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- BYD installed staggered wheel rims backward on flagship Great Tang SUVs.
- Hubei supplier’s coding error caused the wheel rim to be installed backwards.
- BYD provides free rim replacements and restarts full vehicle factory warranties.
- Flagship Great Tang EV starts from approximately AUD$52,500 in Chinese showrooms.
- Great Tang achieved fourteen thousand monthly deliveries across domestic showrooms in October.
BYD has officially apologised to customers after assembly teams installed front and rear wheel rims in reverse on its Great Tang electric SUV.
The manufacturing blunder surfaced after Chinese owners complained to platforms like 3YC User Report that factory workers mounted wider 9J rear rims on the front tyres and narrower 8J front rims on the rear axle. Confirming the completion of its internal investigation on Wednesday, the world’s largest electrified carmaker traced the mix-up to a data coding error at a Hubei-based parts supplier.
“We deeply apologise for the trouble this has caused owners,” said BYD in an official statement on Weibo. The automaker updated its automated assembly software, introduced secondary visual inspection checkpoints, and is inviting affected owners to service centres for free professional rim adjustments, courtesy loaner cars, and the restart of vehicle warranties.
1/4Local automotive outlet CarNewsChina reports that the issue affects the 950km rear-wheel-drive Da Tang trim. BYD engineered this model to run 255-profile tyres on 8-inch front rims and 275-profile tyres on 9-inch rear rims. Because both aluminium rims share identical styling, mismatched factory installation pinches the wider rear tyres onto rims that are technically too narrow according to European Tyre and Rim Technical Organisation standards.
Fitting wide tyres onto narrow front rims also alters the contact patch and degrades steering response, leaving owners experiencing unnatural highway tracking and unstable cornering. Priced domestically from 239,900 yuan (approx. AUD$52,500), the full-size Great Tang anchors BYD’s executive Dynasty range and achieved roughly 14,000 deliveries in October.
The assembly slip-up arrives as Chinese automotive regulators enforce stricter quality and durability benchmarks covering door handles, battery containment, and driver-assistance systems.
Simultaneously, intense price competition is pushing manufacturers to increase overseas shipments, which now account for roughly 40 per cent of third-quarter deliveries for both BYD and Geely. However, a strengthening onshore yuan, up 4.6 per cent against the US dollar this year, is actively squeezing foreign earnings across the sector. BYD saw a 1.14 billion yuan cash hit from exchange rate movements, while Geely recorded a net foreign exchange loss, limiting net profit growth to 6.7 per cent.
As global export expansion accelerates amid local price wars, error-free factory production remains of utmost importance for Chinese brands seeking to meet the demands of international buyers.
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