It's news for the common person, who doesn't know anything about battery tech. And that's what happens when you sell products mainstream, as opposed to products for hobbyists.
The article references this being a problem for the 3rd world most of all. For cheap markets. And it is, but we've also seen this in the first world, from companies such as Mitsubishi cutting costs:
https://topclassactions.com/la...
The long story short of the above, if you dig, is that they simply removed the battery warmer. "Why would people in Canada need a battery warmer?", they presumably thought. Bad news for them, their marketing brochures, and website still said it came with a battery warmer. Further dealers and sales at dealers weren't told before the model came out, and most dealers didn't know until customers started getting stranded in -20C weather.
After all, who disassembles an entirely new vehicle's battery pack to see? Especially when Mitsubishi says it has one still.
They also kept this advertising it had a battery warmer for quite some time, despite complaints. I think it was a year+.
Couple that with the next move, they removed the lead acid 12V battery too. While a weight and cost saving measure which makes sense on the surface, with no battery heater, the PHEV couldn't start, as drawing power from a -18C (or some such temp) battery will destroy it. So the computer won't let you draw any power until the battery pack is warmer.
If there was a 12V acid battery, it could start the engine, which could then warm the battery pack via charging, and then you could draw power from it.
So:
- they removed the battery warmer, and lied about it
- they removed the 12V lead acid, without thinking of the consequences (or didn't care)
- people were constantly stranded
Literally not knowing that the battery heater was removed, as the car manual, the documentation on the website, the sales people all said it had one, people would discover this problem in horrible ways. Some would keep their car in a heated garage, then drive to the grocery store, and when coming out the car would be too cold to start. Yay!
I haven't heard of anyone in an emergency, but with zero power and the right conditions, you could literally be stranded on the side of the road. At -40C. With no heater, because no battery. Yes, this could happen with any car breakdown, however this wasn't a car breakdown... this was Mitsubishi being incredibly stupid, cheap, lying about it, pretending there wasn't a problem for more than a year, gaslighting people, the list goes on. And you, dear consume, get to suffer.
I hope Mitsubishi gets completely destroyed and leaves the Canadian market as a result, but we'll see I suppose. Point is, people even selling into Western markets will pull stupid junk like this, because even car manufacturers barely understand it.