According to Chinese media Kuai Technology, a heated debate reportedly took place among automotive influencers regarding the data "the utilization rate of in-car refrigerators is only 5%" announced by Deng Chenghao (Deng Chonghao), Chairman of China's new energy vehicle (NEV) brand Deepal, at a recent international NEV-related conference.

Deng reportedly stated, "The actual utilization rate of in-car refrigerators is only 5%, and the number of times rear-seat entertainment screens and in-car karaoke functions are used is less than 10 times a year." He added, "Simply stacking up hardware specs does not lead to a true experience. It is the comprehensive strength as a system that holds the key to victory or defeat."

This topic trended on the social media platform Weibo, and entrepreneur Han Lu (Han Lu) prefaced his remarks by saying, "I have a good relationship with Deepal and Mr. Deng." He then commented, "Of course, you can enjoy cold drinks in the car in the summer, and in the winter, if you set it to 50 degrees via remote control to keep fried chicken warm, you can eat it piping hot when you get home. In terms of usefulness, it is very useful and can be said to be one of the features unique to NEVs."

Famous automotive blogger Fish Laosi Leetime also expressed his view, "In-car refrigerators support both cooling and heating. You can enjoy cold drinks in the summer and warm drinks after skiing in the winter, and when camping, you can also store beef steaks, fresh food, etc. Since Deepal cars also have refrigerators, discussions based on such data are not very meaningful."

On the other hand, tech blogger Keji Xinyi revealed his experience that almost all of the cars he owns have in-car refrigerators, but he "hardly uses them," and he once forgot a bag of tomatoes in an in-car refrigerator for several months, only to find them rotten when he remembered.

Motor journalist YYP Yan Yupeng shared his thoughts on how to interpret this "5%" figure: "If only 5 out of 100 owners use it, then the equipment is clearly a failure and should not be adopted as standard equipment. However, if it only accounts for 5% of the time the car is used, then it cannot be definitively said that the equipment is useless or not worth the money. This is because for some people, a refrigerator is indispensable."

Sando, the host of the automotive talk show "Baiche Quanshuo," pointed out, "The frequency of use varies from person to person." He said that since he often shoots outdoors, he can enjoy warm tea in winter and cold drinks in summer, making it a very good piece of equipment. He then gave an example: "Even for clothes in a closet, about 70% of them are hardly worn." (Translated and edited by Yanagawa)