On February 18, a group of mainland Chinese auto bloggers released a joint statement accusing Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD of allegedly concealing product iteration plans and that the “Thousand-Mile Eye” function cannot be used, severely infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of both new and old car owners. They demanded that BYD publicly apologize and provide compensation for the affected rights. The joint statement has been signed by hundreds of people.
According to reports from Sina Technology and “Computer News,” the joint statement titled “Joint Rights Protection Statement of All Owners of BYD 2024, 2025 Models” alleges that due to various issues such as BYD’s practice of “selling old while promoting new” and the rights of old car owners being harmed during the purchase process, all owners of the new 2024, 2025 models of the Wangchao and Ocean series by BYD have issued this joint rights protection statement.
The statement accuses BYD of allegedly concealing product iteration plans, failing to clearly distinguish between product generations, leading to misleading sales tactics. For example, on February 10, 2025, BYD released an upgraded version of the same model to consumers, adding core features such as the “Heavenly Eye” intelligent driving system and upgraded central control screen, but maintaining the same price as the original model.
The statement alleges that despite knowing that a new smart driving model was about to be launched, BYD did not disclose the product iteration plan to consumers. Instead, they sold off outdated inventory of previous models with added features at the same price as the new models, depriving consumers of their right to know and choose about the product and service, with the new and old models having “the same model name, price but significant differences in core features,” resulting in a failure to clearly distinguish between product generations, violating Article 8 of the Advertising Law: the requirement for truthfulness and accuracy of product information.
The statement further mentions that BYD’s actions have led to a large number of owners purchasing outdated normal models at the price of high-end smart models without their knowledge, constituting deceptive sales towards consumers. The disregard for the rights of old car owners by BYD has severely damaged consumer trust and interests.
Furthermore, the statement highlights that the short interval between the model upgrades and owners purchasing the vehicles has significantly devalued the resale value of old models, rendering them unable to be upgraded to new configurations through official channels. This has negatively impacted the resale of second-hand vehicles. Current market feedback shows that the valuation of non-smart driving edition models of the same type has decreased by 18% to 25% compared to the previous month (source: China Automobile Dealers Association); BYD positioning the smart driving edition as “mass intelligent driving” and the technological advancement as “epoch-making iteration,” indirectly acknowledges the shortcomings of the old models.
Moreover, the statement mentions that since the enactment of the “Personal Information Protection Law” three years ago, BYD has not received compliance certification for the “Thousand-Mile Eye” function provided to users for remote imaging systems. This has led to the function being included in promotions but remaining unusable in reality, severely infringing on the legitimate rights of new and old car owners, with BYD officials failing to provide any public response throughout.
BYD car owners are demanding that BYD publicly apologize to all old car owners within 7 natural days, as well as establish a product iteration information disclosure mechanism. In the future, they must publicly announce changes in the configuration of new models, price adjustments, and market intentions six months in advance during the research and development phase.
These owners are also requesting compensation for the rights of old car owners, providing a 15% subsidy for the guidance price of the smart driving model to owners who purchased cars between June 2024 and the release of the new model, to compensate for the losses caused by differences in configuration. Additionally, they seek to provide free hardware upgrades for key smart driving features (such as the driver assistance system) for old models or offer post-sales service benefits equivalent to the intergenerational price difference.
According to NetEase News, as of 17:00 on February 16, 763 car owners have joined the joint statement.
Recently, on platforms such as Car Quality Network and Black Cat Complaints, there has been a significant number of BYD old car owners initiating rights complaints. Statistics show that from February 10 to 17, BYD has received around 4500 new complaints, the majority of which are related to disputes over new and old product iteration.
As of now, BYD has yet to respond to these issues.
The uproar over car owner complaints due to model upgrades is not an isolated incident, with BYD facing complaints not for the first time. “Bought a BYD Qin for 140,000 a year ago to drive for Didi, earned 70,000 in the year. This year, BYD Qin dropped in price, which means I’ve wasted a year,” said one car owner.
Reportedly, aside from BYD, brands such as Xiaopeng Motors, Ideal Motors, and DeepX Motors have all faced similar situations of complaints and collective rights protection by car owners. With the acceleration of vehicle iteration updates and substantial price reductions, cases of old car owners seeking rights protection have become increasingly common.
The joint rights protection movement by BYD car owners has garnered attention and sparked discussions among netizens.
Many Weibo users commented, “Car owner rights protection is not against the technology iteration by car companies but rather against the practice of selling off old models by concealing impending major upgrades (such as the popularization of smart driving systems). Technological upgrades are a sign of industry progress, but if companies sell off old models by hiding major upcoming upgrades, it is suspected of using information asymmetry to harm consumer interests. Car owners have every reason to defend their rights!”
“The depreciation of used cars has a certain rationality; if the price difference between ‘early purchase’ and ‘late purchase’ falls within a reasonable range (e.g., a 5% to 10% decrease over six months), consumers can accept it. However, for certain BYD models to have a price drop of over 30% to 40% within a short period of months, with additional features at no extra cost, directly leads to asset depreciation for old car owners far beyond the normal depreciation range. Early purchasers have every reason to seek rights protection.”
Another user expressed, “Consumer goods are not gambling! Buying a car doesn’t mean the manufacturers have nothing to do with it afterward. Manufacturers need to safeguard the basic rights of users. Consumer goods come with implicit commitments; purchasing a car is not just a one-time transaction but includes after-sales service, technical support, brand reputation, and more. When consumer brands betray consumers, car owner protection is justified.”
As of now, the aforementioned media reports have been deleted.
In recent days, Chinese state media has highlighted that starting from January 1, 2025, various major new energy brands in China have successively released their sales performance for the full year of 2024. BYD’s annual sales exceeded 4.27 million vehicles, securing the top spot in the Chinese new energy market for three consecutive years. Meanwhile, Tesla experienced a year-on-year decline for the first time.
On January 24, several Chinese car companies jointly filed recall plans, involving BYD, Xiaomi, Dongfeng, GAC, SAIC, and 12 other companies of various brands. Looking at the reasons for the recalls, some of the BYD models subject to recall involve safety hazards in hardware components.
Previously, Professor Fan Jiazhong from the Economics Department of National Taiwan University told The Epoch Times that people seemed to only focus on the increasing sales and market share of Chinese electric vehicles, even its export volume was growing. However, they overlooked the fact that their profit margins were continually deteriorating. BYD is likely the only Chinese electric car company making money. Many car manufacturers are increasing their sales, so why are they still losing money? It’s due to overcapacity.
Extended Reading:
Analysis of the Chinese Communist Party’s Dumping of Electric Vehicles: Detrimental to Others, Unfavorable to Oneself.