BYD mocked Stellantis' engine belts in ads — Italy's ad jury stopped the campaign

BYD launched 'Operation Purification' nationwide in Italy on 2026-01-08, offering up to €10,000 in bonuses to anyone scrapping a car with an oil-bath timing belt of any brand — no explicit reference to Stellantis, but definitely implied.

Taunting lines ran nationwide — 'We're sorry it's always blue Monday for you', 'Belt problems? With Byd you pull it... off!' — backed by BYD stats (122,000 R&D engineers, 60,000 registered patents, 250,000 km warranty), after an Instagram duel in which Fiat's CEO Olivier Francois told Chinese carmakers to fix their own designs first, and BYD answered 'On safety, we never slow down.'

After a social-media uproar and a formal complaint by Groupe PSA Italia, the IAP self-regulation jury found the messages contrary to its code — misleading commercial communication, comparison and denigration — and ordered the campaign terminated.

On 2026-01-08 BYD launched a nationwide Italian advertising campaign called 'Operation Purification'. Without explicitly naming Stellantis — but leaving no doubt — it offered bonuses of up to €10,000 to anyone scrapping a car equipped with an oil-bath timing belt of any brand, a dig at the 1.2 Puretech engines Stellantis had been recalling for belt degradation: petrol vapours in the oil break down the belt, and the rubber residue can block the oil pump.

The campaign detonated on social media before any formal action. Fiat's CEO and Stellantis global marketing head Olivier Francois posted on Instagram that Chinese carmakers should review the design of their cars before attacking European ones, complete with a photo of a BYD model; BYD's follow-up advertising answered with the claim 'On safety, we never slow down.'

Groupe PSA Italia, Stellantis' Italian subsidiary, asked the Advertising Self-Regulation Institute (IAP) jury to suspend the campaign. Examining messages like 'Is your belt going crazy? We'll give you some too: 122,000 R&D engineers - 60,000 registered patents - 250,000 km warranty' and 'Belt problems? With Byd you pull it... off!', the jury declared them in contrast with articles 2 (misleading commercial communication), 14 (comparison) and 1.5 (denigration) of its code and ordered their termination.

The Puretech belt fault was real and well known — recall campaigns had run — which made the taunt credible enough to sting.

BYD never named Stellantis, betting that implication would dodge comparison and denigration rules; the jury ruled the messages over the line anyway.

The CEO-level Instagram duel amplified a media buy into a national story before the regulator even ruled.

Comparative advertising can ride a rival's real defect, but implication is not immunity: the regulator judges what the audience hears, not what the copy literally says.

As of 2026-02-04 the IAP jury had ordered the contested messages terminated; the article notes the current Puretech family engines have been redesigned with a robust metal chain.