Tesla and BYD CEOs to Testify at Parliamentary Audit... FSD and Maintenance Networks Under Scrutiny

Key Issues: FSD Restrictions and Service Center Shortages for Tesla
BYD Likely to Face Intensive Questioning over Delays in Accident Repairs

Tesla and BYD, both of which are rapidly increasing their sales in the domestic electric vehicle market, are set to appear as witnesses during the National Assembly's parliamentary audit. Issues relating to Tesla will center around Full Self-Driving (FSD), battery management system (BMS), and shortages of service centers. For BYD, the main points of contention are expected to be insufficient infrastructure for accident repairs and a lack of maintenance networks.

According to the industry and political circles on October 7, the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee will summon Youngdeuk Seo, CEO of Tesla Korea; Ding Hai Miyao, CEO of BYD Korea; and Inchul Cho, CEO of BYD Korea's passenger vehicle division, as witnesses for the audit of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

Photos show Tesla passenger cars charging in a building in downtown Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

Tesla is facing criticism that its after-sales infrastructure has not kept pace with increasing sales. Data provided by Democratic Party Rep. Il-Young Jung of the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee shows that new Tesla registrations rose from 29,750 units in 2024 to 59,916 units last year, an increase of 101.4%. In the first half of this year, registrations reached 56,147 units, up 192.1% year-on-year. In contrast, there are only 18 directly operated service centers, with an average of around 17 full-time employees per center.

Restrictions on the use of FSD and consumer notification are also contentious issues. Out of 229,311 Teslas currently operating in Korea, only 47,458 vehicles (20.7%) are capable of using FSD. Notably, Chinese-made Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, unlike their U.S.-made counterparts, do not benefit from the mutual safety standard recognition granted under the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA), resulting in differences regarding FSD availability. Therefore, whether consumers received adequate information at the time of sale—given that availability of the feature varies by country of manufacture, even for the same model—is likely to be a subject of inquiry.

The BMS issue also emerged just before the audit. Since October 2, Tesla has been offering free repairs to certain Model 3 and Model Y units by adding a pre-charging limit notification function. From 2017 through September last year, a total of 4,637 repeated BMS errors were reported in 4,351 vehicles in Korea. The average repair period reached 23.4 days, and there were 124 cases which took between 3 and 6 months to resolve.

BYD Seer Lion. BYD

BYD is also facing criticism for its insufficient accident repair infrastructure compared to rising sales. From January to August this year, new registrations in Korea reached 17,523 units—about 2.9 times the annual sales figure from last year—but there are only 20 service centers. In the first half of this year, BYD's four passenger models posted a third-party property damage loss ratio of 168%, surpassing the import electric vehicle average of 103%. Their average repair period was 9.8 days, compared to the 8.2-day average for imported electric vehicles.

Recently, controversy arose over repair costs for accident-damaged vehicles. In some cases, consumers complained that repair estimates were excessively high compared to the vehicle's price. BYD Korea has responded by stating that repair estimates are calculated based on the extent of damage and the required work processes for each accident vehicle.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.