Li Auto and NIO respond to alleged black-PR parking smears, sparking debate over online attacks, industry rivalry, and NEV public-opinion environment.
On August 7, Li Auto’s official Weibo account announced that a flood of concentrated smear campaigns had recently appeared online, attacking Li Auto owners for “parking improperly” and severely damaging the image of its users. The company stated it would pursue accountability.
As Li Auto officially noted, shortly after the launch of the Li Auto i8, an online wave of criticism accusing Li Auto owners of “parking improperly” suddenly erupted.
Primarily on platforms like RedNote and Douyin, netizens labeled Li Auto owners as “habitual illegal parkers,” using numerous photos of cars occupying public spaces as evidence, portraying them as “rule-breaking and uncivilized.”
However, the sudden and large-scale emergence of these accusations in a short period was indeed unusual.
For example, in the early morning of August 3, a single platform saw 45 videos posted under the same theme—“Li Auto owners parking improperly”—making it hard to tell whether it was ordinary users “jumping on the bandwagon” or an organized, premeditated “black PR” campaign.
As the controversy intensified, the online smears evolved into real-world harm. In chat records released by the legal department, some owners reported having garbage thrown at their vehicles without reason, receiving floods of abusive messages on their phones, and feeling anxious even when going out.
Will Li Auto’s official response be able to put an end to this wave of public opinion?
Before answering that, ChinaEVHome first recaps the entire course of events. Readers may draw their own conclusions.
An “Underlying Thread” Had Been Brewing
The notion that Li Auto owners supposedly have “poor behavior” had existed for years as just one of many stereotypes about different car brands’ user bases. But the real storm can be traced back to the “safety crash test” at the i8’s launch event.
At the July 29 launch, a video showed the i8 crashing head-on into an 8-ton truck, sending the truck flying. This footage sparked heated debate both online and offline, which ChinaEVHome has previously reported on in detail.
As negative sentiment about the crash test continued to spread, short-video and social platforms suddenly became flooded with posts targeting the “behavior” of Li Auto owners, unleashing a wave of criticism.
On Douyin, Kwai, RedNote and similar platforms, numerous posts appeared exposing alleged uncivilized parking behavior by Li Auto owners — straddling parking lines, occupying two spaces, blocking entrances, cutting across solid lines, and more.
The joke “How many Li Auto cars can fit in a 100-space parking lot?” spread quickly — the answer being “two: one blocking the entrance, one blocking the exit.”
The smear campaign reached its peak on August 3. Li Auto’s official monitoring found that, at dawn that day, 45 videos with identical titles—“I never noticed before, but Li Auto, without exception, parks improperly…#LiAutoOwner”—were posted on the same platform, suggesting a premeditated, coordinated effort to fan the flames.
At this point, some netizens began pointing out that many of the “improper parking” photos were staged.
Evidence emerged on Xianyu, where someone claiming to be a Li Auto owner offered “custom improper parking” photo services—blocking roads or parking on lawns, with same-day delivery of images—for just 5 RMB ($0.70).
On August 6, Li Auto executive “@老汤哥Tango” exposed chat records from a water-army group, showing that each smear post targeting Li Auto was priced at 5 RMB ($0.70), openly listed.
The controversy soon spilled over to NIO.
Some online comments shifted blame toward NIO, hinting that the “mastermind” might be NIO or its sub-brand ONVO. On August 7, NIO’s Vice President of Brand, Ma Lin, issued a statement clarifying, “NIO has no motive to oppose Li Auto users. We urge Li Auto owners to remain vigilant and avoid being manipulated,” also calling on Li Auto to report the matter to the police promptly.
Ultimately, Li Auto issued a statement concluding that this was a black-PR campaign, and directly called the police while preparing to file a lawsuit. But, as noted earlier, it remains uncertain whether this response and any follow-up actions will truly bring an end to this “online carnival.”
It is worth noting that beyond the element of “netizen bandwagoning,” black PR has long been a common tactic in the auto industry.
When Popular Carmakers Get Targeted, It’s Nothing New
For Li Auto, being targeted in such a way is hardly unprecedented.
In March 2024, when Li Auto launched its all-electric MPV, the MEGA, a large number of unflattering photoshopped images suddenly appeared on Weibo and Douyin. The MEGA’s reputation plunged, and within 72 hours, cancellations reached 10,297 units. Many customers abandoned their orders.
An investigation by Hebei police later revealed that during the MEGA’s launch, at least three to four rival automakers were suspected of hiring water-army groups to attack it. Li Auto’s founder Li Xiang later described it as the largest smear campaign in automotive history.
When a brand is popular, disputes follow; when a car sells well, controversy grows. Almost all major Chinese NEV brands have been targeted before. The first to suffer among domestic NEV makers was BYD.
In 2021, BYD launched its fourth-generation DM-i plug-in hybrid technology and went on to sell 1.86 million units, becoming the world’s NEV champion. At the height of its success, the internet was suddenly flooded with videos of BYD vehicles catching fire, with some attributing the fires to DM-i technology and linking its flagship Tang DM model to the nickname “self-igniting Tang.”
Smear tactics are not limited to safety concerns.
In 2024, a Xiaomi SU7 in Nanjing South Railway Station crashed into a greenbelt and caught fire, sparking public attention. Soon after, similar images of SU7 vehicles ending up on flower beds or medians surfaced nationwide. Netizens dubbed the SU7 the “greenbelt war god.”
For Tesla, the most infamous smear was “brake failure”—after the 2021 Auto Shanghai protest by a female Tesla owner, “brake failure” became a default association in public discourse.
Similarly, Zeekr and NIO have been mocked as “electric Luxgen” or accused of “building cars from PowerPoint slides,” while XPeng has been labeled a “ride-hailing car.” Such derogatory memes abound in the industry.
ChinaEVHome has consistently maintained that the healthy development of China’s NEV sector depends on a clean public-opinion environment, rather than internecine mudslinging between carmakers. Automakers should let their products speak for themselves, owners should enjoy their cars in peace, and engineers should focus on R&D without having to put out PR fires daily.
But in reality, black PR remains a stubborn tail that clings to every hot-selling new model.
We are left to ask: when will such smear campaigns finally stop?
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