Intended to claim 5 million yuan!, BYD sues Weibo user Weibo | Content | User

Following the opening of Weibo accounts for legal departments of new energy vehicle companies such as NIO, Xiaopeng, and Lingpao, and their efforts to protect their rights against malicious smearing of the company, on July 24th, the official Weibo account of BYD's legal department also released its first article stating that it had collected clues about a Sina Weibo user suspected of engaging in illegal activities and filed a formal lawsuit against them, intending to claim 5 million yuan in compensation.

BYD Legal Department Official Weibo:

Proposed claim of 5 million yuan

On July 24th, the official Weibo account of BYD's legal department released the first article stating that Sina Weibo user "Longzhu Jiche" has long posted a large amount of false information, maliciously slandering, belittling, and insulting BYD, causing serious damage to BYD's brand reputation.

In response to this, the company has collected and fixed a large amount of evidence, provided feedback to relevant departments on its suspected black PR leads, and decided to formally sue "Longzhu Jiche", demanding that it delete relevant infringing remarks, publicly apologize, and compensate 5 million RMB.

It is understood that Sina Weibo user "Longzhu Jiche" is labeled as "Automotive Expert" on the platform, and currently has 830000 followers on the platform, with a cumulative video playback of 120 million.

BYD Legal stated that the company always respects and accepts suggestions and public opinion supervision from all sectors of society. At the same time, the company will resolutely take legal measures to defend its legitimate rights and interests against malicious attacks and smearing.

The legal departments of new energy vehicle companies such as NIO and Xiaopeng have all taken action

In May this year, after the legal department Weibo accounts of new energy vehicle companies such as NIO, Xiaopeng, and Lingpao were successively opened, they also released content to defend their rights against malicious smearing of the company.

On July 22nd, the legal department of NIO announced on Weibo that Xu had recently received public reports that he had registered an account "NIO Shelter" on multiple online platforms and had posted tens of thousands of deliberately smeared, insulted, and defamed NIO, NIO users, and NIO products, including dozens of defamatory and abusive comments related to NIO within a few minutes. This has seriously damaged NIO's social evaluation, business reputation, and the legitimate rights and interests of NIO users.

After verifying the identity of the actual controller of the relevant online account and investigating the evidence of infringement, the company officially filed a lawsuit with the Shanghai court to pursue Xu's relevant legal responsibilities. Xu has officially signed an apology letter on July 21st, acknowledging his illegal infringement behavior, canceling relevant online accounts, apologizing to NIO, NIO users, and the public, and compensating for corresponding losses.

Prior to this, Weilai also sued Tiktok Big V for its "vehicle discipline", pointing out that it spread online rumors and infringed on its reputation. It asked Weilai to publicly apologize to Weilai at the top of the home page of the account, and claimed 2 million yuan. However, recently, NIO announced a new court hearing, stating that the operating entity of the large V, Shanghai Yunti Information Technology, has filed a lawsuit against NIO and others on the grounds of a network infringement liability dispute. The case will be heard in the People's Court of Pudong New Area, Shanghai on August 14th.

In addition, Weilai also filed a lawsuit against Gu Yubo, the owner of another Tiktok V "Xiaoniushuiche", and claimed 5 million yuan. It is reported that the case was heard in June.

The aforementioned Tiktok Big V "Xiaoniu Says Car" was also sued by Xiaopeng Auto. According to Tianyan's investigation, recently, Guangdong Xiaopeng Auto Technology Co., Ltd. added a new notice of the hearing, the defendant is Gu Yubo, and the cause of the case is a dispute over network tort liability. The case will be heard in the Guangzhou Internet Court on August 29 this year.

In late June of this year, the legal department of Xiaopeng Motors also issued a document stating that they had identified several rumor mongers and had initiated judicial proceedings to pursue legal responsibilities, including organizers, planners, and implementers.

On July 5th of this year, the company's legal department issued a document stating that self media "Zicaijing" had published articles and videos targeting the company on multiple platform accounts, and their inappropriate statements had misled the public and had a negative impact on the company. In this regard, Zero Auto filed a lawsuit of reputation infringement to the Hangzhou Internet Court with the business/registration subject of "Zicai Finance" as the defendant. After being accepted by the court, "Purple Finance" is willing to correct its remarks and issue a statement of apology on various platforms.

Accelerated differentiation of new energy vehicle companies

According to data recently released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the production and sales of automobiles in the first half of the year reached 13.248 million and 13.239 million respectively, with year-on-year growth of 9.3% and 9.8%, respectively.

In terms of new energy vehicles, in the first half of the year, the sales of the top ten enterprise groups in new energy vehicle sales reached 3.183 million units, a year-on-year increase of 58.8%, accounting for 85% of the total sales of new energy vehicles, which is 7.9 percentage points higher than the same period last year.

According to the statistics chart of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, BYD had the highest cumulative sales from January to June, exceeding 1.2 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 95.9%. Meanwhile, both Ideal and GAC's year-on-year growth rates have exceeded double. Changan, FAW, and Tesla also saw the highest year-on-year growth in sales of new energy vehicles from January to June, with sales figures of 96.8%, 82.4%, and 61.7%, respectively.

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) stated that in the first half of the year, the entire new energy market was still in a stage of rapid growth. With the launch of new energy vehicle models and the improvement of product performance, industry competition has intensified, and the phenomenon of sales differentiation has become more obvious, accelerating the differentiation of automotive companies.

According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the ACI of the automotive industry in the second quarter was 69, an increase of 25 points from the first quarter of 2023. It is in the green light zone and operates normally.

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) stated that looking ahead to the second half of the year, the mild macroeconomic recovery is gradually spreading to the automotive market. The good performance of new energy vehicles and automobile exports has effectively driven market growth, and with the continuous manifestation of policy effects, the consumption potential of the automotive market will be further released, which will help promote stable growth in the industry throughout the year. However, it should also be noted that the current external environment is still complex, some structural problems are still prominent, consumer demand is still insufficient, industry operation still faces significant pressure, and enterprise operation still faces many challenges. It is necessary to maintain policy stability and predictability to help the industry operate smoothly.