BYD Apologises After New Great Tang SUVs Were Delivered With Wider Rear Wheels Fitted At The Front

BYD has apologised after some newly delivered Great Tang SUVs were found with their wider rear wheels incorrectly fitted at the front. The unusual assembly blunder has prompted the Chinese automaker to offer free corrections and restart the affected vehicles’ warranties.

The issue involved a mix-up in the installation of the SUVs’ staggered wheel setup, which uses wider rims at the rear and narrower ones at the front. Some vehicles reportedly left the factory with the two sets of wheels installed in the wrong positions, reversing the intended configuration.

BYD traced the problem to a coding-entry error by its wheel-rim supplier, Hubei Boyu Industrial Co Ltd, following an investigation triggered by customer feedback on social media. The error caused the supplier to incorrectly assign the front and rear wheel rims during production.

In an official statement published on its Weibo account, BYD sought to reassure concerned owners of the Great Tang (also known as the Da Tang), saying: “Following specialized testing, the affected vehicles’ handling is not impacted, and there is no safety risk while driving.”

“We will invite owners of the affected vehicles to visit local service stores for a free vehicle inspection and professional wheel rim swap, while providing owners with a courtesy car or transportation expense compensation.”

The company also apologised for the incident, adding: “We deeply apologize for the inconvenience this incident has caused to owners, and we will restart the full-vehicle warranty for the misassembled vehicles effective immediately.”

In addition to the customer compensation measures, BYD said it had corrected the supplier’s coding error. It added that the “supplier has added visual error-proofing and other mechanisms to the production line to effectively prevent such mistakes in the long term.”

While BYD has not disclosed the exact number of affected Tang SUVs or the production batches involved, the incident highlights how a seemingly minor supplier-related assembly error can become a significant issue for customer confidence, particularly for a manufacturer with BYD’s global ambitions.

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