I’ve caught a lot of flack from the evangelical BYD supporters and probably as a result of this video I’m about to share with you now, I’ll get a lot more. I’ve had to sort of ignoring social media so my feelings don’t get too hurt.
What am I doing and what am I talking about? Well as many of you know I have ordered to be with the BYD Atto3. I ordered it all the way back in February. I was excited to get delivery and then the warranty terms and conditions change that became, to be honest ridiculous. Servicing costs turned out to be ridiculous; servicing costs actually are higher for this EV than any other EVs sold in Australia as far as I can tell and now a petition has been created, a petition which is being signed by nearly 1000 people to get EVdirect BYD’s distributor to reassess their warranty policies because frankly, they are just disgraceful.
I thought I needed to let you know what’s been happening. I made a video a few days ago and I talked about how most considering canceling my order, and potentially buying a Tesla Model Y. Now I’ve had discussions well, within the last few hours with some really close friends here in Melbourne and family as well discussing whether or not I should do that; cancel that order and or the model Y. Now obviously I’ll have to wait longer to get a model Y, that’s a big concern for me because the model Y has essentially sold out in Australia for at least 6 months. It’s so popular for good reason, it’s a damn good car and many of you guys saying guys and girls were saying, “Sam cancel your Atto3 order and buy a Tesla Model Y”. That’s what you guys said, that was the consensus. 95% of you said that’s what I should do. So I’m having a good hard think about it. However, I haven’t canceled yet. I’m definitely considering it but I haven’t done it yet.
However, what I’ve done in the meantime is I signed the petition to get BYD here in Australia to change the warranty to the same warranty as what’s in New Zealand. In New Zealand, they have a warranty on the car which covers everything for six years. Now for you guys in America, that’s pretty much the norm here in Australia. Most warranties are at least 5 years and it covers everything there are not all these stipulations for little things here and there you know, this isn’t covered, that’s not covered, this is on account of the 6 months, that’s only going for that long. In Australia generally (almost all the time now) warranties cover everything for five or more years, some longer some seven or more but the point here is BYD here in Australia, they promised a 7-year warranty and now they’ve gone back on the words, changed their minds because they feel like; I guess they have a captive audience, that we are all stuck, we’ll have to keep our orders or we won’t be able to get an EV from whatever brand. It’s very hard to get electric cars here in Australia. Some of you have said to me, “Sam why haven’t you bought an electric car before?” I am like well it’s hard to get a good one, easy to get a rubbish one. Hard to get a good one that actually suits your family, and is big enough to get your bikes in the car right. Big enough to actually get some suitcases in the back and it is not one that you have to make a whole lot of sacrifices for in order to own. Tesla Model Y only just went on sale very recently in Australia and they sold out very quickly even though they are making a lot for Australia.
So right now, the petition is called a better warranty for BYD Atto3 in Australia. Now, this is not just going to affect the BYD Atto3. There are a lot of people online, there are a lot of people saying they want to buy a BYD seal. There’s other people saying they want to buy BYD Sea Lion and there is other people saying they want to buy BYD the electric pickup truck. So it’s going to affect all those cars, it’s going to affect every single BYD that goes on sale pretty much for forever in Australia or at least for the next couple of years. So for those of you guys who don’t care because you are not ordering an Atto3 well maybe you should care because more than likely it will affect you as well.
Jerry Paul sent me this petition that he made and I have signed it and I have spent $40; $40 is not a lot; I know but $40 to help get the petition out there and hopefully get more signatures on this petition. Here’s what Jerry said EV direct the official distributor of BYD initially announced a 7-year unlimited kilometer vehicle warranty for the BYD Atto3 EV. However just before customers got their hands on their vehicles EV direct scrapped the old conditions and put new warranty information on their website to the dismay and confusion, I might add of many order holders. The new warranty is radically different EV directors cut the warranty to 6 years and 1,50,000 Kilometers with very complicated exceptions that reduced coverage on many essential parts down to 6 months, I should add. BYD fine print indicates many parts of the vehicle including the infotainment system, shock absorbers, and tire pressure monitoring system are not covered by the 6-year warranty and are instead given 3 years coverage depending on the component, some components only 6 months. It’s important to note that the stingy warranty is only being offered to customers in Australia. BYD New Zealand for example, offers a 6years bumper to bumper warranty, in other words, 6 years of everything. Everything’s covered for 6 years. BYD Hong Kong to offers 6 years for the whole vehicle Australia alone is receiving this piecemeal deal. Many of us order holders believe this is a disaster and could drastically affect resell value, well that’s what I think anyway. Many among us have even proceeded to cancel their orders out of disappointment. Many people contacted me, and many people posted on Facebook that they’ve canceled their orders and placed orders for the Tesla Model Y or other electric cars. Another electric car worth considering by the way MG4 which will be on sale in Australia in 2023, probably in the first quarter of next year. Price very affordable as well plus it uses the new cell to-pack technology. BYD Atto3 and they’re very similar when you look at the details and price as well.
Jerry says, “We strongly suggest that BYD Australia and EVdirect Australia reconsider their warranty policies. We ask you to please provide a 6-year warranty on the car which is consistent with other countries. This will reassure us that you trust BYD Atto3 and have confidence in your product.” That’s a key issue, isn’t it? Having the confidence in your product to give it the warranty it should have. A lot of people think BYD Australia are not confident in the product they think it must be cheap Chinese crap and must be good therefore that’s why they reduced the warranty. That’s what people are thinking. I’m not saying that’s true I actually think the cars are really good. I just think BYD Australia is not confident in the product and that’s kind of alarming.
The changing conditions of the warranty and the ongoing high maintenance and service costs are turning people away from BYD products other countries have provided much better BYD warranties and lower servicing costs. Why is that so? That’s my question to EVdirect. Why the servicing costs are so high? Why there’s a $600 servicing cost that doesn’t make any sense to me? I can’t work out what that’s for, pretty much no one can work out what that’s for. BYD needs to explain why they changed the warranty.
