BYD recently started selling the Atto3 in Cambodia and announced the Nic. Christiansen Group as its official distribution partner in Denmark. That shows how fast the Chinese company is expanding its sales, but it also makes it a concern that the BYD Han EV – one of its main products for export – is involved with so many fire episodes. We are now in the second one in a matter of weeks, and the third one in total.
A blogger specialized in agriculture subjects in Langzhong, Sichuan, bought his Han EV and licensed it for road use only three days before the car caught fire. On August 16, he was driving his EV to do some errands and noticed smoke coming from the vehicle. He parked it and called for help, but the fire soon engulfed the Han EV. In a video the blogger shared on Haokan, we can see it comes from underneath, where the Blade Battery is located.
The Langzhong Fire Department sent two fire trucks to extinguish the blaze, and it was apparently quick to do so. That suggests that the cause may not be the battery pack. Unless LFP cells behave differently, bursts with lithium-ion batteries are known for being hard to kill.
Quickly extinguishing the fire did not prevent the vehicle from being a total loss. Jiemian News heard back from BYD that it is yet to receive the information about the fire to investigate what happened. If it confirms it was an issue with the car, it will contact the owner “to negotiate and deal with it.”
Photo: via Hupu
On August 3, we told you about another Han EV fire. It happened in Shenzhen, but this and the pictures are all we know about the blaze. It may be related to what caused the first Han EV fire that we are aware of, which happened two days after an independent crash test in July 2021.
At the time, BYD said the fire was caused by a conductive coolant that it does not use. In other words, the automaker indirectly blamed the testers, who said they did not change a single thing about the EV. If that is true, BYD may have used the wrong coolant it points as the fire cause. That’s not good news for the affected owners so far or for the people that may buy a BYD Han EV outside of China.
If the company is willing to “negotiate and deal with it,” either it has no intention to give this customer a new car and reimburse him for his driving expenses while the investigation lasted, or it is willing to offer him something generous so that he will not sue the company. We’ll only know how this story ends if the Chinese media keeps covering this case and what caused the other fires.
Photo: via Hupu
In a forum that posted the pictures in this article, some commenters said BYD cars were cheap and had quality control problems for years. BYD executives recently said that Tesla was a source of inspiration for them, but we did not expect it to be on quality control.
Joking aside, Toyota was reportedly enchanted with BYD’s method of testing vehicles much less than the Japanese company does. This is what led it to cooperate with BYD to create the electric Corolla. With these fires, Toyota may revise that decision and just go with what it has done for years.
Either from a customer or development partner perspective, BYD is now morally obliged to share its findings with the public. If they are due to quality control, design, or manufacturing problems, the Chinese company should solve them before it ships these cars to customers – in China and elsewhere.
BYD passenger cars are coming to Denmark! BYD has appointed the Nic. Christiansen Group as National Dealer Partner in Denmark.
The first pioneering BYD store will open this autumn in Copenhagen where customers will be able to test drive BYD models.https://t.co/c4FKl1pRegpic.twitter.com/0SjpHjVyGU
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