On October 18th, the "fuel tank gate" incident was brought up again. Great Wall Motor's official Weibo post titled "The Development of China's Automobile Industry Needs to Follow Rules and Patterns" presented the entire incident to netizens. Let's review it together first.

Incident Origin: On May 25, 2023, Great Wall Motor publicly released a "Statement" indicating that on April 11, 2023, it submitted a report to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, State Administration for Market Regulation, and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, accusing BYD's Qin PLUS DM-i and Song PLUS DM-i models of using atmospheric pressure fuel tanks, which were suspected of failing to meet national emission standards for evaporative pollutants.

Great Wall Motor's statement caused a major uproar in the automotive industry, but most people were not very familiar with the newly emerging new energy plug-in hybrid vehicles. Many even didn't know about the distinction between atmospheric pressure and high-pressure fuel tanks and were waiting for BYD's response.

On May 25th, the same day Great Wall Motor released its statement, BYD also urgently issued a "Statement" in response to Great Wall Motor's accusation. Firstly, the test vehicles did not strictly meet the national standard submission requirements and required third-party sampling, storage, and submission for compliance. Secondly, the test vehicles should have completed a 3,000-kilometer break-in test, but the vehicles submitted by Great Wall Motor had only traveled 450-670 kilometers. Based on the above, BYD deemed the test report invalid and argued that Great Wall Motor could not use it as evidence!

Since then, the "fuel tank gate" incident involving Great Wall Motor's accusation against BYD has sparked widespread discussion across the entire industry, with several core issues remaining unresolved to this day.

First, does BYD's atmospheric pressure fuel tank comply with national environmental emission standards?

Second, if an atmospheric pressure fuel tank can achieve the same effect as a high-pressure tank, why do other automakers use high-pressure tanks?

Third, assuming there is an issue with BYD's conventional fuel tank, why hasn't the national level taken action on Great Wall Motor's accusation against its peer?

However, in the subsequent days, several BYD plug-in hybrid models became the focus of user complaints, including the Song PLUS DM-i and Qin PLUS DM-i models accused by Great Wall Motor. The main complaints were related to hybrid mode conversion failures, specifically that the engine would secretly start and "steal fuel" even in pure electric mode.

In this recent rehashing of the "fuel tank gate" incident by Great Wall Motor, it was updated that due to Great Wall Motor's accusation, consumers have gained awareness and paid attention to high-pressure fuel tanks. Currently, domestic hybrid models equipped with atmospheric pressure fuel tanks have stopped selling new vehicles, but the "fuel tank gate" incident remains unresolved. Meanwhile, millions of plug-in hybrid vehicles equipped with atmospheric pressure fuel tanks are still on the road, potentially infringing upon consumer interests.

As we all know, the Volkswagen emissions scandal, one of the world's most notorious environmental emissions scandals, resulted in huge fines for the involved brands due to non-compliant emissions and even imprisonment for key executives.

The "fuel tank gate" incident has passed over a year. When will it finally be resolved? Let's wait and see.