BYD Owners Are Not Happy About Its Free Smart-Driving Rollout

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Thousands of owners of BYD vehicles in China are filing complaints against the carmaker over its recent move to offer autonomous driving features across all its models for free.

A third-party auto consumer complaints platform in China, known as 12365auto.com, has seen 4,700 complaints against BYD between February 11-17, compared with about 150 the week before and roughly 500 for January.

Many of those complaints are from customers who bought their vehicles before the rollout, who say they had overpaid for their cars.

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BYD cars, including ones from its best-selling Ocean and Dynasty series, also took the top 10 spots on a list the platform publishes that ranks models by the number of complaints received.

One complaint, sent in by an owner of a Seal 06 DM-i plug-in hybrid sedan, said they had repeatedly asked the salesperson when buying the car if a newer model would be launched this year.

“But only half a month after I picked up the car, the new model hit the market with notable upgrades in configuration at the same price,” the person said, adding that they wanted free upgrades and other compensation from the company.

The platform showed BYD responding to say that the company had passed on the complaint to the relevant company departments.

BYD did not respond to a request for comment.

The complaints are one of the ripple effects a prolonged price war and hyper competitiveness in the Chinese market are having as automakers slash prices, offer free features or incentives, or roll out new models at a pace faster than other countries.

Two years ago US automaker Tesla, shortly after it cut prices in a move that started the price war, saw hundreds of owners assemble at the company’s showrooms and distribution centres in China, seeking rebates and credits.