Several owners of the GAC Group (ASX: 601238) joint venture's battery electric SUV have reported collisions while using the intelligent parking function, but the manufacturer claims backend data shows the system was never activated, leaving both sides at an impasse.

The dispute centers on GAC Toyota's pledge that the manufacturer would directly bear liability for accidents caused by the smart parking assist feature, a commitment made for the entire bZ3X lineup.

One owner said that on the evening of September 17, her vehicle moved autonomously and steered its wheels automatically while smart parking was engaged, but ultimately crashed into a wall, severely damaging the rear.

She said the 4S dealership told her the manufacturer's backend data determined the smart parking function was never activated throughout the incident, which she said directly contradicts surveillance footage showing the vehicle driving autonomously with no manual steering input.

Other bZ3X owners have reported similar experiences, with one saying he was left completely disappointed by GAC Toyota's handling of the matter and would no longer dare to use smart parking.

GAC Toyota's official customer service said it would relay the situation to a responsible person who would contact the user, while the dealership involved said it retrieved backend data from the manufacturer showing the smart parking function was not in use.

The dealership said it could not provide the data for review due to confidentiality reasons, and the owner said police surveillance footage could not be photographed or copied, leaving both parties unable to convince each other and the matter unresolved.

A Quiet Downgrade in Smart Driving Chips

Some owners also discovered that the 2026 model of the bZ3X has quietly swapped its NVIDIA Orin X smart driving chip for a lower-compute Qualcomm 8650 chip, while the 2025 model had used the NVIDIA Orin X.

The bZ3X is GAC Toyota's compact intelligent pure electric SUV, built on Toyota global standards, and was the company's first new-energy pure electric SUV and the second model under the bZ brand.

The 2026 bZ3X launched in May with a limited-time promotional price range of 94,800 to 144,800 yuan.

In August 2025, GAC Toyota announced at its first bZ3X owners' conference that the manufacturer would directly bear responsibility for battery fire incidents and smart parking assist accidents.

According to the company, if an accident occurs due to reasons attributable to the smart parking assist function itself, the corresponding repair costs and third-party property losses that the vehicle is legally responsible for would be compensated by GAC Toyota.

However, the determination of liability for smart parking incidents still generates disputes, with owners and manufacturers often taking opposing positions.

Regarding the chip downgrade, the 2025 bZ3X used the Momenta assisted driving system with the NVIDIA DRIVE Orin X chip delivering 254 TOPS of computing power, while GAC Toyota's official website now lists the 2026 model as using a Qualcomm 4nm automotive-grade high-efficiency chip, which is the Qualcomm 8650.

The Qualcomm 8650 is a SoC product from Qualcomm's second-generation Ride platform, released in 2022, offering 50 and 100 TOPS versions and focused on cost-effectiveness, meaning the 2026 bZ3X's smart driving chip represents a downgrade from the 2025 model.

Owners suspect the change was made to reduce costs, and some sales staff did not clearly inform buyers about the chip replacement, raising concerns of concealment and deception.

When asked about this, GAC Toyota's official customer service explicitly stated that the 2026 bZ3X is equipped with an NVIDIA Orin X smart driving chip with 254 TOPS of computing power, and maintained this position even when asked about the official website showing a Qualcomm 4nm chip.

Four Consecutive Months of Sales Decline

Data shows that in April, the bZ3X reached a record monthly retail volume of 10,027 units in China, after which sales declined, and while the 2026 model's launch boosted volume, it has yet to surpass April's figure.

The parking liability dispute and the chip downgrade may further weigh on the bZ3X's future sales.

On a consumer complaint platform, GAC Toyota has accumulated 1,063 complaints, with only 72 responded to and just 70 resolved.

GAC Toyota is also facing overall sales pressure, with the company entering a decline starting in May when sales growth hit zero, followed by year-on-year drops of 9.39%, 19.84%, 17.66% and 28.37% in June through September.

In the first nine months of the year, GAC Toyota sold 510,000 vehicles cumulatively, down 6.11% year-on-year.

GAC Group recently announced plans to issue A-shares to acquire a 50% stake in FAW Toyota, bringing the two major Toyota joint ventures under a single local coordination system.

Previously, Toyota had faced an awkward situation in China with FAW Toyota in the north and GAC Toyota in the south operating as two separate teams and channels competing for the same customers despite sharing technology, similar models and overlapping target buyers.

Following the capital-level move, personnel changes have followed, with reports that Huang Jian has returned to GAC Toyota as executive vice president to take on the core responsibilities of the joint venture's Chinese management.

Huang Jian previously served as head of GAC Group's planning and development department, joined GAC Toyota in 2020 overseeing production, procurement and financial operations, and was transferred to serve as president of the GAC Trumpchi BU in early 2026.

However, the integration of GAC Toyota and FAW Toyota is still in its early stages and faces multiple challenges, including how to better coordinate the two brands to reduce internal competition and how to further accelerate the electrification and intelligent transformation of joint venture products.