduced.

Meanwhile, due to the too - fast model iteration and low market popularity, problems such as difficult and expensive maintenance and rapid depreciation of second - hand cars are likely to occur in the later stage of using the car. The configurations resulting from "rapid iteration" may ultimately be "paid for" by consumers themselves.

Two Major Causes

At electric vehicle press conferences, power batteries and chips are the two main protagonists and also the most costly components in car manufacturing. Together, they account for more than 50% of the car price. And precisely these two core components have the fastest iteration speed, bringing continuous cost pressure to automobile enterprises.

Among consumers, there is a popular saying that "buying an electric car is buying a battery", which shows the importance of power batteries. A few years ago, the CLTC range of ordinary household electric cars was still around four or five hundred kilometers, but now it has soared to seven or eight hundred kilometers. At the same time, the batteries have been comprehensively strengthened in terms of high - voltage fast charging, thermal management, and safety.

The evolution of automobile intelligence is essentially a process of continuous iteration of chip computing power. In 2020, the computing power of NVIDIA's DRIVE Xavier chip was about 30 TOPS, suitable for L2+ level assisted driving. By 2025, its Thor chip's computing power exceeded 1000 TOPS, which can support L4 autonomous driving.

Zeekr once suffered from problems with the in - vehicle chip. Its flagship model, the Zeekr 001, was unpopular due to insufficient chip performance. Later, it once upgraded the chips for old car owners for free. The "after - effects" lasted until November 2025. At that time, Zeekr launched a crowdfunding plan to upgrade the assisted driving system for old car owners across generations, and an additional R & D cost of nearly 200 million yuan was invested.

When industry competition is combined with the Chinese speed, the rapid iteration of electric vehicles may still be the norm. But in Li Bin's view, if the industry introduces unified standards, it will significantly reduce the cost losses caused by rapid iteration. Saving a few thousand yuan per car will provide the industry with an opportunity to reduce costs by over 100 billion yuan.

From the perspective of chips, the electrification and intelligence of automobiles have led to a sharp increase in the usage of chips in the whole vehicle. Although in - vehicle chips still rely on large manufacturers such as NVIDIA, the usage of other auxiliary chips is even greater. Take the recently launched NIO ES9 as an example. The number of semiconductor part numbers per vehicle exceeds 1000, with a total of more than 4000 chips. In a highly fragmented chip system, normalizing the types of such chips will greatly reduce the difficulty of supply chain management.

"Manufacturers have concerns about using domestic chips, mainly because of cost and quality. If a car can use 10 - 20 chips, even if each chip only costs a few tenths of a dollar, domestic basic chips can really be put into use and form commercial value," Li Bin said.

From the perspective of batteries, if the standardization and generalization of battery cells can be achieved, just like household AA and AAA batteries, the overall efficiency of the industry will be significantly improved. An engineer from CATL once told "Baobian" that because the battery pack specifications of various automobile enterprises are different, CATL once had to manage hundreds of types of battery cells, and there were more than a thousand types of battery pack specifications. Even when developing each new car, the battery pack had to be redesigned, resulting in inflexible supply - demand allocation.

For example, after the launch of the Li Auto i6, the battery supply was limited, and a long delivery cycle was required, which affected the sales. At present, whether it is lithium iron phosphate or ternary lithium batteries, the technical form has tended to be mature. If the industry uses unified standardized battery cells that are universal among manufacturers, even if the sales of some automobile enterprises or models fluctuate, the overall industry supply will be more stable.

Return to Pragmatism

In recent years, a number of "innovative selling points" that were once sought after have been continuously disproven by the market. From hidden door handles, half - steering wheels, to electronic rear - view mirrors and the touch - screen transformation of physical buttons, these once - popular iterative selling points have instead become the actual burden on users.

A car owner posted a video of himself turning the steering wheel on social media: When driving a large car over 5 meters long and making a U - turn, he had to turn the steering wheel several more times. Because it was a half - steering wheel, he had to pause for one or two seconds each time, wondering if the steering wheel was back in the correct position. And there are also many car owners who complain about the difficult - to - use hidden door handles and the dazzling multiple screens inside the car.

The test by the China Insurance Automotive Safety Index (C - NCAP) shows that after a side collision, only about 67% of the doors with hidden door handles of pure electric vehicles can be opened, 31 percentage points lower than that of traditional mechanical door handles. In January this year, the "Safety Technical Requirements for Automobile Door Handles" formulated by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments stipulate that "the car door should be equipped with an outside door handle that can be mechanically released... After an accident, the non - collision side door should be able to be opened through the outside door handle without the help of tools." Cui Dongshu, the secretary - general of the China Passenger Car Association, said in an interview with "Daily Economic News" that "this should be a clear ban on fully hidden door handles."

The reflection on "excessive iteration" is also reflected in the new product strategies of automobile enterprises. A SUV model of Great Wall Motors has been on the market since 2020. Although it has also been iterated, the classic designs such as the square - box shape, tough outline, and external spare tire have hardly changed much. Recently, the new car declaration catalog released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shows that the new model in this series has a longer wheelbase and is equipped with a lidar. The former enhances the off - road ability, and the latter improves the overall intelligence level, indicating that Great Wall Motors attaches more importance to core indicators such as off - road reliability rather than relying on selling points such as large screens, large batteries, and zero - gravity seats.

Interestingly, the Tesla Model Y, which also shows restraint, is currently the best - selling electric vehicle. In March this year, nearly 40,000 Model Ys were sold in China, topping the sales list. This SUV launched in 2019 has only undergone one mid - cycle facelift and has not yet completed a full - scale "generation change".

In the eyes of many users, compared with the rich configurations of domestic electric vehicles, the interior of the Model Y is as plain as a "rough - finished house". But while making subtractions in terms of configuration and iteration, the Model Y makes "additions" in areas that are crucial to the core interests of car owners. For example, it can be repaired at third - party repair shops without affecting the warranty; it won't be remotely locked in terms of battery power; it has excellent battery thermal management and solid body materials.

Similarly, the Toyota Sienna, as a global model, has crushed many new energy MPVs in sales with its reliable hybrid system and spacious and flexible space.

After all, a car is for driving. When the industry gets rid of the impetuousness of "only speed is invincible" and returns to the pursuit of core values such as safety, reliability, and practicality, it will be more conducive to achieving healthy and sustainable development. What consumers need is a car that they can drive with peace of mind and that can accompany them for a long time, rather than the anxiety and burden brought by frequent iterations.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Baobian" (ID: baobiannews), written by Chen Fashan, and published by 36Kr with authorization.