Porsche vows to learn from customer dispute

German carmaker Porsche has acknowledged that it failed to "take into full consideration Chinese customers' voices", adding that it values Chinese customers and will better integrate into the local market.

Porsche China's chief operating officer David Xiao made the remarks in an exclusive interview last week with China Daily amid monthslong protests from Chinese customers who claimed the German carmaker had eaten its words about a steering function.

In the first half of 2021, Porsche found that it could not get enough chips for electrically adjustable steering columns. It decided in July that year to deliver the vehicles first and promised to enable the function when the chips became available.

However, some Chinese customers were told when they received their vehicles this year that Porsche would not enable the function. Instead, it would offer a 2,300-yuan ($346) aftersales voucher.

Up to 20,000 Porsche vehicles sold in the Chinese market are affected, involving almost all models available in the country, which is Porsche's largest market worldwide.

Meanwhile, in the US Porsche emailed owners of affected vehicles and offered $500 in compensation. Chinese customers felt this rubbed salt into their injury, calling Porsche's approach in different countries "unfair and a snub".

Some claim that Porsche did not show respect to its Chinese customers and may have broken the law as the electric function was part of the vehicle purchase contract.

In a statement last week, Porsche China vowed to make the steering column in all its vehicles electronically adjustable, a default configuration it had originally decided in March to cancel without customers' consent.

Porsche China said it is now possible to install the function after it held negotiations with its headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. The works will start in the third quarter of this year.

The China unit added that the works will run for some time because of the ongoing chip shortages that have been hurting the global auto industry since late 2020.

Those customers who would not like to restore the function will get a fixed amount of financial compensation. That figure will be 13,800 yuan, according to Porsche dealers. Porsche China said the original 2,300-yuan plan was the decision of Stuttgart for the global market.

"We now realize that we failed to take full consideration of Chinese customers' voices and did not do sufficient work in our dialogues with them. We would like to apologize for that," said Xiao, who is also Porsche China's vice-president in charge of sales and marketing.

Xiao said the incident is "an important lesson" for Porsche and they would step up efforts to improve customer satisfaction.

Analysts said the fumbled handling of the situation harmed Porsche's reputation in China, where sales reached almost 96,000 units in 2021, accounting for almost one-third of its global deliveries that year.

Xiao said it values the Chinese market and its consumers because of the market potential and the country's role in the global auto industry.

"We will listen to Chinese customers more carefully to better integrate into the Chinese market," said Xiao.