Shandong Qiancheng Holdings Co., Ltd. (山东乾城控股有限公司), BYD‘s core dealer network in Shandong province, has been experiencing a severe operational crisis since April 2025. More than twenty “Qian”-branded 4S dealerships across the province have abruptly closed or suspended operations, leaving showrooms empty and customers without service.

The once-prestigious Jinan Qiansheng store, previously celebrated as “Greater China’s No.1 flagship store of BYD, ” is among the affected dealerships. It now stands virtually empty, with only two staff members remaining on site.

The crisis has directly impacted over a thousand consumers who had prepaid for various services, including “three-year joint insurance” packages, maintenance plans, window tinting, chassis protection, and promised lifetime maintenance services. Many customers have organised rights protection groups to seek collective solutions.

Multiple vehicle owners report that sales staff aggressively promoted the “three-year joint insurance” service during vehicle purchases. This service typically requires an upfront payment of 10,000 to 15,000 yuan (1,400-2,100 USD) to cover three years of insurance. Dealerships promised to reimburse customers for the second and third-year premiums after customers paid their annual insurance.

Since April 2025, numerous customers who advanced their second—or third-year insurance payments have not received their promised refunds, only to discover that the dealerships have been abandoned.

According to public records, Qiancheng was founded in 2014 and rapidly became BYD’s core strategic partner in Shandong. The group operated over 20 BYD dealerships and showrooms across the region, once claiming annual sales of 3 billion yuan (420 million USD) and employing more than 1,200 staff.

In April 2024, BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu visited the Qiancheng Group in Jinan, which was widely interpreted as the highest recognition of their status as a core dealer. However, financial troubles were already brewing beneath the surface.

Former employees have alleged that the company had begun delaying salary payments as early as 2024, with some staff going unpaid for up to six months.

BYD and Qiancheng offer contradictory explanations for the crisis. On May 28, BYD’s Brand and Public Relations Department responded to the Qiancheng Group’s “broken capital chain” rumours, explicitly denying that dealer policy adjustments contributed to the crisis. “Our policies toward dealers have remained consistent and stable over the past few years,” the company stated.

BYD attributed the crisis to the dealer’s management issues, claiming “the dealer group experienced funding problems due to blind, rapid expansion with leveraged operations.”

In stark contrast, Qiancheng Group’s internal document dated April 17 directly blamed BYD’s policy changes: “In the past two years, BYD’s dealer policy adjustments have placed enormous pressure on our cash flow management.” The document also cited deteriorating external conditions, including multiple automotive dealer failures in Shandong and conservative bank financing policies.

The crisis has raised questions about BYD’s responsibility to monitor its authorised dealer network. Many customers made purchasing decisions primarily based on trust in the BYD brand, and feel abandoned now that the authorised dealers have disappeared.

BYD revealed that since late last year, other local dealers have acquired some of the affected 4S stores, and the company is providing support to help address customer and employee issues. However, most consumers in a rights protection group with nearly 500 members reject BYD’s explanation, stating the company has failed to provide substantive solutions.

As the end-of-May deadline promised by Qiancheng passes without resolution, thousands of customers are left wondering who will take responsibility for their prepaid services and how this situation will ultimately be resolved.

Source: QQ