(Yicai) Dec. 12 -- Geely Holding Group, Great Wall Motor, and Huawei marque Aito have cast doubt on the results of tests carried out on their electric vehicles' winter battery life by ByteDance’s car information and review app, claiming they were based on unequal conditions and contrived situations.

Dongchedi published the results of its battery performance tests on 19 hybrid EVs under winter conditions on Dec. 6, with the top four spots taken by models produced by Shenzhen-based BYD, China's largest EV manufacturer.

BYD's Yangwang U8 ranked first with a battery life of 105 kilometers, falling short of its claimed 124 km range. Fourteen other vehicles, including Great Wall’s Wey Lanshan and Tank 400 HiT, Geely's Galaxy L6, and Huawei's Aito Wenjie M7, achieved less than 50 percent of their claimed battery life expectancy, with the figure for the Wenjie M7 at only 32 percent.

In its criticism of the Dongchedi’s findings, Aito said that checking the Wenjie M7’s battery life by frequently opening its doors and windows in extreme cold weather for long periods of time when also using the heating system is far from what users would actually do in such conditions.

The Wenjie M7 was also not tested when fully charged, with the range extender activated too late, Aito added.

Richard Yu, head of Huawei's intelligent automotive solutions business unit, reposted Aito's comments and added his own, saying the tests had “misled the public” and that “science and preciseness are the basic rules that should be followed.”

The tests are not scientific and precise, so the results are not convincing, said Yang Xueliang, senior vice president of Geely. The vehicles were not given equal time to prepare, and the battery charge before departure was not recorded, Yang added.

Great Wall doubts the results of its vehicles’ battery lives, fuel consumption when the battery is dead, and climbing performance, it said on Weibo yesterday. The Baoding-based company will hold a meeting about the findings in Beijing on Dec. 14, it added.

Dongchedi responded to the criticism by saying that there was no unfair treatment. The tests were done with fully charged batteries at minus 20 degrees Celsius, and all of the cars used uniform standards for preparation and departure, in line with what users do in winter, it said.

Dongchedi is not a professional and authoritative appraisal and evaluation organization, and whether its tests and standards align with everyday driving habits is worth debating, industry insiders pointed out.

Editor: Martin Kadiev