On November 3, a netizen in Shaanxi posted with a photo of a document, claiming that BYD will adjust its wage plan for grassroots employees. Performance bonuses will be merged into additional incentives; those who receive them will no longer be eligible for compensatory leave, and income adjustments will be linked to production volume and attendance.
Recently, a Douyin influencer posted a video of a free Tesla staff meal, featuring a whole hairy crab, meat dishes, vegetables, soup, and drinks. The video received over 110,000 likes, and netizens in the comments section shared their own cafeteria meals while calling on BYD to show off their employee meals.
A netizen from the BYD Star plant in Changsha posted a picture claiming to have found a hard object in the canteen's kelp soup, joking that it was "kelp soup stewed with a piece of concrete," which sparked a discussion among netizens about BYD's employee meals.
In mid-October 2026, some BYD car owners reported that the BYD Auto app could not open normally. Owners accustomed to controlling their cars with their phones, who had not brought their physical keys, could only wait helplessly beside their vehicles. After reporting the problem to the platform, the issue remained unresolved.
Frontline workers at some BYD factories have written doggerel in restrooms to protest intense shift schedules, poor pay, and problems with grassroots management.
To prevent employees from eating outside the plant, the Hefei BYD Phase IV factory sealed relevant entrances and exits; employees revealed that the 15-yuan standard work meals were meager.
On October 14, a netizen posted a video exposing that the Hefei BYD Phase IV factory appeared to have closed off relevant entrances and exits to prevent employees from eating outside the factory. Employees were unable to ride electric bikes in and out on their own and were forced to eat at the factory canteen. Netizens said factories in Taizhou, Xi'an, Shaoxing, Xixian and other places were the same.
On October 11, a blogger posted on Douyin a BYD work meal with a 15-yuan standard, saying the meat dish was leftovers from yesterday with more bones than meat, and the vegetable dish had no oil at all, captioned "Even less strength to hang myself after eating." Comments such as "Do they treat you like a dog?" appeared in the bullet screen.
The [Niuma.ICU] team compiled a shame list of China's auto industry based on netizen submissions, with BYD ranking first with 54 complaints, accused of "one life for 200,000 yuan" and "two days off per month at most"; overtime work and pressure-based assessments accounted for more than half of the industry's problems.
BYD employees, angry over the company withholding profit bonuses, posted big-character banners inside the company to express their dissatisfaction; the banners were subsequently removed by security guards.
On October 9, netizens reported that a BYD employee got into a physical and verbal altercation with their supervisor and manager after requesting leave and expressing a desire to resign from their supervisory role, slapping the supervisor and splashing water on them. The employee's corporate WeChat profile quickly received over 10,000 likes, with netizens calling it a 'refusal of workplace bullying.' The related account was subsequently suspected of being throttled.
On October 6, a netizen posted a video claiming that a new term, “grievance products,” emerged in 2026, referring to cases where product quality and service drop sharply once frontline employees’ treatment has been exploited to the limit. Bullet comments flooded with company names such as BYD, Chery, and China Eastern Airlines, and many people in the comments section revealed that they had previously mixed contaminants into products at restaurants or factories, or deliberately slacked off.
On October 4, an employee claiming to be from BYD's second factory in Huyi, Xi'an, posted a photo of the words "Run Away Fast" written on a yellow pillar. Netizens in the comments section sarcastically called BYD a "blood-sweating steed" and a "sweatshop," while complaining about poor treatment and heavy exploitation.
On September 29, a BYD owner posted a video on Douyin claiming that the hood shook while driving at high speed; an inspection found that all the screws on the hood latch assembly were missing, and several commenters who identified themselves as employees attributed the problem to two-shift rotations and the production pressure of low wages.
In the comment section of the blogger's post showing off mooncakes, a comment comparing Mid-Autumn Festival benefits in domestic workplaces received over 3,000 likes. Other netizens complained about bosses taking away employees' mooncakes to give to clients, and poked fun at BYD for their mooncake distribution.