They say freedom of speech ends where defamation begins.
In China’s auto industry, that boundary is currently being drawn with a very expensive pen.
Informal “lawsuit leaderboards” have started circulating across social media. They track which car makers are spending the most to sue bloggers and content creators. The accusation? Spreading fake or damaging info about EVs.
We checked the courts. We checked the filings.
The numbers check out.
BYD is at the top of the hill.
By the disclosed dollar value of their claims, the brand is sitting on a mountain of lawsuits.
They’ve taken on seven major blogger accounts so far.
The total ask? 6.926 million yuan. That’s about $1.02 million USD.
Other big names—Nio, Xpeng, Aito—are playing the same game, but the payout requests are smaller. For now.
Who they are targeting
It isn’t just about hater comments.
This is commercial law. Unfair competition. Reputation management.
BYD’s cases usually center on technical stuff: the Blade Battery safety. Hybrid systems. Thermal management.
Basically, they want to know if your video about their car’s durability is based on fact or fear-mongering.
Take Liu. He runs an account called “Long Ge Jiang Dian Che”.
He’s a mechanic who talks tech. He made videos dissecting BYD’s tech stack. Then BYD, Aito, and even Xpeng all came after him.
The courts sided with the brands.
In one high-profile ruling on May 16, after an appeal, Liu had to pay up. Two million yuan. ($294,000). The court called his claims commercial defamation. He posted a video apologizing publicly.
He didn’t get off the hook entirely, though. Separate rulings meant he had to write checks to Aito and Xpeng too.
Is it getting harder to be a critical car reviewer? Yes. But that’s not a rhetorical question, really.
The rest of the field
BYD has the biggest wallet in this courtroom battle, but they aren’t the only ones swinging the gavel.
Aito (Huawei’s partner, often called HIMA in media circles) got a win in early 2026.
They sued a blogger named Da Bin. The court ruled on Feb 11. It decided Da Bin’s posts went too far—past legitimate speech into malicious territory.
The cost for that crossing of the line: 1.5 million yuan ($220,000).
Nio went longer.
Their fight with blogger Gu Yubo (account name “Xiao Niu Shuo Che”) dragged on. The result was messy for Gu.
He had to post a 90-day public apology. Every single day. On top of that, he owed Nio over 600,00 yuan ($88,000) in damages.
The platforms banned him eventually. Permanently.
Then there is Xpeng.
They won at the Guangzhou Internet Court last September 2025.
Also against Long Ge (yes, the same mechanic from earlier).
The court found he used fake repair tutorials to damage Xpeng’s rep.
100,000 in fines ($14,000), content deleted, and a mandatory apology.
Why batteries break things
The lawsuits don’t happen in a vacuum.
They happen alongside aggressive online teardown wars.
Someone recently dismantled a 170-cell Blade Battery pack. It had sat in a freeze for 40 hours before being cut open.
Critics questioned the eight-hour teardown process. Was the methodology flawed?
The technical team defending the test pushed back.
This feeds into the “Cai Shen Dao” drama.
This account criticizes BYD battery tech and compares different manufacturers.
Rumors swirl. People claim the account might be secretly run by a rival battery supplier.
No proof. No court confirmation.
Just noise.
And noise sells clicks, until someone sues for defamation.
In the domestic EV market, the competition isn’t just on the road anymore. It’s in the comment sections and the court dockets.
The new normal
Chinese automakers are done ignoring the bad press.
As the market squeezes, legal teams are stepping out from the shadows.
They view online misinformation as a direct threat to the brand value they’ve built over years.
It’s not just “trolls.” It’s viewed as organized reputation destruction.
So when you watch that next EV teardown or hear that next complaint about hybrid reliability, watch the tone.
Watch the claims.
The lawyers are watching, too.
And they aren’t cheap.
