Upcoming VinFast cars in India might be unsafe and dangerous — JLR whistleblower fired

There’s news about VinFast coming to India with its electric SUVs next year. But, there’s something that you might want to know ahead of their debut. A whistleblower from Tata-owned JLR (Jaguar Land Rover) has reportedly been sacked for raising concerns over design flaws in VinFast vehicles, particularly around the safety aspect of the cars. Here’s what we know so far.

VinFast and Tata Technologies

Tata Technologies, a subsidiary of Tata Motors, is partners with Vietnamese carmaker VinFast for designing key components such as the chassis for two of VinFast’s electric vehicles. VinFast is a fairly new automaker, established just seven years ago by Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup JSC.

VinFast-Tata whistleblower

As per a report by BBC, Hazar Denli, an ex-employee of Tata Technologies, who worked closely on the VinFast project, raised concerns to higher-level employees at both Tata and VinFast regarding serious design flaws in components in the car’s chassis, particularly the car’s suspension setup. Denli observed that VinFast had been cutting corners while developing the chassis of its electric vehicles, employing a small team of inexperienced engineers. 

During testing, Denli also reported the suspension systems of the test mules snapping off at low mileages, and other components failing as well after fewer than 25,000km, much before their expected life of at least 1,50,000km. 

Furthermore, Denli said that the poorly designed components such as the front suspension of the car could cause the wheels to get misaligned under stress, such as on hitting a pothole at certain speeds, resulting in the car to veer to the left or right without prompting, and the driver losing the control of the vehicle. "We saw, for example, the front strut-to-knuckle connection was loosening, which could be extremely dangerous," he added. "It could cause a loosening of the entire structure that could cause wheels to come off. In a crash scenario, it could be completely unsafe. It could cause the vehicle to lose control."

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Resigning from Tata Technologies

After raising his concerns multiple times within the organisation, Denli asked for a switch to another team but was denied the same. Subsequently, he resigned from the company, and also started informing Reddit users about the serious faults that he observed regarding the development of the VinFast cars. The company denied considering redevelopment of the components as it would have required significant rise in costs and delays in development, production, and thus, market entry.

After a hiatus of four months, and another four months working at another firm, Denli joined Jaguar Land Rover, ironically another subsidiary of Tata Motors. He was then, allegedly, wrongfully terminated from JLR due to his attempt at whistleblowing during his time at Tata Technologies and his subsequent Reddit posts. 

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VinFast accident reports

Things haven’t already been going well for VinFast with multiple reports of mishaps recently, further solidifying the safety concerns. NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) had launched an investigation into one of VinFast’s cars, the VinFast VF8, after 14 drivers had reported the Lane Keeping Assist system of their car to be faulty. In April this year, a family of four was killed in a crash at California when a VinFast lost control, veered off the road, hit a pole and caught fire. VinFast is yet to comment on the concerns raised by Hazar Denli.

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