- A blogger publicly raised claims about battery and motor failures.
- BYD sued the man, alleging false claims harmed the company online.
- Other Chinese automakers have also taken bloggers to court recently.
Criticizing local car manufacturers in China can carry a real price tag, as one blogger has just found out. After losing a lawsuit brought by BYD, he has been ordered to hand over 2 million yuan, roughly $294,000 at current exchange rates, and to issue a public apology on top of it.
The blogger, who posts as Long Ge Talks EVs, spent part of last year publishing videos that picked apart repair cases involving several BYD models. The clips included claims about the company’s batteries, motors, and electronic control systems, none of which, according to the court, were backed by evidence.
Read: Post The Wrong Thing Online And This Automaker Might Come After You
BYD wasn’t impressed and promptly sued the man, alleging he had fabricated and spread false information about the company, damaging the conglomerate’s reputation. A court ultimately sided with the automaker, ordering the blogger to pay 2 million yuan ($293,700) in compensation and to issue a public apology.
He did exactly that last week, releasing a video on local social media in which he called his remarks about BYD batteries, motors, and electrical systems “improper” and acknowledged that they had hurt the company’s reputation
This isn’t the first time the blogger has caught the ire of local car brands. He has previously been sued for remarks made about Seres and Aito vehicles and ordered to pay compensation worth 160,000 yuan ($23,500).
Lawsuits Like This Are All Too Common
While there’s no doubt that Chinese brands like BYD build some very impressive vehicles, they will also fiercely sue anyone who speaks out against them, spreading what they deem to be false information. Despite this, Carnewschina reports that BYD’s public relations general manager, Li Yunfei, says the company accepts what it views as objective criticism and factual reporting.
BYD is far from the only automaker that’s filed lawsuits like this. Last year, Avatr sued another Chinese blogger for 10 million yuan, or around $1.47 million at the time, after he claimed drag coefficient numbers published for the all-electric Avatr 12 were inaccurate. Avatr suggested the blogger may have been part of a large ‘black PR’ campaign and hired by a company to spread negative information about the automaker.
