Open trade confrontation between Byd and Stellantis
The Chinese manufacturer launches a campaign that effectively attacks the European group on the raw nerve of Puretech engines
In the memory of the motoring chronicles, such a thing has never been seen before: a manufacturer attacking a competitor head-on, in no uncertain terms, without any phrases and without any fair play.
Byd, the Chinese giant with increasingly obvious ambitions, launched an initiative in our market called 'Operation Purification', which was widely publicised in the national media.
This is a promotion offering up to 10,000 euros in bonuses to anyone who decides to scrap a car fitted with an oil bath timing belt. Apparently an operation aimed at a few technicians or insiders, in reality it is a real shot in the arm against Stellantis.
BYD never explicitly mentions the Franco-Italian group, but the reference to the 1.2 PureTech engines is obvious, starting with the very name of the operation.
We are talking about a family of engines used in a myriad of models of the former PSA and later merged into Stellantis, which has given rise to major problems: extensive recall campaigns, angry customers, cars that have stalled or are too expensive to repair in the most serious cases.
