BYD Apologizes After Swapped Wheels Found on Flagship Great Tang SUV
BYD says a supplier mounted front and rear rims in the wrong positions on some Great Tang SUVs and is offering affected owners free replacements.
BYD, China’s largest electric vehicle maker, has apologized to owners of its new flagship Great Tang SUV after some vehicles left the factory with their front and rear wheel rims mounted in the wrong positions. The company said it traced the problem to a supplier and will replace the rims on affected cars for free. It did not say how many vehicles were involved.
The Great Tang, sold in China as the Da Tang, is one of the company’s most closely watched new models and has drawn heavy demand at home. The mix-up came to light after owners began posting complaints about unusual tire wear and handling, roughly four months after the SUV went on sale.
What happened
The problem affects a version of the SUV that uses a “staggered” setup, meaning the rear wheels are wider than the front wheels. According to CarNewsChina, an English-language site that covers the Chinese auto industry, the complaints center on the single-motor, rear-wheel-drive trim with a claimed range of 950 kilometers. That version is designed to run narrower 255/50 R20 tires on 8J rims at the front and wider 275/45 R20 tires on 9J rims at the rear. In the J rating, the number is the rim’s width in inches.
On some cars, the wider rear rims ended up on the front axle and the narrower front rims on the rear, while the tires stayed in their intended positions, CarNewsChina reported. Engadget, citing Bloomberg, gave the same account of the swap.
Owners described several symptoms in posts on social media and on 12365auto.com, a Chinese consumer complaint platform for vehicles:
- tires wearing out faster than expected, and in some reports, blowouts
- what owners called “abnormal handling” in everyday driving
- trouble keeping the car tracking straight at highway speeds
The reports were first gathered by 3YC User Report, a Chinese outlet that focuses on BYD owners, and were picked up by CarNewsChina on Nov. 8 and by the Italian motoring site HDmotori a day later. At that point, both outlets said BYD had not publicly acknowledged the issue.
BYD’s response
BYD has since posted an apology on Weibo, the Chinese social media platform, after looking into the complaints, Engadget reported. The company blamed a supplier in Hubei province that assembles its wheels and said the fault has been corrected. The supplier has also added a visual inspection step to its production line, which BYD said should keep the problem from happening again.
For owners of affected vehicles, the company says it is offering:
- a free replacement of the wheel rims
- a loaner vehicle, or payment for transportation costs, while repairs are made
- a fresh start to the vehicle’s warranty period
BYD said the incorrect wheel placement does not pose a safety risk, according to Engadget. Not everyone sees it that way. CarNewsChina, citing fitment ranges published by the European Tyre and Rim Technical Organisation, an industry standards body, said the front tire is within its approved rim width range, though at the upper limit. But it said the 8J rim is too narrow for the larger rear tire, which is rated for rims between 8.5J and 10.5J. A rim that is too narrow can change how the tire meets the road and how well its sidewall is supported, the site said. That could make the car less stable in corners and at high speed and make electronic stability systems less effective.
Owners quoted in the earlier reports had asked for more than new rims. They wanted complete, correctly matched sets of wheels and tires, a full inspection of the suspension and an extended warranty on chassis parts. BYD’s announced fix, as described by Engadget, covers rims and a restarted warranty. It does not say whether tires that may have worn unevenly will also be replaced.
Why it matters
The Great Tang is a high-profile launch for BYD as it expands into markets outside China. Engadget reported that the SUV has received 150,000 orders in China. CarNewsChina, citing China EV DataTracker, said BYD delivered 10,997 of the vehicles in China in September alone.
The model comes with lithium iron phosphate battery packs of 105.8 or 130.2 kilowatt-hours and supports BYD’s Flash Charging fast-charging system. Reported pricing varies slightly by outlet. CarNewsChina put the starting price at 239,900 yuan, or about $35,900, while Engadget said it starts at around $40,000. The outlets also give different milestones: Engadget said the SUV was unveiled in March, and CarNewsChina said it went on sale in mid-July.
The wheel problem is not the first quality complaint BYD has faced this year. In July, the company said the rear motor that came loose on a Tang SUV in the city of Shenyang had been damaged when the vehicle hit an object while driving through floodwater, not by a manufacturing defect, CarNewsChina reported at the time.
What comes next
BYD plans to start selling the Great Tang in European and other Asian markets outside China by the end of 2026 or in early 2027, according to Engadget. How quickly and completely the company handles the fix at home will likely shape how the SUV is received as it heads abroad, where buyers and regulators are watching Chinese brands closely.
