- A chassis engineer claims Jaguar Land Rover fired him over comments he made online.
- As a JLR employee, he was on the team hired by Vinfast to engineer some of the VF6 and VF7.
- Now, he’s telling all about his experience and cars that he calls “not meant to last.”
Companies across the world need to save money where they safely can. Sadly, some are willing to cut corners even when it jeopardizes safety. That’s the accusation leveled at Vinfast by an engineer who helped the automaker design certain components for the VF6 and VF7. What’s worse is that evidently, the man in question didn’t get an award for blowing the whistle on unsafe practices. Apparently, he got a swift kick out the door.
The whistleblower in question is Hazar Denli, a seasoned engineer with extensive experience in the automotive industry. Denli previously worked for Tata Technologies Limited, a global engineering consultancy that VinFast contracted to aid with developing the VF6 and VF7. According to the BBC, Denli later joined Jaguar Land Rover, owned by the Tata Group, but was terminated in July of this year after raising safety concerns in online posts regarding Vinfast.
Read: VinFast Slashes VF9 Prices By Up To $16,000 Just Before Launch
He tells the BBC that he led the engineering teams working on the front suspension and chassis. During testing, it turned out that the components weren’t strong enough, he alleges. “We saw, for example, the front strut-to-knuckle connection was loosening, which could be extremely dangerous,” he said. “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.”
Denli added that he told upper management but the company did nothing to fix the defects. Uncomfortable being associated with the project, he, like three of his previous counterparts, resigned from the position. Then, in April of this year, a family of four died in California after losing control of their Vinfast. The car struck a pole, caught on fire, and killed all four occupants. At that point, Denli says he couldn’t stay silent.
In a lengthy “Ask Me Anything” post on Reddit, he laid out his claims. “I would get into every other vehicle I have designed from other brands… and every vehicle has flaws… But Vinfast, I wouldn’t get into one… never will and I won’t let my loved ones get into one either,” he wrote. Two months later, JLR fired him and the BBC says it has receipts that prove it was due to the post.
“Internal documents obtained through a Data Subject Access Request (DSAR) reveal a senior executive at his former employer Tata Technologies had been in touch with JLR executives to seek his dismissal.
After he saw the Reddit posts, Tata Technologies HR director Patrick Flood discussed his company’s wish to have Mr Denli’s new employment terminated with JLR’s HR director and board member Dave Williams.
Flood told Williams that Tata Group’s client VinFast had conducted its own investigation and identified Denli as the author of the Reddit posts: “The concern is if he has done this now, he could do the same at JLR.”
The same day he was sacked, Denli was blacklisted on industry recruitment platform Magnit, which told JLR he had been “red-flagged” so any applications from him for other work via the platform would be automatically declined.”
Now, Denli is doing what he can to hold JLR to an employment tribunal and the NHTSA is investigating Vinfast. The Vietnamese brand has some 28 complaints on the agency’s website and over a dozen report issues with lane-keep assistance systems.
Notably, Denli’s comments seem to have some real-world weight behind them too. In early 2023, it recalled 2,800 cars over a bolt connecting the brake caliper to the knuckle. On Reddit, several individuals report Vinfast cars with broken front suspension parts.
