A production battery fault forced BYD to recall 88,981 Qin PLUS DM-i hybrids

On 28 November 2025 BYD filed recall plans with China's market regulator for 88,981 of its Qin PLUS DM-i hybrids — the model that made it the world's best-selling plug-in, and the single car that carried the company from battery maker to the largest EV producer on earth. The recall covered two batches produced between 2021 and 2023: 52,890 cars (recall S2025M0189I, built 2021-09-26 to 2023-09-23) and 36,091 cars (recall S2025M0190I, built 2021-01-07 to 2022-09-30).

The defect was one of production, not of use. Reports said that during manufacturing the vehicle's battery packs had consistency problems, which could cause the pack's output power to be limited and, in an extreme case, prompt the car to stop working in pure-electric mode — a safety hazard. The root cause lay in the uniformity of the battery cells assembled into each pack, an industry insider told IT时报.

The remedy was drastic for a software-adjacent fault: BYD's authorised dealers would replace the entire battery pack free of charge, not merely patch it. Owners also received an over-the-air upgrade of the vehicle-side detection software, pushed in batches, with the recall window running from 28 November 2025 to 27 May 2026.

The telling detail is who pushed BYD to act. Both state media and Sina reported the recall was carried out after the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) launched a defect investigation — a passive recall, not a voluntary one. It was BYD's second large regulator-driven recall of 2025 over core components, and it landed on the very model that had made BYD a household name in China.